Off the Browning family is again for another European adventure! A little more than three weeks to wreak havoc on the on the Continent on this trip, with many escapades to be had. The anchor point of this Europe outing is a week in Tuscan villa with 3 other neighborhood families to celebrate some special birthdays, including Sara's 40th birthday. So, two years older and wiser than last time, we are all off to Europe!
The kick off of the trip started the same way it did on our Europe trip two years ago: the family packed in a rental car driving to Seattle. About four hours later, with a lunch stop and some gnarly traffic at the Tacoma Dome, we arrived at the SeaTac airport. We dropped off the rental car and made our way through Iceland Air check in and security, both of which were surprisingly short.
Arriving at the gate, we were greeted by one of traveling companions, our neighbors, the Harmonds. The time before the flight went quickly as everyone spend some time catching up and chatting about the fun to be had in Europe. All aboard... and the flight was off.
The first flight was from Seatlle to Iceland. Flying Iceland Air to Europe is one of the best ways to get there. The flight from Seattle is a little over 6 hours, which is a nice way to break up a transcontinental flight to shorter and more kid-friendly lengths. They also give the kids under a certain age free dinners, and they have large, individual viewing screens (with USB chargers!) with lots of on-demand movies. If you book early enough, they also have some great rates on some flights. Ok, enough of the Iceland Air advertisement :).
The flight to Iceland was mostly uneventful. None of us really slept, except for Katy getting about an hour of sleep towards the end of the flight. The flight left Seattle at 4pm, and arrived at Iceland at 6am, so this flight was the time to get sleep. I had a lovely couple from The Netherlands sitting next to me, with a 9 month old baby. The baby did pretty good, but had a few crying times as she got very tired and had a hard time going to sleep. The kids played games and Sara read her book, and I watched a movie and read a few articles I clipped for the flight.
Flight landed in Iceland and a quick pass through customs lead us to the main concourse. We hurriedly said goodbye to the Harmonds (will be meeting back up with them in a week) and got on the next flight to Munich. Country Count = 1.
The flight to Munich went pretty quickly. Exhaustion finally caught up to me and Katy, and I think that Noah even slept a little on the flight. A short 3.5 hours later and we landed in Munich. Getting our bags was quick and painless. A short time at the Hertz counter secured our car for the next 3 weeks: a Hyundai mini SUV. Plenty of room in the back for our one carry-on sized bag per person plus backpacks. I spent a few minutes getting the "cockpit" setup with Jane (the name we affectionately call our GPS), my rearview mirror phone holder (bondi) and the cigarette lighter USB chargers for front and rear devices. Reminds me that I need to give some ideas to the Intel crew working on automotive products :). Finally, all was ready and we headed out on the Autobahn (2pm CET). Country Count = 2.
So, the autobahn is fun, even in a MiniSUV. It is enjoyable driving in Europe, as it is an active sport, not a lazy lumber down the highway like many US road trips. Always a BMW on your tail driving 160 MPH. The little Hyundai even got up to 100 MPH for about 20 miles (ok... it was down hill).
A couple of hours later the Alps were filling our view as we crossed the Austrian border. As we zipped across the border, we did happen to notice a sign that said something about tolls, but wasn't quite sure what it mean. A quick query on Google and we found out that we were supposed to buy a tariff card and display it on our car when driving on Austria interstates. Oops. So we get off at the next exit and hunt through a small town for a gas station. After about 10 minutes of terrorizing the people in this small town with my American driving skills, we found a gas station which sold the tariff cards and we were off again. Country count = 3.
About 15 miles down the road, Jane told us to get off the interstate and make our way across a short transition road to another interstate about a mile away. As we crossed a river on this transition road, we ran into a small booth which looked like a toll booth. I approached and a uniformed cop walked up to the car, smiled and ask to see my license. I gave it to him and he said "oh, Oregon" and gave it a quick closer inspection. Smiling he ask if I knew who "John Browning" was. Not quite understanding him, I stated I wasn't sure. He said "John Browning" and pointed to his pistol and made a gun firing down. Oops, somewhat embarrassed, I said "of course!". He smiled, handed back my license, and said, "Have a nice day in Switzerland!". We all cracked up as we drove away. We had no idea we were at the border after being in Austria for 15 minutes. We spent more time looking for the tariff card that we did driving in Austria. Country Count = 4.
We drove through Switzerland for about 30 minutes. It was a beautiful drive as we were now getting into the heart of the Alps. The Rhine river was keeping us company on the right of the highway. As we reached one particularly beautiful area, our cel phones gave a quick chrip with a welcome message to Lichtenstein! Country Count = 5!
A short while later, Jane directed us to leave the interstate and make our way across the Rhine on a small road and entering the cute town of Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. Watching over the town was an impressive castle on the hillside, the home of the reigning prince of Liechtenstein.
We made our way through the town, carefully driving on the narrow streets filled with people coming and going through town (it was about 7pm on Sunday). A short while we arrived at our hotel, the Meierhof Hotel. The Meierhof is a cute little hotel on the hillside above Vaduz. From the parking lot, it offered and amazing view of the Alps across the Rhine valley. We were greased by a very friendly woman at the reception, who checked us in and offered us some tips for the evening. It turns out that Switzerland was playing Ecuador that evening, and they had setup a big tent in the town center where everyone was going to watch the game. Score!
After putting out stuff in our awesome little family room (two separate bedrooms, one for the parents, one for the kids), we made our way to the center of town just about 30m into the Swiss vs Ecuador game. We found a great restaurant, Cafe Engel, right across from the big screen and proceeded to have some awesome Swiss food (Schnitzel, Spaztle, etc), drinking the local brew, and watching the game. And what a finish to the game. The late score for the Swiss to win the game elecrtifed the town. There was 30 minutes of cheer and celebrating in the tent, followed by several cars of teenagers driving through the main strip waving swiss flags. Tummies full and with a smile on our faces, we made our way back to the hotel to end our day.
And what a day, well day and half it was! 9 hours of flying. 3 hours of driving. 5 countries, and soccer with a few hundred of the locals. We are off to a good start!
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Friday, March 22, 2013
Oahu Day 3- Adventure Time
Day 3 in our 2013 Hawaiian adventure started off as a slow, relaxed vacation day. Everyone is still getting up early, around 7 AM, still being on Portland time.
The ocean was rough today at our house. A storm was coming in today and the oceans were showning it with bigger and stronger waves. There was a good number of paddle boarders surfing outside the house and taking advantage of the weather. By about 11am, the a gentle, warm rain started, which moved us indoors.
The morning activities focused on getting the families fed, doing a little fishing, and some impromptu lizard chasing. The kids got in a little TV time one the rain started.
Once the afternoon rolled around, it was time to start the adventure. We were spending the rest of the day doing several activities with Sara's cousin Jim and his wife, Karen.
First stop was the Pali Lookout of the east side of the island. It took us about 45 minute to drive there from the west side without much traffic. The drive up the H3 from the Honolulu area was quite beautiful, driving through this deep valley of lush green tropical plants.
The Pali Lookout was quite stunning. I high point on the shear mountain cliffs above the eastern shore valley, beaches and reefs. The Lookout is a historic point for Hawaii, as it was the final battle in King Kamemeha's campaign to unify the islands under his rule. A harsh battle with many warriors falling to their death in the valley. We spent some time taking the obligatory tourist pictures.
Cousin Jim and Karen met us at the lookout and lead us off to the next adventure, an off-the-beaten-trail hike to a secluded waterfall. A short drive later, we park along the roadside and enter the trailhead.
The first part of the high was pretty easy walk through and area overgrown with bamboo. The trail had been caved out of the bamboo growth, which was a clear indication this wasn't a parks-n-rec maintained trail. This certainly heightned the sense of adventure and gave us the feeling we were experiencing more of a locals-only treat.
After a short up-hill section, we arrived at this very interesting ruin which served as the King's summer home. The King and people close to him would move up to the hills where it was cool for the summer. The walls of the summer palace was left standing, made of basalt stone and a primitive concrete material. There were areas that we could identify as the cooking areas, and an area that was an entry way paved with smaller basalt rocks. After spending a while admiring the ruin, it was time to move on to the rest of the hike.
A short distant further down the trail, we began to get into more difficult hiking areas. The first few challenges were not too bad, crossing a small stream on some rocks and climbing over some roots and obsticals. Then came the challenge, the last leg of the hike required scrambling up about 100 ft of hillside at about a 50 degree slope covered with some trees and vines. The kids were take back a little, with Noah complaining each time a bush hit him. After getting up a about 20 ft, however, the group started to work together to get everyone up the hill, and the kids turned from trepidation to living out some sense of adventures.
After making it up the hill and a feeling of accomplishment, it was a short walk to the next challenge, the final decent into the valley. Similar conditions as the way up, but now descending. After a short peep talk to the kids, we all started down helping each other along the way. Jim brought a rope which was a big help in one particular slippery area of the trail. We all made it down without incident, and the kids did awesome rising up to meet the challenge and feeling pretty accomplished at the end.
As a reward for our adventure trek, we were greeted by a beautiful tropical valley with a amazing 100 foot waterfall into a small pool. It is one of the picture you a imagine of a private paradise you find your way to on a Hawaiian adventure.
The natives (Jim and Karen) jumped into the waterfall catch pool. The kids ventured in some, but stopped short of getting into the waterfall and pool. In the lush areas around the waterfall the kids looked around to find crawfish and bull frogs. It sprinkled on us a little, in a warm drizzle that made it seem like more of a tropical adventure. After spending some time enjoying the area, it was time to pack up and head back to the cars.
The hike back completed without incident. There were some times of challenge and kids getting a little scared, but everyone keep it together and conquered the return trip.
In some form of cosmic balance, the fantastic hike was offset by a bit of unfortunateness. When we arrived at the car, the trunk of the van was standing open, obvious that someone had broken in and taken some of our stuff. After a quick survey of the damage, we assessed that the main losses were Katy's tablet, a change of clothes for everyone, and our cooler with beer. How dare they take our beer!!! It was a little shocking and the kids were upset, but we talked through it and decided to put it behind us and focus on the fun for the evening.
The rest of the evening was spending time and enjoying the hospitality of Jim and Karen at their house. After another short drive, we arrived at Jim's house down a single-lane road carved out of the jungle. It is a beautiful house nestled in a lush tropical yard.
Everyone enjoyed relaxing after our hiking adventure. Cousin Jim brought out an archery setup and all the kids got to try their skill at a few rounds of archery. Noah even go to shoot Jim's crossbow, which he LOVED.
Soon the burgers were done and night was setting in. We retired to the dinning area to fest on some yummy hamburgers and celebrate the night with stories and revelry.
The kids started to crash, nodding off after their big adventures. We said our goodbyes and settled into a drive back to our house on the west side, Everyone crashed after our arrival, exhausted from the days fun, trials and tribulations.
The ocean was rough today at our house. A storm was coming in today and the oceans were showning it with bigger and stronger waves. There was a good number of paddle boarders surfing outside the house and taking advantage of the weather. By about 11am, the a gentle, warm rain started, which moved us indoors.
The morning activities focused on getting the families fed, doing a little fishing, and some impromptu lizard chasing. The kids got in a little TV time one the rain started.
Once the afternoon rolled around, it was time to start the adventure. We were spending the rest of the day doing several activities with Sara's cousin Jim and his wife, Karen.
First stop was the Pali Lookout of the east side of the island. It took us about 45 minute to drive there from the west side without much traffic. The drive up the H3 from the Honolulu area was quite beautiful, driving through this deep valley of lush green tropical plants.
The Pali Lookout was quite stunning. I high point on the shear mountain cliffs above the eastern shore valley, beaches and reefs. The Lookout is a historic point for Hawaii, as it was the final battle in King Kamemeha's campaign to unify the islands under his rule. A harsh battle with many warriors falling to their death in the valley. We spent some time taking the obligatory tourist pictures.
Cousin Jim and Karen met us at the lookout and lead us off to the next adventure, an off-the-beaten-trail hike to a secluded waterfall. A short drive later, we park along the roadside and enter the trailhead.
The first part of the high was pretty easy walk through and area overgrown with bamboo. The trail had been caved out of the bamboo growth, which was a clear indication this wasn't a parks-n-rec maintained trail. This certainly heightned the sense of adventure and gave us the feeling we were experiencing more of a locals-only treat.
After a short up-hill section, we arrived at this very interesting ruin which served as the King's summer home. The King and people close to him would move up to the hills where it was cool for the summer. The walls of the summer palace was left standing, made of basalt stone and a primitive concrete material. There were areas that we could identify as the cooking areas, and an area that was an entry way paved with smaller basalt rocks. After spending a while admiring the ruin, it was time to move on to the rest of the hike.
A short distant further down the trail, we began to get into more difficult hiking areas. The first few challenges were not too bad, crossing a small stream on some rocks and climbing over some roots and obsticals. Then came the challenge, the last leg of the hike required scrambling up about 100 ft of hillside at about a 50 degree slope covered with some trees and vines. The kids were take back a little, with Noah complaining each time a bush hit him. After getting up a about 20 ft, however, the group started to work together to get everyone up the hill, and the kids turned from trepidation to living out some sense of adventures.
After making it up the hill and a feeling of accomplishment, it was a short walk to the next challenge, the final decent into the valley. Similar conditions as the way up, but now descending. After a short peep talk to the kids, we all started down helping each other along the way. Jim brought a rope which was a big help in one particular slippery area of the trail. We all made it down without incident, and the kids did awesome rising up to meet the challenge and feeling pretty accomplished at the end.
As a reward for our adventure trek, we were greeted by a beautiful tropical valley with a amazing 100 foot waterfall into a small pool. It is one of the picture you a imagine of a private paradise you find your way to on a Hawaiian adventure.
The natives (Jim and Karen) jumped into the waterfall catch pool. The kids ventured in some, but stopped short of getting into the waterfall and pool. In the lush areas around the waterfall the kids looked around to find crawfish and bull frogs. It sprinkled on us a little, in a warm drizzle that made it seem like more of a tropical adventure. After spending some time enjoying the area, it was time to pack up and head back to the cars.
The hike back completed without incident. There were some times of challenge and kids getting a little scared, but everyone keep it together and conquered the return trip.
In some form of cosmic balance, the fantastic hike was offset by a bit of unfortunateness. When we arrived at the car, the trunk of the van was standing open, obvious that someone had broken in and taken some of our stuff. After a quick survey of the damage, we assessed that the main losses were Katy's tablet, a change of clothes for everyone, and our cooler with beer. How dare they take our beer!!! It was a little shocking and the kids were upset, but we talked through it and decided to put it behind us and focus on the fun for the evening.
The rest of the evening was spending time and enjoying the hospitality of Jim and Karen at their house. After another short drive, we arrived at Jim's house down a single-lane road carved out of the jungle. It is a beautiful house nestled in a lush tropical yard.
Everyone enjoyed relaxing after our hiking adventure. Cousin Jim brought out an archery setup and all the kids got to try their skill at a few rounds of archery. Noah even go to shoot Jim's crossbow, which he LOVED.
Soon the burgers were done and night was setting in. We retired to the dinning area to fest on some yummy hamburgers and celebrate the night with stories and revelry.
The kids started to crash, nodding off after their big adventures. We said our goodbyes and settled into a drive back to our house on the west side, Everyone crashed after our arrival, exhausted from the days fun, trials and tribulations.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Thinning the clothing herd
Today′s goal is to greatly thin the closet
Novel technic. Defined about a dozen categories for clothes. Now I can only have 10 items in each category.
Let's see how this goes...
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Day 28 - First day in Paris - Preview
Weather: 70 and fair. A huge welcome relief to all of us after mid'90's and humid in Italy.
Noah's haul: 20 euro-cents
Leaving the Best Western Orly.. Good beds, good sleep
Paris metro and bad tickets
Amazing apartment overlooking the Place des Vosges.
Walking to the Centre Pompidou
http://www.ramblr.com/module/trip/mymap_viewer.php?trip_id=1718
Lunch at Le Georges (Tripadvisor)
Centre Pompidou and modern art museum
A little down time and food shopping
Metro tickets, Bastille.
Map: Evening metro and walk
L'arc de Triomphe
Dinner at Vesuvio (Tripadvisor) on the Champs-Élysées
Noah's haul: 20 euro-cents
Leaving the Best Western Orly.. Good beds, good sleep
Paris metro and bad tickets
Amazing apartment overlooking the Place des Vosges.
Walking to the Centre Pompidou
http://www.ramblr.com/module/trip/mymap_viewer.php?trip_id=1718
Lunch at Le Georges (Tripadvisor)
Centre Pompidou and modern art museum
A little down time and food shopping
Metro tickets, Bastille.
Map: Evening metro and walk
L'arc de Triomphe
Dinner at Vesuvio (Tripadvisor) on the Champs-Élysées
Friday, July 6, 2012
Day 19–Saltzburg and the Second Night Train
Weather: Low 80’s and partly cloudy, with chance of afternoon rain
Noah has taken to the habit of looking around for money on the ground during our rest and navigation breaks. Today’s haul: 12 cents
Staying a the Schloss Leopoldskron produced a restful night. It is located a little outside of Saltzburg (still walking distance) near this picturesque lake, so there was no city noise or other things to disturb our slumber.
First up was breakfast at the palace in what looked like the main ballroom or dinning hall. It had to be the most impressive place I have eaten breakfast at. The hall was decorated similar to all the others palaces we had seen, including paintings on the walls and ceiling, and all the ornamentation and details on the walks and woodwork. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the wonderful view we could see out the window of the Alps across the beautiful lake. The breakfast was good, mixing some American favorites with more traditional Austrian fair. Noah even had some chocolate yogurt and liked it.
After breakfast, it was time to pack up and check out of our hotel. A quick taxi ride across the city landed us back at the train station. We stopped off here to leave our bags and continue the tour of the city until the evening train.
The train lockers were not to difficult to figure out, once we found them. Fortunately, they had some big lockers, which allowed us to get all of our bags into two of them.
A short walk from the train station landed us in a little park, where we enjoyed the shade, plotted our plans for the day, and let the kids run around a little. It wasn’t minutes after we arrived until the kids had joined some local kids climbing in one of the park trees.
Just over a little hill in the park was the start of the beautiful Mirabell gardens surounding the Mirabell Palace. The steps leading down to the garden, we believe, is the location of the “do-re-me” song from Song of Music. Taking our time, we strolled through several of the gardens, enjoying the beautiful flowers and the scenes of the Festung Hohensalzburg and prominent hills framing the view from the gardens.
At one end of the garden we found a free WIFI spot, which allowed us to get online and take care of some travel plans and look up a few more things. Everyone took a break and enjoyed the shade on a hot day. More pictures and fun. We may have stayed a little to long, however, as a afternoon shower rolled in requiring us to hide out under a tree for a little while. It was a refreshing rain and not something the Oregonians in us were afraid to make a quick dash through to get to our next activity.
The high-light of the day’s activities was a performance of “The Magic Flute” at the Marionette theatre of Saltzburg. As we entered the building, I was pretty impress, it was a first class setup, similar to any other theatre or opera house you may go to. Inside was a small café where we got some refreshments before the show started.
The performance of “The Magic Flute” was great. The marionettes were pretty impressive, and the amount of expression the players were able to portray with them was quite amazing. A few times during the performance, I forgot these were not real actors. I will admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect, but enjoyed the performance and was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.
I believe everyone enjoyed it, including the kids. Fortunately, they had shorted the opera down to about one hour in length, which is about the maximum length our kids will stay still, so that worked out well. The Magic Flute has some pretty fanciful scenes, which were well done by the theatre, holding Noah’s and Katy’s attention. The adaptation also had some kid entertaining scenes with funny interactions between the marionettes. Noah even took the time to explain to me how they created the “fire” and “ice” realms the main had to conquer near the end, which told me he was definitely paying attention.
The next order of business was to eat a big “Linner” to hold us over to the next morning when we arrive in Florence. Our target was the world-famous Hotel Saucher and the Café Saucher.
Since this was our last chance for an Austrian meal, most of us order some traditional Austrian food from the menu. The food was good, but not quite as good as I would have expected. It also seemed that our server was very busy or ignoring us some of the time, which degraded the experience some. We all saved some room, however, for desert, including a few slices of the Saucher Torte. It was quite good by most accounts. Most of us thought the “fruit” icing in the middle was just ok. The non-sweetened whip cream it was served with, however, was a nice complement to the cake. After another round of “find the waiter”, we were off again.
We had some time before the train left, so the group decided a leisurely stroll back to the train station that walks past a few more land marks was in order.
We found the house where Mozart was raised for most of his kid and adolescent years. Becca decided to go in and take the tour of the house. Noah and I took the time to walk around the little park, chase some pigeons, and tour around a few more blocks of the city.
Time to head back to the train station to catch our evening train to Munich, the Railjet 66 from Saltzburg to Munich. Unfortuantely, the train was running about 10 minutes behind schedule, which meant we would only have 30 minutes in Munich to change trains, if the train held schedule. Fortunately the train did hold schedule and it was a quick and comfortable trip.
The change over to the night train in Munich went very smoothly. The crew is getting quite accustom to moving through a train station, dodging other people, finding the right train and car, and lugging the baggage on-board. There was a brief stop at a pizza stand in the train station to get Noah a second dinner for the train.
On the train we arranged ourselves into the sleeper cars. Noah was VERY excited because he go to travel on another sleeper car and he was on the top bunk. Everyone settled in quickly and was all cheery to be having another rolling slumber party. We also had a great steward on this train, who spoke great English and was very friendly.
Now that we were 7, we reserved 1 whole 6 person sleeper car (3 bunks high on each side of the cabin), and one single bed in a near-by 6 person sleeper. Of course, being the scariest of the crew, and least likely to be messed with, I was the one bed in the other cabin with strangers. Of course this wasn’t a big deal for me.
The cabin did have a interesting mix of people in it. There was myself, and older German guy (bunk above me), and 2 ~20 year old Japanese girls who I think were afraid to come down from the top bunks. During the middle of the night, we stopped at Innsbruck and picked up a 20’s German couple with big backpacks.
After hanging out with the car-of-6-slumber-party for a while, everyone tucked themselves in and I retired to my bed and crashed. I managed to catch some sleep even through I seemed to wake up at most stops and when the Innsbruck couple joined.
And on to Florence…
Noah has taken to the habit of looking around for money on the ground during our rest and navigation breaks. Today’s haul: 12 cents
Staying a the Schloss Leopoldskron produced a restful night. It is located a little outside of Saltzburg (still walking distance) near this picturesque lake, so there was no city noise or other things to disturb our slumber.
First up was breakfast at the palace in what looked like the main ballroom or dinning hall. It had to be the most impressive place I have eaten breakfast at. The hall was decorated similar to all the others palaces we had seen, including paintings on the walls and ceiling, and all the ornamentation and details on the walks and woodwork. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the wonderful view we could see out the window of the Alps across the beautiful lake. The breakfast was good, mixing some American favorites with more traditional Austrian fair. Noah even had some chocolate yogurt and liked it.
After breakfast, it was time to pack up and check out of our hotel. A quick taxi ride across the city landed us back at the train station. We stopped off here to leave our bags and continue the tour of the city until the evening train.
The train lockers were not to difficult to figure out, once we found them. Fortunately, they had some big lockers, which allowed us to get all of our bags into two of them.
A short walk from the train station landed us in a little park, where we enjoyed the shade, plotted our plans for the day, and let the kids run around a little. It wasn’t minutes after we arrived until the kids had joined some local kids climbing in one of the park trees.
Just over a little hill in the park was the start of the beautiful Mirabell gardens surounding the Mirabell Palace. The steps leading down to the garden, we believe, is the location of the “do-re-me” song from Song of Music. Taking our time, we strolled through several of the gardens, enjoying the beautiful flowers and the scenes of the Festung Hohensalzburg and prominent hills framing the view from the gardens.
At one end of the garden we found a free WIFI spot, which allowed us to get online and take care of some travel plans and look up a few more things. Everyone took a break and enjoyed the shade on a hot day. More pictures and fun. We may have stayed a little to long, however, as a afternoon shower rolled in requiring us to hide out under a tree for a little while. It was a refreshing rain and not something the Oregonians in us were afraid to make a quick dash through to get to our next activity.
The high-light of the day’s activities was a performance of “The Magic Flute” at the Marionette theatre of Saltzburg. As we entered the building, I was pretty impress, it was a first class setup, similar to any other theatre or opera house you may go to. Inside was a small café where we got some refreshments before the show started.
The performance of “The Magic Flute” was great. The marionettes were pretty impressive, and the amount of expression the players were able to portray with them was quite amazing. A few times during the performance, I forgot these were not real actors. I will admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect, but enjoyed the performance and was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.
I believe everyone enjoyed it, including the kids. Fortunately, they had shorted the opera down to about one hour in length, which is about the maximum length our kids will stay still, so that worked out well. The Magic Flute has some pretty fanciful scenes, which were well done by the theatre, holding Noah’s and Katy’s attention. The adaptation also had some kid entertaining scenes with funny interactions between the marionettes. Noah even took the time to explain to me how they created the “fire” and “ice” realms the main had to conquer near the end, which told me he was definitely paying attention.
The next order of business was to eat a big “Linner” to hold us over to the next morning when we arrive in Florence. Our target was the world-famous Hotel Saucher and the Café Saucher.
Since this was our last chance for an Austrian meal, most of us order some traditional Austrian food from the menu. The food was good, but not quite as good as I would have expected. It also seemed that our server was very busy or ignoring us some of the time, which degraded the experience some. We all saved some room, however, for desert, including a few slices of the Saucher Torte. It was quite good by most accounts. Most of us thought the “fruit” icing in the middle was just ok. The non-sweetened whip cream it was served with, however, was a nice complement to the cake. After another round of “find the waiter”, we were off again.
We had some time before the train left, so the group decided a leisurely stroll back to the train station that walks past a few more land marks was in order.
We found the house where Mozart was raised for most of his kid and adolescent years. Becca decided to go in and take the tour of the house. Noah and I took the time to walk around the little park, chase some pigeons, and tour around a few more blocks of the city.
Time to head back to the train station to catch our evening train to Munich, the Railjet 66 from Saltzburg to Munich. Unfortuantely, the train was running about 10 minutes behind schedule, which meant we would only have 30 minutes in Munich to change trains, if the train held schedule. Fortunately the train did hold schedule and it was a quick and comfortable trip.
The change over to the night train in Munich went very smoothly. The crew is getting quite accustom to moving through a train station, dodging other people, finding the right train and car, and lugging the baggage on-board. There was a brief stop at a pizza stand in the train station to get Noah a second dinner for the train.
On the train we arranged ourselves into the sleeper cars. Noah was VERY excited because he go to travel on another sleeper car and he was on the top bunk. Everyone settled in quickly and was all cheery to be having another rolling slumber party. We also had a great steward on this train, who spoke great English and was very friendly.
Now that we were 7, we reserved 1 whole 6 person sleeper car (3 bunks high on each side of the cabin), and one single bed in a near-by 6 person sleeper. Of course, being the scariest of the crew, and least likely to be messed with, I was the one bed in the other cabin with strangers. Of course this wasn’t a big deal for me.
The cabin did have a interesting mix of people in it. There was myself, and older German guy (bunk above me), and 2 ~20 year old Japanese girls who I think were afraid to come down from the top bunks. During the middle of the night, we stopped at Innsbruck and picked up a 20’s German couple with big backpacks.
After hanging out with the car-of-6-slumber-party for a while, everyone tucked themselves in and I retired to my bed and crashed. I managed to catch some sleep even through I seemed to wake up at most stops and when the Innsbruck couple joined.
And on to Florence…
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Day 17–Schonbrunn and the best of Wein (Vienna)
We started the day lazily, allowing everyone to rest and rejuvenate. Showers, breakfast, and getting ready for the day. We discussed a plan of attack for the day. I convinced the troupes that it was worth the U-bahn trip and half a day to see Schloss Schönbrunn, so we settled on that for half the day, and some time in the afternoon to see something else.
After a short U-bahn ride and a 10 minute walk, we were at Schönbrunn, the summer residence of the Habsburgs. Judging from the looks of awe I saw, I believe I was correct in saying that we should go see it. We settle package that included an audio tour of the palace apartments, the maze, and the Gloriette.
The palace apartment tour was pretty good, more interesting the many that I have been on. Probably doesn’t hurt that there are many beautiful, rich, and ornate things to see, along with all of the interesting information about the Habsburgs. Worth doing, even though the kids got kind of bored with it, except for the occasional oooh and ahh when we would go into some particularly ornate room.
Next up was a stroll through the palace gardens on way to the Gloriette at the far side of the property. We enjoyed playing in one of the smaller side gardens before we hit the main open area behind Schönbrunn. Everyone was stunned by the beauty of the place as we came out of the garden and could see the entire area behind the palace. As you can imagine we took many photos of the place, which I will only share a few of the better ones here.
Once we finished with the garden area, we started the short hike up to the Gloriette. While it was cooler than Budapest had been (high 80’s), it was still quite warm climbing up the hill in the sun. The kids were starting to complain a little.
Soon we arrived at the top of the hill and were greeted by yet another amazing view of Schonbrunn and Wien. Our tickets allowed us to go to the top of the Gloriette, which was icing on the visual cake. More pictures.
The walk back down was much more pleasant, partitally because it was easier, and partially because the kids had something to look forward to, the maze was next.
Before starting the maze we took a quick break and let the kids play at a cool little playground right next to the entrance to the maze. There were several neat sets of play equipment, including one climb on thing that looking like a bird that you could even flap its wings.
Refreshed, into the maze we went. Noah was very excited and lead us most of the way. As we entered, most of us were just laid back, letting Noah have his fun. However, after getting into several turn, backtrack, and such, we realized how well the maze worked. Simply having the hedge high enough to block your view was disorienting and “tunneled” enough to make to challenging to find your way. It took us a good 15 minutes with efforts by most of the group at some point or other to get through the maze. Noah was pretty proud.
After finishing the maze, we took a little time to doing the labryinth, which was like a mini-maze with some obsticals. There were stepping stones, Indiana Jones-style, with some of the booby trapped to shoot water at you when you stepped on them. There were several other interesting activities, like a mirror maze.
By this time, we had already spend an hour longer at Schonbrunn that we intended. Probably a good sign for how much folks liked it. However, there was more things to do and see, so back to the apartment to regroup.
Once there, the band of 7 parted ways for a few hours. Jeanne went to some of the museums in the musem blocks. Sara and I had a task to do, pack up some stuff and send it back home to lighten our load some. And only 30 minutes to find and get to a post office.
Fortunately there was a post office less than 10 minutes from our apartment. After finding a box in their store, we approached one of the counters. A very nice, young clerk named Manuel helped us, including helping pack the box and work through all the shipping paperwork. Since we are not expecting any really cold weather the rest of the trip, we shipped back some of the warming layers and other things we didn’t need (like the driving GPS system). The box was 21 pounds! It cost us $50 to send it slow route to the US, but want a relief it will be to have 21 less pounds to carry around.
After completing that errand, we picked up the kids and teens at the apartment and spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the pedestrian streets near Stephanplatz. We walked along the extensive pedestrian streets filled with top-end shops, souvenir stores, and sidewalk cafes. After meandering for a while, we ended up at the Wein Stadtsoper (state opera house), yet another beautiful building. We went inside but could only go to the main stair case as there was a performance that evening. It is pretty amazing that the opening performance for this opera house was Mozart performing Don Giovanni.
Time to head back to the apartment to rendezvous with Jeanne for dinner. The dance of the choosing-the-dinner-location was performed again, resulting in a agreement to try out a brewpub followed by an after dinner walk around the ring.
A short walk later want we arrived at this hopping brewpub named 1516 Brew House. The significance of 1516 is a tribute to the year when personal brewing of beer became legal in Vienna. We were in heaven. Microbrew, pub food, and laid back atmosphere was what we all needed. Food was very good for the brewpub fair, having both American variations and some more traditional Viennese dishes. I would guess that either an American owned the place, or the owner had some significant ties to America. The only down side was we where in the upstairs, inside seating, which was pretty warm because of the heat.
After getting out fill, we embarked on a walk around the ring, which is a street the circles part of Vienna and lined with many famous places. It was about a half mile to get to the Hofburg palace, the main living establishment of the Habsburgs. Since night had set, we could see the palace beautifully lit and stopped to take pictures and enjoy the cooler air that had settled in the city. Across several parks we could see the Rathaus, but decided that was further than we cared to walk this evening, and headed back through more pedestrian walking areas to our apartment.
As we were approaching out apartment, with packing and rest on our minds, we hear some music and revelry in the apartment building across the street from ours. We didn’t think much about it at the time. We finished packing and put the kids to bed. The whole time the revelry continued, which has now increased in volume some and can be heard through our open windows. OK, it is now 11, guessing this should be done soon on a Wednesday night. Around midnight it is time for Sara and I to turn in, except we are having a hard time falling a sleep to the sound of partying. Fortunately, we did manage to fall asleep after not too long. But wait, our party-going friends weren’t quite done. Around 3AM we were awoken by a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday”. Fortunately that was followed shortly by a bunch of people noisily talking in the streets on their way home. FINALLY.
After a short U-bahn ride and a 10 minute walk, we were at Schönbrunn, the summer residence of the Habsburgs. Judging from the looks of awe I saw, I believe I was correct in saying that we should go see it. We settle package that included an audio tour of the palace apartments, the maze, and the Gloriette.
The palace apartment tour was pretty good, more interesting the many that I have been on. Probably doesn’t hurt that there are many beautiful, rich, and ornate things to see, along with all of the interesting information about the Habsburgs. Worth doing, even though the kids got kind of bored with it, except for the occasional oooh and ahh when we would go into some particularly ornate room.
Next up was a stroll through the palace gardens on way to the Gloriette at the far side of the property. We enjoyed playing in one of the smaller side gardens before we hit the main open area behind Schönbrunn. Everyone was stunned by the beauty of the place as we came out of the garden and could see the entire area behind the palace. As you can imagine we took many photos of the place, which I will only share a few of the better ones here.
Once we finished with the garden area, we started the short hike up to the Gloriette. While it was cooler than Budapest had been (high 80’s), it was still quite warm climbing up the hill in the sun. The kids were starting to complain a little.
Soon we arrived at the top of the hill and were greeted by yet another amazing view of Schonbrunn and Wien. Our tickets allowed us to go to the top of the Gloriette, which was icing on the visual cake. More pictures.
The walk back down was much more pleasant, partitally because it was easier, and partially because the kids had something to look forward to, the maze was next.
Before starting the maze we took a quick break and let the kids play at a cool little playground right next to the entrance to the maze. There were several neat sets of play equipment, including one climb on thing that looking like a bird that you could even flap its wings.
Refreshed, into the maze we went. Noah was very excited and lead us most of the way. As we entered, most of us were just laid back, letting Noah have his fun. However, after getting into several turn, backtrack, and such, we realized how well the maze worked. Simply having the hedge high enough to block your view was disorienting and “tunneled” enough to make to challenging to find your way. It took us a good 15 minutes with efforts by most of the group at some point or other to get through the maze. Noah was pretty proud.
After finishing the maze, we took a little time to doing the labryinth, which was like a mini-maze with some obsticals. There were stepping stones, Indiana Jones-style, with some of the booby trapped to shoot water at you when you stepped on them. There were several other interesting activities, like a mirror maze.
By this time, we had already spend an hour longer at Schonbrunn that we intended. Probably a good sign for how much folks liked it. However, there was more things to do and see, so back to the apartment to regroup.
Once there, the band of 7 parted ways for a few hours. Jeanne went to some of the museums in the musem blocks. Sara and I had a task to do, pack up some stuff and send it back home to lighten our load some. And only 30 minutes to find and get to a post office.
Fortunately there was a post office less than 10 minutes from our apartment. After finding a box in their store, we approached one of the counters. A very nice, young clerk named Manuel helped us, including helping pack the box and work through all the shipping paperwork. Since we are not expecting any really cold weather the rest of the trip, we shipped back some of the warming layers and other things we didn’t need (like the driving GPS system). The box was 21 pounds! It cost us $50 to send it slow route to the US, but want a relief it will be to have 21 less pounds to carry around.
After completing that errand, we picked up the kids and teens at the apartment and spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the pedestrian streets near Stephanplatz. We walked along the extensive pedestrian streets filled with top-end shops, souvenir stores, and sidewalk cafes. After meandering for a while, we ended up at the Wein Stadtsoper (state opera house), yet another beautiful building. We went inside but could only go to the main stair case as there was a performance that evening. It is pretty amazing that the opening performance for this opera house was Mozart performing Don Giovanni.
A short walk later want we arrived at this hopping brewpub named 1516 Brew House. The significance of 1516 is a tribute to the year when personal brewing of beer became legal in Vienna. We were in heaven. Microbrew, pub food, and laid back atmosphere was what we all needed. Food was very good for the brewpub fair, having both American variations and some more traditional Viennese dishes. I would guess that either an American owned the place, or the owner had some significant ties to America. The only down side was we where in the upstairs, inside seating, which was pretty warm because of the heat.
After getting out fill, we embarked on a walk around the ring, which is a street the circles part of Vienna and lined with many famous places. It was about a half mile to get to the Hofburg palace, the main living establishment of the Habsburgs. Since night had set, we could see the palace beautifully lit and stopped to take pictures and enjoy the cooler air that had settled in the city. Across several parks we could see the Rathaus, but decided that was further than we cared to walk this evening, and headed back through more pedestrian walking areas to our apartment.
As we were approaching out apartment, with packing and rest on our minds, we hear some music and revelry in the apartment building across the street from ours. We didn’t think much about it at the time. We finished packing and put the kids to bed. The whole time the revelry continued, which has now increased in volume some and can be heard through our open windows. OK, it is now 11, guessing this should be done soon on a Wednesday night. Around midnight it is time for Sara and I to turn in, except we are having a hard time falling a sleep to the sound of partying. Fortunately, we did manage to fall asleep after not too long. But wait, our party-going friends weren’t quite done. Around 3AM we were awoken by a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday”. Fortunately that was followed shortly by a bunch of people noisily talking in the streets on their way home. FINALLY.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
