Day 9 - Sightseeing in Vienna (Wien)

On our first morning in Vienna (Wien) and I woke up with the baby and had breakfast with Herr Geyhalter. Sitting there at the kitchen table eating bread with jam and drinking coffee, all the while feeding the baby, we communicated in a hybrid of German and English. Herr Geyhalter said it was good not to have Uwe with us, because we were forced to communicate with each other so that he could practice his English and I could practice my German.

The one new German word I learned on this trip is Geige (violin), thanks to Herr Geyhalter who is a violinist.

Uwe is usually the first one up in the morning, being the morning person that he is, however this morning he slept in. Herr Geyhalter was worried that Uwe would sleep the day away and we wouldn't be able to see any of the city, but I knew Uwe was tired and I let him enjoy his restful slumber.

After Uwe woke up and came downstairs, he had a quick breakfast and Herr Geyhalter drove us into the city, and dropped us off in a huge plaza surrounded by the Royal Court, so that we could do some sightseeing in Vienna.

Walking down the streets of Vienna, everywhere you look there's beautiful architecture and history all around you.

Our plan was to meet up with Hans, who we met last night, who offered to show us around the city on his lunch break. Since he worked nearby, we called him from a pay phone and coordinated to meet him at a certain church. Us being newbies to Vienna, we thought we had found this particular church, but then realized that it wasn't the right one. We were standing next to a magnificent church and thought "this has got to be the one" only to realize there are MANY magnificent, grand churches in Vienna.

We asked several people for directions on how to get to this particular church, and many said they didn't know, many said it was too far to walk, and another (a bike messenger who we thought knew the city) sent us in the wrong direction. We tried hailing a taxi, but none could be found, so we ran on foot all the while pushing Astrid in her stroller, and after an hour finally found the church we had been looking for. I spotted Hans immediately. I felt awful that we had kept him waiting for so long, (without a cell phone it was impossible to call him - and we only had his work number). (*Note to self: next time we travel in Europe - get a cell phone that works overseas.)

After hearing our apologizes and what happened and seeing us look like we had just run a marathon - Han's response summed it all up with, "Oh sh*t." Then he took us to one of the oldest coffee houses in Vienna and we had a drink and laughed about our little mishap and adventure.

Hans is a very cool guy who has lived in several different countries and speaks English fluently (as well as French, Italian and German). We hit it off with him immediately, and if we had more time, we would have loved to have spent more time with him.

Meanwhile I had a stomachache in the first degree. Last night it started and as the day was progressing it was getting worse. I think it may have been the salami we purchased at the grocery store in the Venice train station. So even though I was overheated from the run, I had a hot tea to see if that would help my stomach. Since we were so late, Hans didn't have a lot of time left on his lunch break to show us around, so he took us down a few streets to a Royal Palace, which sits in the middle of the city with a park on one side. It also houses a butterfly sanctuary inside it, and we decided to take a look.Large butterflies enjoying a tasty treat of bananas and an orange.It was hot and humid inside and fashioned to look like a forest with trees, shrubs, vines, and an assortment of plants, encased in a glass greenhouse.

After that, Hans walked with us to the Hotel Sacher (the spot to be for authentic Sachertorte) but couldn't join us, as he had to go back to work. We thanked him again and let him know that if he's ever in LA, he's always welcome to stay with us.