Vienna!

Sorry for my slackness - it has been a combination of life getting on top of me and being so frustrated with our very poor Internet connection that I have avoided going online for anything other than the essentials - you know, Facebook and whatnot ;p

But alas I have been brave and shan't let the Internet get the better of me, so, as I dig deep in memory to way back when..............it was May, and we took a trip toVienna!!! 

This was a trip away organized by Chris, so naturally it was mostly about cycling and racing. 

Our first hurdle as it turned out, was getting there............

Our five hour train trip turned into an all day affair as we changed trains, bought wrong tickets, got kicked off trains and waited for some more trains, but I won't dwell on that - we arrived safe and sound.........eventually!

The first scheduled event for Vienna was Chris' race, which was in this beautiful little town just outside Vienna (I cannot remember the name of it?) Whilst Chris was out with the pelaton getting some fresh country air, I went snap happy in this little town............

Despite Chris estimating his race would only take half a day, it inevitably took all day, which meant we were left with just one more day to explore Vienna! 

I was determined to make the most of our one day of sightseeing though. So at 6am, I dragged Chris out of bed (very reluctantly so) and we began. 

Our first hunt was to find the Mozart monument. Chris' Dad is a big classical music fan, so we would not be forgiven if we were in Austria - the birth place of Mozart, and didn't see something relevant. 

Further travels have shown us though, that apparently almost every European city has some claim to Mozart and monuments or statues of him are fairly commonplace! Nevertheless after stopping at many other statues along the way we eventually found the one we were looking for - Mozart! Decked with violins and other music paraphernalia. 

Along the way we passed many more monuments, statues, beautiful buildings and other examples of incredible architecture dripping with stories to tell!

After our morning stroll through the city we paused for breakfast before being joined by Beck and Ben for the rest of our day. Knowing our time was limited we decided to spend our day in just one place and see it well, rather than stretching ourselves thin. 

The lucky winner was.........Schonnbrunn Palace - the deciding factor for going here was the strudel demonstration which was rumored to have taste testing as part of it!

A snippet from one of our brochures explains that: Schönbrunn Palace together with its ancillary buildings and extensive park is by virtue of its long and colourful history one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria. Scheduled as a listed monument, the whole ensemble, including the palace, the park and not least the oldest zoo in the world was placed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1996.

The enormity of the palace and grounds was overwhelming! You could spend a week there and still not see all that was on offer. 

There was even a hedge maze, which despite my great sense of direction, I was the last one to emerge from. It's harder than it looks alright.

And finally, our last visit before we left to catch our train was.............

The strudel making...complete with taste testing. 

So with our bellies full of strudel we made our way to the train station and began our five hour journey home. 

Goodbye Vienna!