We made it to Vienna!!  Jenn had a work conference in Barcelona, then another in Vienna right after. We planned for the Vienna conference and bought plane tickets and an apartment, but the Barcelona conference came up at the last minute so Jenn ended up staying in Spain while Walnut and I continued on to Austria. Walnut did very well on the flights- much better than our previous flights with him. He is small so he can stay in the cabin with us.

Vienna is a very nice town. The public transportation is cheap, fast, and effective. Most importantly, their tap water is fantastic. It comes from the alps and is not treated or filtered- it doesn’t need to be. The food has also been very good. It’s very ‘meat and potatoes’ here, but I’m from Nebraska and love that kind of food. We had schnitzel, chicken cordon bleu, fried cheese with cranberries, pancake with raisins and plum jam, pumpkin soup, yogurt with radish  ham and beet, red cabbage, bread stuffing, potato salad and fried potatoes. I don’t recall the exact names of the foods we tried. Many were similar to foods we know but were a bit different. For example, the potato salad tasted like it was made with vinegar and without mayonnaise- it was delicious.

Our apartment happens to be a few blocks from a hundezone (dog park). Walnut has been loving it. Vienna is very dog friendly with waste cans and clean up bags conveniently located throughout the neighborhood. The grocery store has a hook outside to tie up your dog to while you pop in to grab a few things!

Jenn and I took a hop-on hop-off is to gets quick overview of the cities sights. Unfortunately, she’s only had one free day between conferences so that was all the sightseeing she’ll get to do on this trip. It’s been a long journey to Vienna and we are all exhausted.

We did visit the grounds at Schonbrunn. The palace seems nice enough from the outside. The gardens are free so we walked through them and even took a walking tour. There are a number of really neat fountains on the grounds. The Roman ruins were exceptional. It’s copied from Roman ruins, not genuine ruins. During the war, concrete blocks were stacked on the fountains to protect them from damage from bombs.

The bus ticket included a walking tour of the inner ring. We walked around outside Hofburg palace, the state opera, and the Albertina. We also went to a mozart concert in one of the rooms he stayed in for a time while in Vienna. The history in Austria is fascinating.

I went to the technical museum and found it fascinating.  They have a high voltage exhibit/show that was really neat even though I couldn’t understand German.  The rest of the museum is really very interesting as well.  I didn’t take many pictures but this glass bulb is huge, it’s about two feet tall- it’s an early rectifier.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see as much on our trip to Vienna as we normally would.  We have been very anxious and tired from the move to Barcelona.  Right now, our 4 checked bags are sitting in a hotel in Barcelona.  Still a bit nervous about how it’s all going to work out.