Granny and Liz take Vienna

Granny and Elizabeth's trip to Vienna was a perfectly-timed exciting distraction for us.  Having just come down off our holiday high and not quite ready to start our preparations for moving back to the States, a countdown to an incredible family vacation was just the thing.

As luck would have it, the two weary travelers arrived at 8am in Vienna, and in the spirit of embracing the new time zone, we all headed out into the city together.  First item on our list was a trip to Mr. Happy Happy's overflowing, sparkling shop, where we joined him for tea and he gave our guests a proper Indian welcome to the city.  I love the open observations Mr. Happy Happy makes about people; when informed that Marlene was John's grandmother, he responded with such incredulous delight that a woman with such fine skin could be a grandmother (much less a great one!). As we sat down to tea and got to talking (while the girls ran circles and hid in the dressing room), he told us that Elizabeth has a good heart--a mother's heart for her family.  And he explained how John, the girls, and I are all his family too.  You can understand why we love the man so much: "When you are happy, the whole Universe is happy!".  We certainly had a happy start to our days together in Vienna.  

Simplicity was really the order of the day to allow for exhaustion, so we wandered down Wiedener Hauptstrasse and slowly introduced Granny and Liz to our "neighborhood" church: Karlskirche.  This has become such a common area for us to frequent, it apparently takes new eyes to fully appreciate the majesty of the structure that sits in our park/playground/main transportation hub.  Karlskirche is an extension of our home--and the park that surrounds might as well be our back yard. So, we walked through the underground, grabbing snacks and pastries along the way to the #1 tram line--the lazy man's way to view the city.  From our vantage point on the old red bim, we passed the Opera House, the Burggarten, Museums, Parliament and city hall.  We even hooked around the Ring to get a look at the not-so-majestic Danube Canal...and that was that.  A few-hour Cliffsnotes intro to the city that is our home.  

The next day was Saturday--one of our favorite days of the week.  Saturdays mean pancakes and bacon...and this Saturday there was an extra side of family for the girls to pounce on in joyful glee.  It was such an exciting weekend to be ushering in--two days, out on the streets, showing off downtown Vienna to Granny and Liz.  First, it was into the heart of the city we went--to Stephansdom--then down Graben and Kohlmarkt, eventually stopping at Cafe Central for some traditional Austrian lunch. We took everyone up to the viewing platform to look down on the colored tiles on the roof of Stephansdom and then the next day we were down at the oldest part of Vienna's remaining city wall.  We stopped by the Rathaus, but not without visiting the playground as well.  (This was, after all, an authentic Audrey and Bailey-led tour.) Past the Rathaus, it's an easy walk up the ramps of Parliament, through the Volksgarten where the roses were all still covered in burlap, and then up the painted steps of the Albertina.  From there, we took a wurstl break in the garden of the Hofburg Palace, drinking beer and champagne and eating sausage and giant pretzels.  We were simply following the well-trod paths our feet had traveled a hundred times before.  

Granny and Elizabeth's time in Vienna was relatively short, so, mostly, we stuck with the traditional sights in the following days, heading to The Demel for cocoa and cake, The Belevedere Gardens, Salm Braue for Schnitzel, and of course nearly a whole day spent at Schoenbrunn.  (Where we actually managed to drag the girls through the grand tour of rooms).

In a slightly less touristy vein, Granny and Liz were both interested in seeing where John works and wanted to check out the UN Complex, so John took us all on a bit of a tour...which is really not incredibly overwhelming, considering the place was built in the 1970's. (It turns out brown and orange were not nearly as timeless as it was once believed) In comparison to the rest of Vienna's overwhelmingly ornate decor, the VIC seems to pale in comparison.  It's probably fortunate, then, that this place is primarily meant to be a place where work gets done. And in the end, there's something to be said for gaining a deeper understanding of a place by actually walking it's halls.  We downed some lunch in the cafeteria there before hopping back on the train into the city.  

On our way home, we took a slight detour to see Vienna's iconic ferris wheel: The Riesenrad.  This is one attraction I had never been able to get the girls interested in (If screaming and running from the ticket building counts as disinterest), but for some reason both Audrey and Bailey had very recently begun to show an interest in ferris wheels.  And that's how we found ourselves, all together, perched on a bench in one of those ancient, red, boxy cars, circling slowly around to view Vienna in all it's glory.  It was a breakthrough of sorts.  The girls loved it; Bailey couldn't stop chatting about everything she could see and in that moment, two little ferris-wheel-enthusiasts were born.  

It was fortunate, then, that we were shortly going to be making our way to London: home of the London Eye.  And it really was that quickly that we were all packing our bags and getting ready to leave the flat on another adventure...but not first without a mini-birthday party for The Bear.  There were a few early birthday presents from family and even a bit of pre-celebratory cake. That night, Bailey was so excited her birthday was nearing and that the next day would bring her LONDON, well, I could hardly get her pajamas on for all the bouncing, laughter and hyperventilation. It was a right and proper preface for the amount of excitement the next days of adventure would bring us.