European Adventure Part 4 - Vienna

... and on we went to Vienna, a mere two hour drive from Graz but true to form we arrived late and in a snowstorm, giving our travels the usual epic migration sort of feeling.  This time we stayed in a modern but somewhat sparsely furnished/decorated apartment (of which I did not take any pictures).  The location was great - 15 minutes into town via metro and a five minute walk from the Schoenbrunn Palace and Park, which includes the lovely old Zoo.

I am not usually prone to big words and tend not to be on the effusive side,  but Vienna at Christmastime is nothing short of MAGNIFICENT!  A photographer's paradise (that would be a real photographer, not me the beginner who pretty much point-and-shoots and gets tired of hauling around the big camera along with the diaperbag).

Given Vienna's MAGNIFICENCE,  this post will contain a whole slew of photographs .... can't help it!

I will start with our initial walk around Schoenbrunn Park and Palace:








The Schoenbrunn Christmas market by day ...






... and at nighttime.





The big girls took a children's tour of the Palace, complete with the "house ghost":



And they baked and decorated Christmas Cookies at the old Palace Bakery (we tried to make the trip as Christmasy as we could, and it is cool to do this at a real-life Palace, but I was sad to miss out on this little ritual at home ...) :






The amazing park surrounding the Palace  - I could have taken pictures all day, especially with everything highlighted by the snow ....











The Art Nouveau Palm House:



My Biggest Sweetie (apart from F, of course!):


My Middle Sweetie, who happened to get a bouquet of flowers from a woman in a long dress involved in some kind of big photo-shoot.  E was convinced that the woman was a princess who had given her flowers - look at the smile .....



My littlest sweetie:



... and the beautiful zoo...












A look at the Gloriette Cafe across the Park from the Palace

 
... from the outside


... and from the inside


Wait!  I know you are probably running out of steam reading the longest post in the (admittedly short) history of this blog, but this place is just so fantabulous that it is hard to stop.  There still is the downtown part of Vienna:






The Hofburg



We took a carriage tour through the old town - something we may have poohpoohed as too touristy in our younger unattached days, but quite a convenient thing when you can contain all three girls in one place, cover them with blankets and get a good look at the town - not to mention delighting the girls who felt like princesses and practiced their most "royal" of waves as we passed by the crowds:



We managed a few stops at the famous "Cafe Zentral", which was our hangout place during a pre-kids trip to Vienna that we fondly remembered for its coffee, food, selection of good newspapers and great evening classical music.   No time to read newspapers on this trip, but we did get to soak up a bit of the famous Viennese coffeehouse culture


... notice EJ's face on the bench next to MK


On the metro at the end of a long sightseeing day:



These pictures do not capture some of the more taxing parts of the trip, which I don't intend to dwell on, but I do remember trudging through a snowstorm on at least two occasions looking for an open restaurant to feed the brood, laundry, tired and "less than cooperative" children, laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and did I mention laundry?

So there it is, ten eventful and exciting days in Vienna distilled down to a single blog post.  It doesn't do the City justice, but it gives a good glimpse into our little adventure.  Thank you, little girls and fabulous FP for an exciting Vienna visit!

European Adventure Part 3 - Graz

Let me just say, before I begin the next part of our travelogue, that we are awed, inspired and keenly aware of how lucky we are to be able to take our three girls (and each other) on such a fabulous adventure, and that we are very, very grateful that we have such opportunities.  Having said that, we are often asked whether it isn't too difficult to take three kids on such trips.  My answer is always that you simply can't let the little buggers get you down!

Yes, there isn't any as much book-reading, people-watching, cafe-relaxation, museum-meandering, shop-browsing and general relaxation as there was may have been when we were travelling pre-kids.  But we do manage museums, stores, cafes, walks and people-watching.  We just don't come home relaxed and well rested.  But then, we can sometimes manage to do that part at home.

Sooo -- getting back to our trip --  the next part took us to Graz to meet up with Grandma G. and Uncle D. and his family, including the girls' cousins.



We stayed in an old-fashioned hotel near the old town center and had a chance to explore the town ...







And a whole day was spent hanging out at Uncle D's house, which was special simply because as expats it is a rare experience for us and our girls to hang out with family.  There was good food (linsen and spaetzle, ghoulash and waffles for desert), good wine, an early Christmas celebration and a walk which allowed us to take in a small part of the picturesque snowy Steiermark landscape.  








A nice visit.

European Adventure Part 2 - Lermoos

We had a brief respite from all of the hectic sightseeing and visiting with friends and families in a little village in the northern Alps called Lermoos, with a view of the Zugspitze.  Not only that, but it was a "Kinderhotel" which caters to families and has an extensive children's program and play areas.  Think Disneyland with good food!

Once again, the hotel was very luxurious.  The girls spent much of their time in various childrens' programs while F and I recovered from the rigours of travelling by sipping cups of tea and each receiving a massage, punctuated by  some rather mundane laundry chores on my part.   As a family we now create about two loads of laundry a day and I have noted, sadly, that this does not change while we are travelling despite my efforts to "ration" out the clothes.  The massage was not a soothing candlelit affair, but rather a "pounding" and "cracking" by a burly and outspoken massage therapist. But it kind of did the trick in terms of muscle relaxation ....





Our luxurious room




Really, I found these that way - I call it "Still life with a Schnulli"




Our bathtub was the size of a swimming pool ....

And after this it was onwards to Graz in eastern Austria - we took the long way across the Alps and through northern Italy to avoid the heavy snowstorms in Germany, and we ended up driving 8 hours.  I discovered that breastfeeding in the convenience store attached to a gas station is suboptimal.  But the girls were champs, as long as the "on-board service" provided by yours truly provided a steady flow of water and snacks, and the Dora and Tinkerbell audiobooks kept running ....  Oh, the days when we used to pop in a good CD and enjoy the music and scenery!