There were a few small details of history that I somehow missed growing up. For example, German history begins before the Weimar Republic. Weird right? Also, prior to this trip, here is what I knew of Austria: 1) good Olympic ski team, 2) The Sound of Music. Alas, in the words of our hotel clerk, "No one in Austria watches that movie because it's completely inaccurate." Rogers and Hammerstein, you sit on a throne of lies.
So the visit to Vienna was quite elucidating. Turns out Austria has, like, history, and stuff. The emperor of Austria was, for quite some time, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Did everyone already know that? Am I the only dunce completely shocked by this new revelation? When did they discover this fact? This must be new, one of these things discovered because of readily available information on the Internet or something. I don't think anyone knew this until Wikipedia. Thank you, Wikipedia.
And here is the travel log part:
Step 1: Drive five hours from Frankfurt to Linz in dense fog. Three weeks in Europe and my parents have not yet seen the sun. Nor do they believe in this alleged "German country side." It's almost like believing there is more to Eastern Europe than the words "Iron Curtain." That's just silly.
Step 2: Pay too much for a very average dinner at the Linz Courtyard Marriott, which was otherwise a comfortable stopover point.
Step 3: Drive 90 minutes in dense fog to Salzburg. Observe Salzburg. This was accomplished and documented in the previous post. Return to Linz. (Three steps in one, I recognize, but we have to keep the narrative moving).
Step 4: Drive 2 hours to Vienna. The fog, by this point, had lifted. So my parents observed Austrian country side, which is stunning. They were quite awestruck by the presence of ancient castles on basically every hilltop. I still find myself quite awestruck by this. German country side remains a myth.
Step 5: Find McDonalds in Vienna. Don't judge.
Step 6: Buy tickets to live performance of Mozart and Strauss (!).
Step 7: Go down town and obtain tickets to Spanish Riding School.
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| We stopped for pastries (apparently famous in Vienna) after getting riding school tickets. |
Step 8: I watch Panthers playoff game with Henry while other enjoy live performance of Mozart and Strauss. How did I end up with a Panthers fan in my family?
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| Cam Newton jersey, bag of M&Ms, and football streaming on the iPad. An American in Vienna. |
Step 9: Drop the "step" convention of this post because it is tedious.
We spent the second day in Vienna touring Schoenbrunn Palace, as pictured below. This was awesome and very educational. I was quite shocked at my near complete Austrian history ignorance. Turns out, its fascinating.
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| Sampling schnitzel with cranberries, my personal favorite. |
We started out day three at the riding school. When it was over, we listed things we could have done instead that would have been more fun: Look at dirt (Maddie), pick up a phone with no one on the other end and listen for an hour (Caleb). Literally, one hour after it was supposed to start, I asked when it was going to start. The usher said it had already started an hour ago. Okay. So we moved on to Stephansdom and the museum of natural history.
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| Watching dirt. |
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| Atop the Stephansdom bell tower. It was really cold up there. |
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| It said it was made of salt. So I licked it (not really) |
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