Austria, 2012. Part 1-ish.

Drasinenfahrt, Oberoesterreich. We were lucky enough to fit in a little ride on this train-bike. Tiny loved his "Polar Express."

The weather was perfect and we were the last Drasine of the day, so instead of going one way, we went to the first rest stop, had some refreshments (ice cream) and then were turned around to return to our car. Downhill almost the whole way!

We arrived in Vienna late in the evening, just in time for an Iftar dinner with my friend, T. The kids thought her apartment building was interesting. Why is it so old? they asked.

It is an old building. Some of the apartments still have the bathrooms (toilets) outside of the actual apartment and across the hall. All of the apartments have running water, but previously residents would have gotten water from a sink in the hallway.

Dinner! Iftar (breaking-the-fast meal) involves socializing and coming together as a family. I am really glad T shared the time with us!

The next morning we went to a pool near our hotel. Plenty of sliding.

The hotel was right next door to this monastery. Many years ago I slid down a giant wine barrel there. We ran out of time to visit.

Vienna. A nice place to get married.

The afternoon was spent at my favorite museum - the natural history museum. Here is the actual Venus of Willendorf! (She is tiny.)

How can you not love this museum?

Of course there was ice cream.

Just an amazing place.

And luckily they haven't modernized it to death. They still have the beautiful, creaky old parquet floors, the old vintrines with stuffed animals (some of them shot by various members of the nobility during the K-u-K era), a slightly musty smell,  and collections of eggs, butterflies, etc. with note cards in old script, collected by amateur naturalists in the 1800s...

Crocodiles!

Giraffes!

And then onward on a brief exploration of downtown...

 

Out the window of the U-Bahn (this part is elevated) on the way to my friend, J's.

In the evening, we went to J's house (she and her kids were at the museum with us) - this is the view from their balcony. It was a really neat apartment - a newer building (i.e. sometime in the 20th century). You enter their apartment by the bedrooms and walk up a freestanding spiral staircase up to the main living area. The two-story stairway was filled with bookshelves, a neat way to use the space. They also had this large balcony with a hammock and plants and breezes.

The end of the night! (The littlest boy was already in bed.)  J had a job interview the next day and then was off to Hungary for a little family vacation. Hope you had fun, J!

 TO BE CONTINUED...(if you can bear more pictures)