Day Two: Vienna

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Today was mostly a travel day, but we did get to experience some of Vienna this evening. Our plane from London to Vienna was delayed for almost an hour because of fog, so we arrived here around 4pm. A taxi took us from the airport to our hotel, a Best Western, of all places. It’s much nicer than any Best Western in the States I’ve stayed in. The picture above is of our room, complete with mints on the pillow. It’s not directly in downtown, but it is on a quiet street near the center of the city. Everything around here looks to be a hundred years old! Mozart stayed in this very building several times. How cool is that?! (Of course, it wasn’t a Best Western then.) We checked in our hotel, freshened up a bit, and asked the front desk where a good place to eat supper was. They recommended Leopold’s, so that’s where we headed. It was a short 10 minute walk. On the way, we came across a Christmas Market. They are all over the place this time of the year. There are all sorts of booths and vendors, selling everything from glass ornaments to wooden musical instruments. We meandered through on our way to the restaurant. Supper was very good. Each of us tried something typical of the area- four cheese gnocchi, Wiener schnitzel (“Wien” is Vienna in German.), goulash, and Christmas goose. All of it was very good. On the way back to the hotel, we browsed through the market. All-in-all, it was only a small taste of Vienna, and I hope to see much more tomorrow.

All of us are exhausted. The time difference and jet lag are catching up with me. London is six hours ahead and Austria seven. I went to bed around 11 pm last night and woke up probably around 2 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I am hoping to get more sleep tonight. I don’t know if that’ll happen, ‘because it’s 7 pm and I could go to sleep right now. It’s probably a good idea to stay up a little longer, however.

My dad is watching TV, which is mostly in German. They just showed a Coca-Cola Christmas commercial in German. It still amazes me how Americans think we are so different from everyone else. The more I travel, the more it seems as if people everywhere are essentially the same. I know we don’t think about it that way. It’s interesting though. I absolutely love to travel! Even if I have to deal with waking up hungry at 3 am. :)

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