When in Wien

Sunday, July 10, 2016
Wien, Wien, Austria
We slept pretty well and woke up ready for a new day of fun. Breakfast was very good again. Besides what we ate there, we were able to walk out with a few pretzels, muffins and a banana to eat later. I didn't have any luck finding coconut milk this morning, but other than that the spread was very similar.

Our next step was riding the U Bahn (subway) out to the summer palace . We chose to buy 24 hour tickets that would work for our trip back to the train station tomorrow morning as well. Desmond was sitting in his own seat by a window. We told him his bottom needed to be in the seat while the train was moving. So each time we arrived at a station he would stand up, look out the window, and when he heard the beeping of the doors closing he would sit back down. It was pretty funny.

We arrived around 9AM to the gardens. That was nice because the tours don't start until later and so it was sparsely populated. Also it was not as hot as the last time we were here, so that was great. Desmond got to explore, walking out of his stroller. He was very interested in the signs about not walking on the grass. He would run over to each one and "read" them to me. We were snapping photos of the beautiful gardens and enjoying our walk. Desmond was picking up pebbles from the path and throwing them down again. I decided we might find a bench somewhere and let Desmond get some good scooping and dumping time in at this big gravel pit . But then we saw the Tiergarten Schönbrunn (or Imperial Zoo) and decided to go with plan B.

This turned out to be, as Bethie put it, a very good "life choice." We got to see rhinos right off the bat, and then there were pandas, koala, and kangaroos. I spent some time happily whistling back and forth with the parrots, one of which came walking over to me, tilting its head to the side curiously. There were turtles swimming, lemurs monkeying around, and sea lions splashing.

One of the things we enjoy about Austria are all the spots to get drinking water for our water bottles. At the self-proclaimed "oldest zoo in the world" you could fill your bottle from a spitting penguin fountain. :) We also saw a red squirrel with wispy hair, which Bethie said is only the third squirrel she's seen in the last year here in Europe. We chose to hike up a suspension bridge in a forested area to get up to a good view of the gardens. While we were on this path there was a rope tube which Bethie (with a tiny bit instigation from me) climbed through. It was a fun little hike.

After we got up the hill near the zoo exit Bryan disappeared for a moment and when he came back he handed me a tiny carton of eis. I was reading the German label and it was chocolate. I asked Bryan excitedly if they'd had vegan chocolate and he apologized and switched me cartons . Oh well, the strawberry was delicious. Desmond thought so too. He kept asking for bite after bite. That's how we lured him away from riding the wooden pigs, was with bites of eis.

We enjoyed the view from up top and took more photos of the garden before heading back towards our hotel. Then there were people blowing bubbles and playing flute music on our way out to the U Bahn, so that was very festive. It was getting fairly warm and was humid at this point so we were all looking forward to getting back to the air conditioning and cold drinks at the hotel.

Desmond got to take a proper nap in his crib. Meanwhile we enjoyed those cold drinks and snacks. Unfortunately there weren't any rolls or little sandwiches to eat. We had been counting on the lounge "buffet" to save us spending any money on lunch since we had a more spendy dinner planned. But snacks worked. Then a couple hours later we had more drinks and dessert in the lounge before Desmond woke up . Bethie was kind enough to take turns with us so that Desmond could nap and we all could enjoy drinks and snacks. I particularly enjoyed the chewy frog candies.

After Desmond woke up we went for a walk in old town. We saw a sign that looked like it said Tardis with an arrow on it. We joked that the doctor and his blue box must be down that alley. Bryan and I saw some goths at the gothic cathedral, so that seemed absolutely fitting. Their pale skins and black clothing up against the gargoyled spires was amusing.

For dinner we went to Plachutta for tafelspitz. This is a meal we particularly enjoyed last time we were in Vienna. They boil the beef in a copper pot with vegetables and broth and then most all of the courses come out of the pot. Desmond once again charmed the waitstaff with his German. Our main waiter was diligent about having him keep his cloth napkin in his lap. He ate the courses along with us and really enjoyed it . The meal was very tasty, but not quite what we remembered.

Afterward we (of course) went for ice cream. There was an Italian man hurrying me for my ice cream selection because I was a bit undecided. He said "English? Don't be afraid. We speak six languages." Of course that didn't help with the fact that I still didn't know what I wanted! I decided to get Apricot. I chose that solely because the German word looked like a misspelling of my name, Marille. And then I also got to have vegan dark chocolate! My first scoop of chocolate since we've been away from home. Yum!

On the way back to the hotel Bethie and I were quite amused by the crosswalk signs and were stopping in the middle of the street to get photos of the different varieties in true tourist fashion.

When we arrived at the Hilton we went straight up to the club to get some more cold drinks. We sat this time in the kinder area and Desmond had fun amusing himself with toys while we relaxed . After a while we rode back down to our room in the pink elevator. Not sure why the lights are pink in the elevators, but finally thought I should snap a photo of this oddity.

After we were back in the room, we talked with Desmond about his day at the zoo and looked out the window together. Then he was in his crib and kept saying "Oh no kangaroo-y!" as he played. Once we were done packing up for our early check out tomorrow and turned out the lights he fell asleep quickly.

Tomorrow is a new country as we venture into the Czech Republic and Praha (Prague). Stay tuned! ~ Merilee

We really enjoyed our second visit to Vienna. It took us awhile to warm up to it last time, but we really enjoyed ourselves enough that we were making plans for our eventual 3rd visit. Overall Austria itself is really a favorite for us. It's beautiful and the food and people are both great, but it is far more affordable than Switzerland.

We tried to balance exploring new places with visiting past favorites on this trip. It's been fun to find how much we remembered from our trip 4 years ago. We are both excited to see some new countries on our next few stops.

~ Bryan
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Comments

Andrea
2016-07-13

What a fun day!!

2025-02-10

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