Vienna

After having just said that Ryan never gets the weekend off, he got another one off (!) and we went to Vienna! Technically, we were there to watch the Italian national team play the Austrian national team...

...but we also managed to squeeze in a morning of sightseeing, plenty of goulash and schnitzel and lots of walking around, exploring. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Vienna has so much to see and do that we didn't know where to start. On Saturday morning, we settled on Hofburg Palace, the former imperial palace right in the center of the city. We went to the Sisi Museum (dedicated to Empress Elisabeth, wife of Franz Joseph), saw the imperial china collection and the imperial apartment where Elisabeth and Franz Joseph lived.

Everything in Vienna was incredibly beautiful - the buildings, the statues, the moldings on the windows...and there were horse drawn carriages everywhere, which made it feel like we were in a different century.

We were told that we had to go to Figlmuller for schnitzel and it was one of the best recommendations we've ever received.

The schnitzel was bigger than the plates it was served on, but it was so thin and light that we were about to eat the whole thing!

We were also told that we had to go to Cafe Sacher for a slice of their famous Sacher Torte...

...and after that lunch and snack, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and taking everything in.

Vienna seems like the kind of place that you could revisit again and again and see something new each time. So we'll be back!

PS - Thoughts on what to do in Vienna for the weekend from the New York Times...and did you know that Vienna is the wine capital of Austria? We didn't realize how well known the city is for their wine, but we tried a few different bottles and they were all delicious.

Rainy Christmas Markets & Mozart

Vacation time! This year we have two mini-vacations in December, so for the first one we headed up to Salzburg for two days and nights of sightseeing, Christmas market-ing, and meat and potato eating.

Salzburg is known for its music scene and Mozart, so most of what we saw and did revolved around music: we visited the Mirabell Gardens, where parts of The Sound of Music were filmed (!) - while the actual gardens are more colorful in the summer, it was still beautiful and filled with impressive statues. We went to the house where Mozart grew up and lived until he was 17 (and below is a picture of the house where he was born). One rainy afternoon we went to an Advent concert in a tiny hall at St. Peter's church which was beautiful, cozy, and Christmas-y.

The Christmas market there was one of the best and was filled with sparkly ornaments and all things Christmas.

We battled the rain, drank gluhwein to stay warm, and ate this local treat (below) that everyone loves, which is fried dough topped with sauerkraut, which sounds so weird but is so good!

 

On Tuesday morning we took the tram up to the castle which overlooks the city and has gorgeous views. Here's the view from below looking up:

We walked around and stopped in the museum inside, but mostly just admired the view looking down on the city, and enjoyed the sun that had finally come out.

Next up - on Saturday we're headed to Prague for a few days!

Christmas Market-ing in Lienz

Today we decided to get out of the country and go see a Christmas market that we haven't been to before. But the best part was - I drove. Ryan lured me into the car, telling me we were going to a CHRISTMAS MARKET (!!) and then he made me drive. All the way to Lienz, Austria. It was my first time driving a stick shift, except for around the parking lot of the rink where I learned - and we all made it home safe and sound.

Anyway. Lienz. It was freezing! On the way there, the temperature was -11 Celsius which is 12 degrees. 12! So we got there and we had to have some gluhwein or else we would have frozen. Also we decided that we are collecting mugs from various Christmas markets throughout Austria, Italy and Germany, so we needed a mug, of course. Then we ate this delicious baked potato with a garlic sour cream sauce and grilled onions and bacon on it. We don't have stuff like that in Cortina. We wandered around and bought an ornament for our tree and a delicious smelling Christmas candle, and then did some grocery shopping - in Austria, they have thrilling things like cumin and cayenne pepper, which you absolutely cannot find in Cortina.

Here's a few pictures from our day: