Vienna, Austria - Day 1

WOW! Vienna was magnificent, that is all I have to say! 

It is the kind of place where you are looking at something, and you think that is it, but then you turn a corner and there is so much more that you'd never expect. 

We flew Easy Jet out of Berlin to Vienna. It was a quick 1 hr flight, that was delayed 45 mins on our take off day. Vienna was experiencing extremely bad weather Friday night, and they stopped all air traffic to and from the airport. We were supposed to be delayed for  4 hours, but somehow a spot opened up and we got it! 

The Vienna International Airport is easy to navigate, and they make your public transportation options VERY obvious. We settled for the slightly more expensive option because it was a direct 16 min ride, vs a 1 hr ride with many stops. We purchased roundtrip tickets for the CAT (City Airport Transfer), as well as 48 hr city passes which would allow us to use all of Vienna's public transportation. 

We stayed at the Rick Steve's recommended K&T Boardinghouse, which sat a minutes walk from the main street. The room was spacious, clean, comfortable and had a cool temperature despite the air being off (A/C is offered for an extra charge, we opted out). Friday night when we arrived it was fairly late, so we hit the hay for a full day of sight seeing on Saturday.

The start of the Museum Quartier.

This is one view of Hofburg Palace.

Hofburg Palace peeking through the trees.

There was a man making Lattes on the Palace grounds. He made this cute bear in my drink, so naturally I took a picture! :)

An entrance to Hofburg Palace.

The flowers make a clef. How neat. :)

The other side of Hofburg Palace.

Hofburg Palace.

It is kind of difficult to tell, but the bushery (I am declaring this a word) made a star!

Selfies in the garden!

Parliment.

Volksgarten, part of the Hofburg Palace. All around this garden there were hundreds of rose bushes. Each with a sign of dedication and a sweet love message. All in German, but I picked out a few Ich Liebe Dich's (I love you). 

Rathaus. Vienna's City Hall. There was a film festival going on making it hard to get up there and take a good photo!

Votivkirche. A neo-Gothic Church.

 

It was under construction and full of scaffolding.

A few photos from the inside!

St. Stephen's Cathedral. Also under construction, but at least they painted the coverings!

St. Stephen's Cathedral.

After a quick bite to eat from food trucks, we headed to Prater. Which is an Amusement park, but also home to The Giant Ferris Wheel - Riesenrad. It was built in 1896 and offers a view of Vienna from almost 200 feet in the air!

This photo is from www.wien.info 

Waiting to get on!

Amazing city views! I spied with my little eye a roller coaster at this Amusement Park, and I begged Blake to let us ride just one! He obliged. :) The neat thing about Prater is that you don't pay to get into the park, you only pay for the rides you wish to ride. Each ride has it's own ticket booth. So we bought tickets for the ferris wheel, and then tickets for the roller coaster. The coaster looked like a nice ride from afar, but that was not the case! We certainly felt every jerk. Our bodies were not happy, but our hearts were. :)

Next up was a visit to Demel. Demel is a famous pastry shop in Vienna that was established in 1786.

We just peeked around, but settled on not trying anything as the line was far too long!...Have no fear, the airport also had a Demel, and we bought a dessert there. :)

We went back to our hotel and rested a bit before heading to dinner at 1516 Brewing Company. We were bad and did not eat Schnitzel. But instead had delicious other food, all whilst enjoying delicious beer. 

After dinner, we were walking back to the metro system, when we spotted a casino. We decided to pop inside and see what it was all about. Wellllll 5 hours, many free drinks and many euros won and lost later, we went home. All in all it was a win in our book. 

:)

XOXO

Nuremberg, Germany

Hi Friends!

It's finally Friday, I don't know about you, but this week was looong!!

Today I am sharing our trip to Nuremberg! It might just be one of our favorite cities so far!

We drove about 4.5 hours give or take to the lovely city in Bavaria. The Old Town is surrounded by a wall, with a few entrances to get in. 

We stayed outside of the Old Town and walked in. The city is very walkable. 

Pictures of the wall surrounding Old Town.

Pictures of the town!

We read about this place in the Rick Steves book, it was one of the places that had the best Nuremberg sausages. We were hungry for a little lunch and stopped here!

We shared a plate of the little sausages. I got potato salad and Blake got fries. Mmm, it was scrumptious. They reminded me of breakfast sausages. And I adored the heart plate.

A church in the center of town.

This outdoor market is there year round Monday - Saturday for people to get fresh foods and ingredients.

Walking up to the castle.

Near the castle.

Riley trudging along to get to the top of the castle grounds. It was HOT!

Walking up to the castle. 

Views from the top of the tower!

Climbing up these stairs to see amazing city views!

Inside the castle, exploring. 

We learned the history behind the two headed eagle!

We also went into the deep water well on the castle grounds, but I have no pictures. Probably because I was just too fascinated!

The castle gardens. So lovely!

Sweaty explorers in the garden!

The city wall near the castle. 

We went to the other recommended sausage place for dinner. This time I tried it with sauerkraut.

Views from the chain bridge. 

The chain bridge. This bridge was built in 1824 and is the oldest hanging metal bridge in Europe.

We stopped for a beer at a pub Rick Steves also recommended. We love Rick, can't you tell?

I was obsessed with their dishes. I enjoy a terra cotta mug and pitcher. At least I think they were terra cotta.

We were walking back to our hotel when we stumbled on this cute beer joint. So naturally we had to go in and check it out. They had SO many craft beers, Blake was in heaven. AND we found a Dogfish Head beer....and it was a steep 14 euro! We told the bar tender we lived 2 hours from Dogfish in the states. He was fascinated. :)

A cool nighttime picture. 

Early morning stroll on Sunday. 

Sunday we booked a Red Beer Cellar Tour with a famous Nuremburg brewery. I didn't take any of my own pictures, but it was 3 hours of awesomeness. We learned so much and it was a really neat experience. If you ever go, my only advice is to bring a jacket. Yes, it was hot outside. It was freezing in the cellar. It felt good for about 7 minutes then I was froze. 

Originally they were used to store beer, however during WWII they used the cellars to protect important art and even shelter the people during bombings.   The cellars are still used today by the breweries. The cellars span an area of over 400,000 sq ft. 

Here are two pictures from Nurembergs tourism website that just show a glimpse of what we saw. The lighting during the tour was not that good! 

We loved the Old Town, we loved the food, we loved the cellars. We had a great day and a half in Nuremberg! 

Hope everyone has a good weekend! 

August - Life & Books

Happy August! 

I know it is not the 1st day of August anymore, I had every good intention of doing this yesterday, but then LIFE happened, as it does. 

Many of you probably feel this way. It is true! One more month and the summer is over! It has cooled off significantly this week in Braunschweig. It has me dreaming of pumpkin spiced everything, leaves, oversized sweaters, boots, and all things fall. 

Yesterday, we were informed that a contractor would be visiting us on Tuesday. So, I had to prep our kitchen for the installation of our washing machine!!! Yep! After 3 months of living in Germany, we are finally going to get our own washing machine. Originally it was supposed to be set up in our basement. However, due to some German process it was going to take another 6 months. So we asked for an alternative solution. Cue kitchen installation! I lose a sweet little shelf that I had been using to organize a few things, but I get to clean my own clothes. So I am happy!

And secondly, I had my final VISA appointment at the office in Braunschweig. Now, yesterday, August 1st would have been my 90th day. Had I not gone to Michigan for 10 days, I would have been far more anxious for yesterday's meeting. But since I left the country for 10 days, I got an additional 10 days added to my clock. But I also got my visa! After a long, 3 month process (that seemed to change after each meeting) we can all relax because it is now legal for me to stay here. :)

Now for my goals! I have liked doing this for the last two months, but truthfully, my goals aren't changing. They are staying the same because each month I don't do the best. So this month as I prepared for my goals, I was like oh crap, they are the same, AGAIN. And that is just truthfully boring!

But I am going to continue to update you on the process of my usual fitness and reading goals each month and do a book review of the books I read. It will be a nice space for me to reflect on what I have done , all while hopefully encouraging you to read a book! :)

As for my running, it did go better than I expected. I ran 3 times a week for most of the weeks, and Blake ran with me! It was an enjoyable time that we were able to spend together, and we are continuing it into this month! We have to be in shape to climb a mountain in September! And 500 stairs - one of the places we are staying at has 500 outdoor steps to reach the front door...no other way in, no other way out. YIKES!

July Book Review

I had heard a lot of great things about this book. It seemed that every one was reading it or had already read it. So I decided to get it. WOW! It was an amazing book. The plot was developed, the characters, all of them, were so likable. It was a book I truthfully wasn't expecting to like, and I loved it! It is about two people in their 30's who are living with dementia. It is a book I highly recommend.

So first I need to share WHY I read this book. I joined an email club called BookBub. Every day I get an email about books that are free, $.99, or $1.99. I downloaded a bunch the first week. This was one of them. It was not my favorite book. It was inspiring in the sense where you believe in yourself a little more. But the main character isn't likable. The book is dreadfully whiny and made me annoyed. That is not what I look for in a book. So, this one I am not going to recommend you pick up.  

I picked this up in an airport this month. I have read one other book by Liane Moriarty and absolutely loved it. So I had high hopes I would feel the same about this one! And you guessed it, I loved this book. It may be one of my favorite books of the year. It was a raw family dynamic that you could relate too. It was sisters, and secrets, and wishes that just made me happy. I couldn't stop flipping the pages of this one!

This month I only made it through 3 books. My August book review will begin with:

I just started this book, and am enjoying it so far!