Saturday, May 30, 2009

Austria and Slovakia



A definate benefit to living in France is the easy access to travel. When we found out that Shane had a 5 day weekend, we looked for the cheapest flights we could find to a bunch of various destinations. Austria turned out to be our best choice and away we flew!

Vienna was a beautiful city. It was clean, had gorgeous old buildings, tons of history, huge parks, multiple Starbucks, amazing food and super nice people. For instance, we were looking at our map, trying to find Mozarts house when a little old lady saw us. She not only showed us on the map where the house was, she walked us to it. Now thats customer service! The weather was perfect- sunshine in the upper 70's. We even got a little tan, which has yet to happen in Lille :) On our continueing quest for culture (insert wink here), we went to the Belvedere museum. It was a rich man's giant old summer vacation mansion. The city of Vienna has converted it into an art museum. At the time of our visit,we saw an exhibit of Mucha's work and the general art gallery. This museum actually had the original of "The Kiss" by Klimt. Kayden seemed to enjoy the art too, testing out her new sounds (dadada, bababa, t-t-t-t) in the nice quiet rooms.

Our next stop was Slovakia. We took the train from Vienna to Bratislava and stepped into a different world. Slovakia was under communist rule up until 1989. Though it has experienced tremendous economic growth since, the remenants of hard times remain. The actual city of Bratislava was clean with older buildings, on the river Danube and once again, had wonderfully nice people. A castle perched on a hilltop overlooked the city. Unfortunately, the castle was under restoration so we were unable to see the inside. Yet the views from the hilltop overlooking the city were quite spectacular. We were so happy in Bratislava, discovering the richness that Eastern Europe had to offer and enjoyed scrumtrulescent food and sights. An added bonus, it was a bit cheaper than other countries we had visited.

Vacation was great and it was hard to return back to the reality and routiene of our every day lives. One fun fact I learned upon our return that I care to share.... Vienna is ranked among the top 5 best cities to live in the world. Having visited Vienna and many other places around the world, I can fully understand this honor.
Walking over the Danube River, Bratislava in the background
View from the castle over looking the city
Opera in Bratislava
Part of the Hofberg Complex, the former emperor's residence (Vienna)
Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain and Soviet Monument commemorating the Russian liberation of Vienna




Karlskirche, dedicated to St Charles Borromeo, patron saint of the plague

Kayden's first swim in a pool!

Stephansdom church- dedicated to the first martyr, Steven, in the heart of Vienna



3 comments:

Tyler & Cathie said...

I LOVE the life that you guys have over there! Take advantage of it (as it sounds like you are) because this is an opportunity of a life time!
-Cathie

Anonymous said...

so jealous... sounds like you guys are definitely making the most of your time over there... I love it!
Tam

Kim Day said...

Wow! Sounds amazing... I know you guys are homesick, but seriously, this is an opportunity of a lifetime. Hopefully we will make it out there before you leave to experience some of it with you!!