Austria

Unfortunately, by Austria my daily exercise of jotting down what we did that day ended.  I had to lead a day-long professional development the day I after I returned and the reality that very little was complete on the presentation forced me to spend my free moments working on that instead. :(

Here are a few highlights from the trip, with much fewer details, but better than nothing.  As Uncle Steve has predicted, the detail and time spent on chronically each section of the trip declined in the same way the last child in the family has almost no proof that they even had a childhood while the first child has 100 pictures from practically every day of their first year.

DAY 1

Beer Garden
We stumbled upon this beer garden in the park just outside of our hotel within the first hour of arriving to Vienna, and it was arguably the best part of our stay in Austria  We crossed a street, entered the park, and were immediately greeted by the welcoming site of tables and chairs nestled in a tree-shaded alcove.  Our daily respites here, after several hours of site-seeing and before heading out for dinner and/or a concert, became the perfect transition from day to evening.

Ballet at the Vienna Opera House
The Vienna Opera House did not disappoint. How I managed to forget to take any pictures of this is beyond me, but Day 1 is completely undocumented in pictures for me.

DAY 2

Schonbrunn

We started the day with a general  tour of the city, part of which included a tour of Schonbrunn.  The palace reminded me a lot of Versailles, which after learning of the connections between Austria and France from that time period made sense.  Marie Antoinette, famous for her marriage to French king, Louis XVI, was actually the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and grew up in the Schonbrunn palace.

Naschmarkt
At the end of our tour we were dropped off at the Naschmarkt which is a famous outdoor market.  It is extremely cramped with vendors and restaurants shoved into a narrow area, but the tight space lends to the high energy of the market.  We grabbed lunch at a tiny restaurant before heading out on our own.

Museum
Our next stop of the day was the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  We did not spend much time here, but enjoyed seeing the large ceiling in the museum which was painted by Mihaly Munkacsy.

 Mozart Concert 
We ended the day with a wonderful concert of famous Mozart pieces played by musicians dressed in the style of his time period.  While the concert was not held at the Vienna Opera House, the building where it was located was also absolutely gorgeous.
DAY 3

Lippizanner
The day for Aunt Elaine and I began with a trip to see the Lippizanner horses.  We left early so we could get a good seat to see them training and practicing with the horses.  Even the training area for these horses looks like a palace.
Around Town
For our afternoon, we decided to just wander through the streets, which was a great way to see the city.

St. Stephens and St. Peters
In our wanderings we stumbled onto two different cathedrals.  As cathedrals are not Uncle Steve's favorite, he pulls out some reading materials, finds a nice spot to sit, and relaxes while Aunt Elaine and I explore them.

St. Stephens was being renovated/restored, but it was still stunning.  The ceiling of St. Peters dome was painted beautifully. You could even take an elevator up most of the way to the top of the main dome before climbing several flights of stairs to finish the trek up to the very top - where I believe a dove was painted if I remember correctly (Although, I'm probably completely wrong).