Princess: Today we took the train to Vienna. I am staying in a hotel. We ate churros and gummies.
Captain Grumpy: Yes, Princess you CAN talk to me. She only said that to Mother Superior and me about 300 times today. At least she isn’t saying she’s hungry. Speaking of Tengo Hambre, we departed Budapest today and took RailJet 66 to Vienna (or Wien for the locals). For those who didn’t know… including everyone else in my family…Austrians sprechen sie deutsch and use the Euros. Damn! I had just figured out the conversion rate from USD to Forint and knew a few words in Magyar. Now it’s all for naught. I had also forgotten how linked Austria and Hungary were throughout history (i.e. Austro-Hungary Monarchy and the metric system…okay…I’m out). Yesterday, we were hearing stories about Franz and Sisi being snubbed in the Budapest Opera. Today we saw the Imperial Crypts in Vienna where Franz and Sisi and their Kronprinz Rudolfo are laid to rest. Some of the crypts were pretty cool, with skulls, crowns, and armor on them. Mother Superior was unimpressed, “This is the best that the mighty Hapsburgs could do?” Truth in lending, Princess was unimpressed too. She set off the alarm by leaning on a railing…More truth in lending…I don’t think it was Princess, I think it was Mother Superior who set the alarm off and then blamed it on Princess. Afterwards, we headed to Figarohaus, one of Mozart’s former residences in Vienna. On the way, Princess peppered me with questions on death. She wanted to know how and why people died. For one stretch she talked continuously for 4 minutes and 18 seconds. She may have paused for a breath once or twice…maybe. Once at Mozarthaus, only Monkey Hat took the tour to see his sheet music and love letters. Afterwards, Monkey Hat and I raced to the top of St. Stephens Church (déjà vu from yesterday???). 437 or so (who can really count that high?) steps later we were at the top with great views of Vienna. All the way down, Monkey Hat encouraged fellow climbers… “You are almost there”, “not far now”, etc…even to the American couple that were only 7 steps into the climb. They laughed and replied “you’re almost there too.” We found a Tapas place to eat and had a nice dinner. We made it back to the hotel in time to type of these journals and get to sleep. Oh yeah, in Vienna, the internet actually works in the hotel room. But I’m going to bed. Mother Superior slept on the train, while I watched the kids.
Monkey Hat: Today, I woke up by the sound of typing from dad’s computer. I helped dad with typing the blog. When Princess woke up, I stopped helping dad and played with her. Mom woke up around7:30, after Princess and I stopped playing. My family and I soon got dressed and packed. Then we went downstairs and had breakfast. I had eggs, sausage, cereal, and toast. After we ate breakfast, we left our hotel and went to the train station. We all got on the train and settled down. There was a little TV, so Princess and I watched it. I had a granola bar and sandwich and played with cards. When we got to Vienna, we went to our hotel and left ten minutes later. We left to see the Imperial Crypts. There we saw crypts of famous people with skulls on them. Mom set off an alarm. At the gift shop, we got a post card. Next we went to Mozart’s house and I saw interesting things at a gift shop. I got a cool pencil with Mozart on it. Dad and I went to climb the St Stephen’s church and came down 439 steps in all. Where were Mom and Princess? We could not find them. I told dad that they were in a book store, but he said “no”. After waiting 1 hour, we found them, and where were they? In a book store. We all went to Marques to eat dinner. We had tapas and churros. Next we walked home and talked. When we got there, we wrote our journals and went to bed.
Mother Superior: I slept in today. Captain Grumpy entertained the kids on his PC and I lay in bed until 7h30. My dreams of breakfast in bed were dashed away by two little voices who demanded to be fed. Breakfast was uneventful and afterwards we wrestled with our luggage until everything had been properly flattened and fit into the suitcases. It was on to the train station and time for our first train ride. The scene was almost perfect. As we started to walk down the track, a porter appeared, greeted us, grabbed our bags, and tried to pat Princess on the head. She was so startled that she squealed and almost ran into the train. The porter must have felt bad, because instead of leading us to our ticketed seats, he sat us next to a TV section for the kids. I thought to myself, “Give this man the Nobel Prize.” Our favorite babysitter took well care of Monkey Hat and Princess, and we were able to get some well deserved downtime. More or less, that’s how it worked out – that is more for Captain Grumpy as he self-medicated on his Nook, while less for me who monitored the kids for the three hour ride to Vienna. Once we settled into our hotel, we decided to visit the Royals and then mix it up with the Commoners. Our first stop was an official visit to the Hapsburgs of yesteryear. We remembered from our guides in Budapest that Emperor Franz Josef was a stickler for proper attire and protocol, so we wore our Sunday best and Princess announced our entrance into the Imperial Burial Vault by setting off the alarm system. We were so proud of her – all eyes and cameras were on her and yet she remained poised as if mingling among the Hapsburgs was an everyday occurrence. I guess that's what happens when you are used to spending at least one day every summer visiting the Pantheon in El Escorial, Spain. Now there is an eternal resting place, exquisitely designed and decorated to celebrate the Imperial families of the Spanish Crown. Already grounded in reality, we decided to walk down the KarntnerStrasse where every major global brand has set up shop. The boys decided to climb up the tower of Stephansdom Cathedral. Princess and I decided to stay grounded and worked our way around Haas Haus aromatic tea shop. Once we took refuge in a lovely bookstore with a kids section that captivated Princess’s full attention for over an hour. She was hypnotized by the myriad of Easter eggs that suddenly surrounded her. She now had her own scavenger hunt: little eggs, big eggs, paper mache eggs, porcelain eggs, and edible eggs that were chocolate or candied. After a half hour of inspecting the eggs she turned to the bunnies. By the end, she had handled every decoration in the store and to everyone’s delight had put every last one back in its proper place. I ended up buying her a large Easter egg and a book about Easter in German. The shopkeepers were enamored by Princess and gave her a beautifully colorful bouncing ball. They encouraged her to play with it and so she did. After carefully placing it in the Easter egg, she danced around the bookstore with her home-made maraca. Her one-girl / one-instrument performance received a standing ovation. When we rendezvoused with the boys, they were crabby. Apparently, they had been looking for us in all the wrong places. Captain Grumpy’s fault for not listening to us and Monkey Hat. While we have been enjoying our culinary tour of Central Europe, it was time for some home cooking. Se we tracked down a cool Spanish restaurant in the back streets of Vienna. We secured a spacious table in Bodega Marques. Our little toritos loved sitting in the vaulted cellar pointing at all the memorabilia from the Iberian Peninsula. We ordered a few rounds of finger-licking good tapas – they had pimientos pardon. The menu was authentic and so was the atmosphere. Could have, should have skipped the churros!
No comments:
Post a Comment