This morning we checked out of our room, and stowed our backpacks in a cabinet reserved for that purpose. We went to the underground (subway) and bought a 24 hour pass for each of us, so we could ride around as much as we wanted. Then we hopped on and rode the underground, with a few transfers, out to the Austrian Royal Family's summer palace.

We bought our tickets for a guided tour of the rooms of the palace, as well as entrance to the gardens, etc . We checked our little daypack, stowed our cameras (no photos allowed, I'm afraid) and took the tour. Our guide spoke English well, and brought the stories of the Hapsburg Empire to life. She had a cute habit of treating nouns as though they have gender (which they do in German). For example, "the crown, she resides in the treasury." But she was easy to understand and fun to listen to. We looked at many family portraits and richly adorned rooms both for official business, and their private lives.

When the tour was finished, we went outside and began walking the gardens. They were much larger than I had expected! And it was hot. So we walked from shady bit to shady bit, jumping out into the sun for a picture or two. The gardens were beautiful. We went through a couple of hedge mazes, gazed at fountains, and climbed the hill to an overlook that gave an amazing view of the palace grounds.

When we got too hot, we left the gardens and went back into town for a late lunch . We stopped at McDonald's (to try and download some geocaches and an audio tour using their free WiFi). We really have been enjoying drinks with ice in them, and don't mind ducking into a McD's to get them. Following that, we tried to do some geocaching. But we couldn't find the one that we had been able to download. It was right outside of the opera house, and there were a ton of people there. So, we got back out of the sun and got ourselves some consolation gelato, and began walking through the town to catch the tram out to dinner.

We had read about some Heuriger (wine gardens) on the outskirts of Vienna that sell their own new wine (less than a year old) and have buffets. You walk up with your tray and they will slice you off some meat and serve you up sides and bread of your choice, and then they charge you by the weight of each item (meat costing more than beans, etc.). So we had beef and pork. Bryan had some cheesy dish with bacon and noodles in it. My side was lentils cooked in bacon fat . Delicious, as you can imagine.

So we sat outside and sipped our wine and ate our meal. As the clouds rolled in and threatened rain, we waved our waiter over and paid for our drinks. "It's going to rain, Ja?" I asked him. "Ja. Immediately." Fortunately, we have been really blessed as we have ridden the trams, busses and trains lately. They are typically pulling up or sitting there as we arrive at the platform. It has been great. This happened again and we were able to head back to our hotel and pick up our backpacks.

Now we are at the train station awaiting the night train to Venice. We will say goodbye to Austria and people speaking German. Which is a shame, I feel like I've just gotten the hang of some basic, survival German (like how to order sorbetto) and now we will have to start over with Italian. Oh well. All part of the adventure, right?

Bryan and I feel like we've been getting around pretty well . And we must look fairly confident, because we keep getting asked in German where things are, what time the train arrives, or where this train is going. It's gotta be a good sign when people feel like they can ask you for help, right?

I am starting to wish we were meeting up with friends somewhere. I miss you guys! We are not used to it just being us. We are having a great time, and are glad we can share it via this blog, but it sure would be cool if some of you could be here. :)

We are not sure what kind of Internet access we will find over the next couple of weeks while we are on the cruise (we won't pay for the satellite connection on the ship). Please email, comment on the blog, and Facebook us anyway. We will LOVE to hear from you when we find WiFi in port. Thanks!

As we had said, Austria was really a surprise and a highlight of our trip. Nobody has ever told us, "you should go to Austria, it's amazing!", but now that is exactly what we tell people. We had a much better day on our second full day in Vienna. Much of that was due to the transit pass making our life much easier. We should have grabbed one the day before.

The McDonald's across the street from our pension was the only we encountered in Europe that allowed refillable drinks. Believe me, we took full advantage of it. We really aren't big soda drinkers anymore, but it was a treat to get refillable ice-cold drinks. Between that and the free WiFi we ended up sitting in McDonald's far more in Europe than I have in the past 10 years here in the USA.