Our adventure in pictures

I finally uploaded our pictures to Picasa!

To view the album directly, check out the album online here.

Vienna 2: St. Stephen's to the Prater

Outside of the cathedral we met up with one of Mediha's friends who is studying in Vienna. She led us to the Hofburg, winter palace of Habsburg emperors and home of the Spanish Riding School. My group wasn't exactly full of horse lovers and the horses were not performing, so we jumped over to the rest of the palace. We decided to buy a combined "Sissi" ticket for the Hofburg and Schönbrunn and started with a tour through the imperial silver collection. The pieces were mostly from the 19th century and completely extravagant. Upstairs we walked through an exhibit on the Empress Elizabeth of Bayern. She married the crown prince Franz Joseph I when she was 16 and a little bit of a spitfire who spent as much time away from court as possible, mostly  riding and travelling. Her exhibit continued into the private apartments, which were my favorite part. There were no photos allowed inside, but you can take a virtual tour on the Hofburg website!

   We were absolutely ravenous by the time we had walked down to the Naschmarkt and chosen a place for the girls to get some Wiener Schnitzle. After we re-charged we headed to the closest U-bahn station- where I  found my first Starbucks in months! I dragged the girls in so they could smell the Seattle aroma of strong black coffee- they brew it strong in Vienna! I sipped my tall black on the U-bahn on our way to the Prater just outside of the Innenstadt. The area is an amusement park built around a giant ferris wheel, which was built in the park near the turn of the century.  We didn't go up, but we had fun and ate Mozart Kugeln! 

   Esgi and Mediha both had their cameras out- pictures to follow when we swap! 

Lisa visits Styria!

   At 1:00 on Friday I got on a bus to the airport, where I was waiting for Lisa Chen when she stepped off the plane from Glasgow. We stopped at Cafe Binder (where Ruth and I had our first espresso) to treat Lisa to Austrian coffee and Cremeschnitte! We dropped our gear back at the apartment and headed into the city to meet up with friends for coffee at the Star cafe. We went wandered home and talked in the kitchen with Ruth and Mikel for a while before setting the alarm before going to bed.

   Saturday morning: got up and walked down to the market. After some Apfelschnitte and cider we got on the bus. First stop: Hundertwasser Church. So many tiles and colours, absolutely beautiful and kinda funky. We spent about an hour there, went on a tour, etc. before loading back on the bus for a trip to the royal stud farm at Piber. All of the horses at the Spanish Riding school in Vienna come from this farm. The foals are super super cute, and there was one black one who will remain black for his entire life. The Spanish riding school always has one dark Lipizzaner in Vienna. So much 

better than most places, we could pet any horse within reach. The foals are trained for three months in harness and three in saddle. The best in attitude, conformation, and athletic ability are taken to a raising farm and then to the school. Piber lipizzaners that don't make the cut are sold- between €10,000-30,000. All of the horses that we met were so friendly and well-mannered, I just wanted to sit and hug horses!

   The last stop was a thermal spa in Köflach. Lisa and I were both battling sicknesses, and our five minutes in the "Dampfsauna" were the perfect thing to get rid of Lisa's headache!

   This morning Lisa and I did a quick walking tour of Graz before she had to get on a bus. We stopped for tea next to the Stadtpark and then found the double-winding gothic stairs in the Burg/medieval royal family's living quarters. We hiked up the Schloßburg, across the Murinsel, and back through the streets to catch the bus at Jakominiplatz. 

The photos from this weekend are in the photo gallery. There is also a video from Piber posted in the Video gallery. I will add Lisa's pictures when she sends them to me!

I'm thinking about transferring this website over to a blogspot format. Thoughts, opinions, preferences? E-mail or comment :)