Reisenrad!

Today I am constantly trying to think of a way for Mary and I to move here for at least one year. I could rent out my house--and then I don't know. It would be so wonderful and I think of how good our German would be after one year of living here. But then I think about our friends and family. We would miss them so much--and would Mary be able to live without Jackson across the street? Well I guess everyone would just have to come visit us. Oh and think of all the places we could travel to--much easier than from the USA. I have been dreaming of the day when I would live here again since 1999. Well I will keep dreaming...

I really want to visit Graz. I have never been and since I wanted to do new things with Mary that I hadn't done before, I thought we should go. The problem is that today would have been the best day. We are still a little tired from our trip and we would have had to catch the train at eight or ten this morning. I was a little unsure I was up to tackling even more travel. Last night I decided I would just figure it out in the morning. Well this morning we woke up at ten!!! That meant that Graz was out. Oh well maybe next time. I wanted us to rest, but not quite til that late. We hurried and got ready and went down to breakfast which luckily was until eleven. The ladies doing the breakfast were so friendly to us even though we were late. They kept trying to talk to Mary, but she was super shy. After breakfast we found a camera shop and I was able to buy a new battery charger for my camera battery. It is awesome because it works in the US, Europe, the UK, and the car. However I wish I hadn't had to buy it in the first place. Hopefully it will work with more than just Sony batteries, because I would really like to get a new camera some time in the near future. We'll see.

I didn't really have a plan for us today because of the Graz thing. So we just walked to the center. On the way we walked by the Naturhistorisches Museum, which has a little elephant statue in front. Every time we pass by Mary has to climb all over it and talk to it. She says she will be its mommy and take care of it. Then she has me take pictures of her. Finally I am able to pull her away from the elephant and keep walking. Some young people walked by us, all talking loud. Mary says, "People here are silly." I asked her why and she said, "because they talk silly." She doesn't understand why people don't speak "spanglish" which is what she apparently thinks we speak. I told her we speak English and in Austria they speak German. I'm not sure she gets it. We also walked by the Hofburg and there are a whole bunch of horse drawn carriages. Mary really wants to ride in the carriage, but it is forty Euros for twenty minutes around the city center!!! That is a lot of money for twenty minutes. I really want to indulge her because I want her to have awesome memories of Vienna, but holy cow. I don't love the whole horse and carriage thing anyway. I am thinking about it.

We walked the way I used to walk to school. We stopped at Muhlen Brot to pick up some laugenstange. They are sort of like pretzel sticks, but so much better. I will have to try to get a picture. They are as delicious as always!!! I bought three and Mary and I ate them pretty quickly. I think they are closed all weekend too! I think I should buy a whole bunch on the day we leave and maybe get them home and freeze them. The problem is that I think we would just end up eating all of them on the way home. I showed Mary the Palais Corbelli where I went to school. She was confused. She wanted to know how my school got to Austria. Finally she said, "let's go in that old church." So we walked down to Stephansdom. Mary saw a clown making balloon figures and so I let her get one. Unfortunately I don't think his English was very good and my German is not so good, so he just made Mary a heart. Even though Mary wanted a balloon hat, she was pleased with her heart. Then this girl kept following Mary to try to get a picture. So I stopped Mary and let her take her picture so I could ask her to take our picture in front of Stephansdom. Yay a picture of both of us. We went inside the church. It is so beautiful inside. I wish I could take a picture that would capture just how beautiful it is. Mary quickly lost interest in the church and wanted to go ride the famous Reisenrad (Ferris Wheel).

We rode the subway to the Prater. The Prater is this huge park along the Donau Canal and the Donau(Donau means Danube in German). It used to be hunting grounds that belonged to the Emperor. Josef II opened these grounds to the public in 1766. Now the Prater has a lot of paths through open fields and also wooded areas. There are also a lot of sport activities, such as tennis and golf and there is a huge football (soccer) stadium. We went to the Wiener Prater which is sort of like a cross between a six flags and a carnival. It also contains the Reisenrad. The Reisenrad was built over a hundred years ago and takes twenty minutes to complete one circuit. You ride in these "red cabins." The views of Vienna are gorgeous. Too bad today was very overcast. Before you get on the Reisenrad, there is a museum that contains all these models of what Vienna looked like during different times in its history. The models are inside red cabins and it is very quaint. I think Mary was a little disappointed that the Reisenrad goes so slow. Next we rode the Liliput-Bahn, a little train that goes around the Prater. It goes by all the rides, tennis courts, through the woods, and by some beer gardens. Okay, these beer gardens are brilliant!!! Alongside the outdoor tables are all these bouncy houses for children. YES!!! The parents can eat and actually enjoy themselves and so can the kids! I can think of some places in New Jersey that would really benefit from having some bouncy houses there! Like I said, brilliant!

Inside the "red cabin" in the Reisenrad.

View of Vienna and Stephansdom from the Reisenrad.

Mary eating a laugen on the Liliput-Bahn

After the train ride, which was really pleasant, I decided we should go back to the center. It was a little chillier at the Prater--maybe because it is near to the river? We took the u-bahn back to the center and I took Mary to Demel. Demel is a cafe and cake shop that was founded in 1786. Cafes in Vienna are very fancy, but ordering one cup of cafe buys you hours at your table. There is no rush. As soon as Mary and I took our seat--oh man--her balloon popped. Well that got everyone's attention. I was a little mortified, but no one seemed to mind. There were two older couples sitting next to us who wanted to talk to Mary. Mary was trying to explain the all the things the Easter bunny brought her, but they didn't quite understand and I couldn't quite translate. Finally they asked about where her daddy is. I had to explain. At first I think they didn't think I knew what I was saying when I said he is "tot." But I think they caught on. They were very quiet after that and left shortly after. I think they were amazed I brought Mary by myself. I am amazed with myself too.

I ordered Mary some apple juice and Sachertorte. I had a Wiener Melange. It is sort of like a cappuccino--just Viennese style. Sachertorte is a famous Viennese chocolate cake that is made with a layer of apricot jam. It is a little bit dry so it is served with whipped cream, which in Austria does not contain sugar so it is not sweet. There are two restaurants in the city that argue over who makes the original. One is the Sacher Hotel and the other is the Demel. I think it tastes the same. Mary was starting to get very naughty. I thought since we slept so late she might be able to go without a nap. Not so. I paid and we began the walk back to the hotel. Of course we had to stop at the elephant. We also stopped in this bookstore. I found this book called: "Vienna City Guide for Children." It is such a great book! I wish I had it before we left. It gives a brief history of Vienna in a way that kids would like and then has some great tours that kids would love. We are gonna have to try some of the tours in the next couple days. We came back to the hotel and napped.

When we woke up we went to dinner. We ate at this little restaurant called, "Zu den 2 Lieserl'n." It is known to have the finest and largest schnitzels in Vienna. I ordered Mary schnitzel and potato salad and I ordered myself the roast beef. I also had a glass of gruner veltliner. Gruner Veltliner is one of my favorite white wines. So good! After dinner we came back to the hotel and went to sleep. It was a pretty good day. Again, so many people stopped to talk to me and especially Mary. They always speak German to me, which makes me happy because I must not look like a tourist which I despise, but don't mind. I only wish that my German was good enough to answer in flawless German. Instead it's a mix of German and English. That is why I need to live here!!!

Time to be honest. Mary drove me kinda nuts today. Even though we had a lot of fun together she was also naughty. I was definitely losing my patience. However I thought about it and she was actually really good considering all the walking I made her do. I didn't bring her stroller and I made her walk a lot! I WAS tired and just my legs are taller than she is. So in hindsight, I think I was expecting a lot from her. I will see how tomorrow goes. The other thing is that I really don't love Austrian food. I love Austria, but I am not a schnitzel fan. The restaurant we ate at tonight was great, the food was great, the waiter was awesome, and that atmosphere was super fun, but I just didn't love the food, which was very traditional Austrian. I do love Austrian wine, pastries, and coffee though!