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Vienna

Vienna is the biggest city so far of the trip and a change from the smaller Bratislava.  I think because of the heat and crowds while we were there, I may favor the other cities over Vienna.  I want a re-do though when it's not so hot.


July 7:   Other than a 1 hour delay, the train to Vienna was uneventful.  Ryan attended a classical music concert at St. Stephen's Cathedral but Sam and I opted out due to our unsophisticated tastes in music (i.e. Sam's favorite album is the soundtrack to Captain Underpants - The Epic First Movie).

July 8:  Today we headed to Schönbrunn Palace and then the Vienna Furniture Museum.  Yep, we went to a museum with furniture.  It was more interesting than you might think but also still a furniture museum. With these 2 tours I have more background on the Empress Elisabeth of Austria (aka "Sisi") who has often been compared to Princess Diana.  Shout out to Kate who has a pretty serious obsession with Sisi. 😄

July 9:  More Sisi!  She has her own museum so much more information on her interesting and controversial life.  We also went up a tower at St. Stephen's Cathedral.  I have learned if you ask Sam if we wants to "go up" anywhere he will always say yes.  It was a nice surprise that they have an elevator!

July 10: What we have learned about me and travel is that there is a perfect storm of 3 things that significantly increase the chances of me having a meltdown. Those things are me being simultaneously 1) hot, 2) hungry and 3) tired. It was 98 degrees in Vienna today and that meant that 1 of the 3 things was automatically going to happen so everyone was on high alert. I still don't know if going to the Prater Amusement Park on this day was a good idea or not. Sam, as my offspring, is equally sensitive to all of these things but he was distracted by the huge amount of fun he was having.  I was in a precarious state.  On top of that, Sam is more adventurous with roller coasters now and it seems I am more terrified than the days when I was working at Six Flags during college.  The bumper cars were even a challenge for me and I think I sustained a mild concussion from a head on collision. 

Due to all of this, we cut the daytime visit a little short but went back later with Ryan to hit a few more rides.



July 11: Leaving for Paris today via flight. Note to self and anyone else who would like to know - Vienna airport is painful.  We all got flagged for our carry-ons and the search was extensive. It made the TSA seem friendly and reasonable.

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