Our last Spring Break here was much anticipated! We had a fairly exotic trip planned for months -- our destinations were Vienna, Prague and Budapest. We had been to Vienna before, but it was a good starting point for the other two locations. We had a lot to see and didn't want to do any driving, so I worked it all out with trains and planes! First, we took the overnight sleeper car train to Vienna (Wien) from Venice. In order to make it all work though, we took our car to the airport and parked, then took a bus to the train station. That way, when we returned via airplane a week later, we were set! So, we slept our way to Vienna, then trained our way to Prague, trained again to Budapest, and flew home!
We spent one day and one night in Vienna. The overnight train was an awesome experience. I highly recommend it to everyone -- it's a relaxing way to travel. They gave us complimentary drinks, snacks and breakfast in the morning. We had two rooms that could hold three people each if needed. Each room had a table, sink and vanity and a closet (actual bathroom was down at the end of the car.) The beds folded down when you were ready to sleep. I slept well with the movement of the train, but I did wake up sometimes when the train would stop somewhere.
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| Bryan at his room door in the train hallway |
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| Andrew in the boys' room |
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| Sara in the girls' room |
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| Good morning Sara! She said she had the best night of sleep she ever had! |
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| The cabin steward brought breakfast to our little table in the morning |
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| Kids in front of the Schonnbrunn Palace. Been here once before for the Christmas market. |
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| Rear view of the Schonnbrunn and the city of Vienna from the back of the palace gardens |
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| We walked all over town |
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| Bryan and Andrew had to return to their favorite "Vienna" sausage stand where they put the sausage in a hole in a loaf of bread. They make the hole by shoving the end of the bread onto a pole attached to the counter, then slip the sausage in. |
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| Love this t-shirt! Can't believe anyone confuses this! |
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| Vienna's famous cathedral, St. Stephen's |
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| Inside St. Stephen's |
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Time to warm up with some coffee and dessert!
We stopped at the renowned Sacher cafe for their world famous chocolate torte! |
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| It's a beautiful restaurant and hotel |
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| Bryan and I LOVED these coffee cups and the caffe latte in them! |
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| Heaven in a cup! |
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| Sara's hot cocoa was amazing too! And Andrew had hot tea. |
After a little rest in our room, we headed over to a public park in Vienna that has an open, free amusement park. Well, the park entrance was free, but then you had to pay for each ride like in a town carnival. Very odd to just walk in with no gates and no paying. There were rides and attractions there you would never see in the US. Lots of hunting and shooting games and rides that would defy all US safety rules. We were mostly gawking, but we did try out the go-karts and bumper cars.
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| They made Bryan ride with Sara. I love Bryan's look of determination in this shot! Watch out Andrew! |
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| Your sister gotcha good! Ha Ha! |
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| Bryan and Andrew drove go-karts. Sara was too young! |
We had dinner in the park, but this was not amusement park food. Since it's an open park, there were regular restaurants scattered around. We went to this one that Rick Steves recommended and we were not disappointed! Great food and beer! Does it seem like our whole day in Vienna was spent eating? Why YES, yes it was!
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| Thanks again, Rick! |
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| Sausages, beer, pretzels, goulash, schnitzel, sauerkraut, fried potatoes -- YUM! |
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| The park in the dark |
Next morning, we headed for Prague in the Czech Republic!
