Adventures in Vienna

Laying in bed, not sleeping, for the 3^rd night in a row, I realised I never posted about our trip to Vienna.

It is kind of a blurr, but I should write something down to look back on one day.

After 4 nights in Budapest, we boarded a train to Vienna. We did not realise that we sat in reserved seats. Thankfully, the 2 travellers (who were not together), took pity on our family of 5, shoved in to 4 seats with a table (so the kids could color and be occupied) and found different seats. The air conditioning was minimal and the temperature was rising. Cait started having a melt-down early on, but we managed to curb it with snacks and crayons. We all made it to Vienna in one piece, though hot and tired.

I'm not 100% sure what we did that day, other than check in to our flat and get some groceries. It was 95+ degrees the 3 days we were there. If there was hell on Earth, it would have been Vienna those 3 days. Our flat was ground floor (which means below ground in Europe). There was no air conditioning and it was dank. It just felt musty. I also realised immediately, that there was no washer, drying rack or laundry facility at.all. I'm not sure how I missed that.when booking. 7 nights away with only carry-on luggage, requites laundry to be done. We washed laundry in the sink and hung it around the damp apartment. Guess what? It took 2 days to dry. One of the first things I noticed was a bottle of ant spray.  Oh yes, they started to appear on day 2 and by the morning of our departure it was gross.

I think we took a quick walk in to town to get our bearings before settling in for the night. When we returned to the dungeon we were staying in, Cait started having some respiratory issues. It was hard to tell if it was just congestion or an asthma flare up. Jason ended up taking her to the ER. Thank the Lord, her lungs were clear, but they gave us an inhaler to be safe (I, stupidly, left the inhaler on the kitchen counter at home while packing).

On Sunday, we walked to the Old Town Centre to see St.Stephen's Cathedral and scope out places for dinner. It was already hot and the kids were already complaining. My favourite part of the morning was finding a Starbucks that served iced coffee and not a coffee slushy. We didn't go in to the cathedral. It was just too much stress to get the kids on board with that. We took a nice horse and carriage ride through the town, instead. After that we walked to Haus der Musik. It turned out to be a highlight of the trip. It was air conditioned and the kids got to put head phones on in every room and listen to music. I think we all enjoyed it, until the fighting in the gift shop. Alas, I will spare you the gory details. Let's just say the bad attitudes lasted the rest of the day. Dinner, outside, in the 90 degree heat did not help. We did get to see the statue of Mozart. Yay! I saw something on my list. ;-)

Horse and carriage ride with St. Stephen's Cathedral in the back

St. Stephen's cathedral

Conductin at the music museum

Monday, we took the tram out to Schonbrunn Palace. We learned from our visit to Versailles, that the gardens are really the only part worth seeing with our kids. Trying to walk through a crowded palace was not going to happen. The gardens were beautiful. There was a playground area with garden mazes and really interesting playground equipment. Everyone enjoyed that part of the day. We were pretty spent at this point. We decided the best thing we could do is take in a movie. We found an English showing of Despicable Me 2 and headed out to see it. We all enjoyed it and Cait even kept her 3-D glasses on the whole time. I am very thankful for that less than cultural experience that allowed us some down time.

Finally, it was Tuesday and we headed home. The plane ride was a success with the aid of hand held devices and lollipops. It was so nice to be back on UK soil. At least for a few days. I jetted off to Dublin a few days later, but that's a story for another time. Cheers!