I feel like we have just ended one vacation and are starting another. Seeing the F1 race was so spectacular all in itself but now we still have a week and a half to go adventuring. This morning we leave Graz and head to Vienna. We say our goodbyes and hit the road.
We have told our host for our AirBnB that we will arrive between 3:00 and 4:00 so she can meet us there. As we get close to Vienna we realize we are going to be early. Jim has heard about a museum we should see that is similar to Versailles in Paris, which we saw last year. We enter the address for the museum into the GPS and change our course.
We find it with no problem and easily find the parking area. We walk toward the museum with the hundreds of other people. It is indeed very similar to Versailles. Enormous would be putting it lightly. It is large enough to be a town of its own. We don't really have time to do the official tour that walks you through the palace but we decide to stroll around the outside. The Schonbrunn Palace is beautiful. The gardens are so well kept and the flowers are so vivid with color. Almost as if they are artificial. At one corner of the garden we see an entrance to a zoo. We decide we may have to come back and see it but for now we need to go meet our host.
I send her a message as we walk back to the parking area. She will be meeting us at our rental in about 30 minutes. We arrive about 5 minutes before she does. We look around the neighborhood. Very "neighborhoody". But it is friendly? There is a LOT of graffiti. The people look nice enough though. There are a lot of people with babies, a lot of people with dogs and a lot of elderly people. Jeannine shows up as we are checking things out. We make our informal introductions and she opens the building where our rental is. It is an apartment building that has a lock to even get in the building. Once we are in the hallway we don't know what to think. Very old, very unkept, dark, concrete floor....... you get the picture. We go up to the 5th floor and Jeannine opens the door.
Very nice, very clean and very bright. Washing machine, no dryer. Nice bed, nice kitchen, nice bath. Maybe this won't be so bad after all. She leaves us and we begin to get settled. Next task is to move the car to the parking garage.
We are ready to head out and move the car finally. Parking in front of the building is only allowed by permit or hourly tags. There is a garage about 2 blocks away that we have to park in. Off we go. We get the car parked and walk out of the garage.............. Into Prater Dome. Similar to a Six Flags. Crazy.
We walk around watching the kids, watching the adults, enjoying the atmosphere.
We decide It's time to walk and have dinner. There is a very nice little outdoor cafe directly across from our apartment that we are anxious to try.
Such a wonderful experience. Our waiter speaks a little English so we are able to somewhat communicate. We have a very pleasant experience with food that is absolutely delicious. Such a beautiful night.
Next, back to the Prater Dome to ride the huge Ferris wheel. 50 minutes of fun! You can stand or sit and each car hold about 15 people. 200 ft. up in the air. The views are spectacular! By the time we get down, we are ready to end our wonderful day.
It has been a blast!
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