Vienna

Vienna, Austria

Hi All,  Meg here.  Our time in Vienna was a bit of a bummer due to the fact that Dean had a fever and wasn't feeling great.  Family Afar is a nice little foursome, and when one of us isn't feeling well - we all feel it. But, despite not feeling his best, the first thing we needed to accomplish was bike maintenance.  Dean searched and found a bike shop not far from us where we were able to get all the items we so desperately needed: a new tire, 2 new tubes, 3 chains, a new chain tool and a new helmet for Kylie.  When Dean showed the manager his rear wheel, the manager took it back to try to see about truing it, but it wouldn't fit on his truing stand, so it was up to Dean to fix.  Bummer.

Turing the wheel with makeshift "truing" indicator (bike tool) tie wrapped to frame

So, after that excursion, Dean went to work on the bikes and I did some laundry....by hand, as there was no washer/dryer in our apartment.  What a mess our clothes were!  Between the sand and grit of the rainy ride and the general wear and tear on good days, the water was pretty filthy.  Both Dean and I accomplished our tasks, which meant it was time for me and the kids to do a little exploring so that Dean could rest in our 'cozy' apartment.

Home away from home

Armed with our Google Maps, we headed toward the river.  As we had purchased some cards in Berlin and we really like them, we decided our big souvenir purchase for the trip would be a pack cards from each of the capital cities!  (Big spenders!)  We looked at a few souvenir shops with no luck, then passed a nice outdoor restaurant, that was near the river, in the shade, and serving what looked like excellent cold beverages.  So, Dex, Kylie, and I took advantage of the location and sat down to some drinks, desserts, and cards.

While we were playing, I noticed the HopOn/HopOff bus stop was just next door.  So....next thing we know, we're hopping on the bus.  I'm really glad we did this.  I love taking the Metro's and the buses in all the cities we go to, but at least with this very touristy mode of transportation, we get to see the very touristy things - and actually have them named.  We saw the Opera House, the UN Buildings, St. Francis of Assis Church, the HUGE Hofburg homes, the Prater Amusement Park, the waterfront, and much more.  The kids joked, however, because we hopped on, but never hopped off it.  We took the full loop and at one point, when I thought we were close to where we boarded the bus, we changed directions and got another hour's worth of information!  But, it was thanks to that loop that we discovered where the locals go to swim in the river.  So, finally, after about 2.5 hours of getting our history of Vienna, we stepped off the bus and made our way back to the apartment.  (Dex jokingly kissed the sidewalk when we hopped off the bus....maybe I was doing more listening than the kids!)

Dex and Kylie playing a park

Opera house

Hofburg Imperial Palace

Dean was up, but still feverish and puny-feeling.  In a bit of a turnabout, I asked the kids to get some groceries for dinner, which they did happily.  They came back with pasta and Kasekrauner (cheese sausage), chocolate milk and cookies.  All I had to do was boil water.  Deano rallied for some Oh Heck, and then it was time for us to listen to our book.  As the weather was much warmer and not a drop of rain, we all crammed into one room, two mattresses on the floor, to take advantage of the one floor fan.

Dex and Kylie in their floor mattress fort

The next morning dawned and Dean was feeling better.  Wahoo!  We took advantage of that by visiting a lovely and tasty nearby breakfast spot.  Kylie was given an ovation by our waitress when she correctly asked for cold milk, "Kann ich haben kalte Milch?"  She'd been practicing using Google Translate.  It was pretty great to hear her land it.  We decided over breakfast to head to the Tech Museum.  While it was an amazing building with loads of information, it was more a museum chronicling the history of technology.  After about 2 hours, it was clear that Dean wasn't up to walking around.  In fact, when we went past a thermal reading TV monitor, it was Dean who was lit up like a light bulb.  The kids were stunned that I was one of the coolest - let's hear it for functioning sweat glands.

Dean "fever-face" on the right

We headed back to the apartment so Dean could rest, and the kids and I changed into our swimsuits and made our way to Alte Donue island in the Danube, where we could go swimming.  How lovely it was!  The river was clear, cool and there were loads of piers and ramps alongside the man-made island.  It was clear to me that I was an old fogie amongst the teens and 20-somethings.  Unless kids were in a stroller, I didn't see anyone around Dex and Kylie's ages either.  But, no matter, we enjoyed the water and all it had to offer.  Two swans were camped out by the ramp near us.  They didn't seem very friendly, and they were big!  But, we didn't mess with them, so they didn't mess with us.  I was impressed with the stamina that Kylie and Dex had to play in the water for as long as they did.  They had to have been in it for over two hours.  I was in and out a few times.

After checking in with Dean to see how he was doing, we decided to head back home so that we could all share dinner together.  We chose a lovely place called Cafe Ansari.  Our meals were tasty and pretty.  The night was really beautiful and it was good to be all together again.  If I had to ping Vienna for anything, it was that smoking is allowed indoors, as well as outdoors, in restaurants.  It's a real drag, to be honest.  For those of us that don't smoke, it truly stinks!  Anyway, we're getting used to it, but I so appreciate the regulations we have in the States against smoking.  Drinking and smoking are major pastimes, it seems.  One of the facts of Austria that Dean read to us over dinner was that in the EU, Austrian men were, on average, the most overweight, while Austrian women were among the least overweight.  Hmmm.  After that dinner (and ice cream), I'm pretty sure I'm working against that statistic.