what do irresponsible parents do for fun? pt. 1

They leave their kids home with grandparents who are just dying to spoil the kids for a week while they go off and leave the country.  It's actually pretty awesome!  Try it!  Oh, unless you are into being "responsible"...whatever that means.

So, you may or may not be interested in our travels to Vienna, Budapest, and Romania last week, but I am, and hey, it's my blog (aka, memory, since my internal one is kind of like a paper towel instead of a sponge.)

So what follows is going to be an awful lot like when people used to gather their friends and family around and make them sit around for hours looking at a slide show and listening to backstories.  Only you don't have to feel trapped.  You can leave, just don't tell me.

First I have to say that Spencer is the travel genius, here.  And that his parents were the travel heros.  Thanks a kajillionbajilliongoogle-plux to them for being willing to take time off and travel here and give our kids so much love and care for us.  The kids had an absolutely wonderful time, and wonder why we can't just go do whatever they want to like apparently they did while Gramps and Mamaw were here.   Thank you thank you thank you!

PART ONE: VIENNA

We began with 24 hours of flights/layovers and found ourselved in Vienna on Easter about midday. We watched the snow fall around us in our light jackets and thin layers that were packed for 50-60 degrees. Brrr.

To combat the cold, we decided to duck into a pastrie shop

 each time we couldn't feel our fingers any longer.  It was a much better plan than buying gloves and coats.  In fact, unlike our typical travel but much to my own pleasure, much of our tourism involved food.  Here is Spencer with a "weinerschnitzel".  Sadly, until that day, I thought it was a hot dog.  Also, not to be forgotten was the hot chocolate.  Oh, it was the real deal. 

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Below, Spencer sinks his teeth into a curry sausage.  both delicious and horrifying at the same time, truly a work of art.

Stephansdome, or St. Stephans Cathedral.  Too bad it's such gloomy weather, you can't see how amazing it is in this picture.

The interior of Stephansdome was incredible.  The walls and ceiling were elaborately carved stone, it was so expansive, and quite bright, for being such a large, old cathedral.  We attended Easter Mass there that evening but after all the travel and not finding it as easy as Spencer did to sleep on the planes, I did find it easy to fall asleep while standing up at Mass.  So we didn't stay as long as we hoped. 

 The view from the steep, slick, stupid spiral staircase that leads up a tower.  The things I do for love.

Oh, look below: that's me going down the staircase carefully.  Turns out that until this moment, my own husband never knew I had an unreasonable fear of stairs.  I might have been hyperventilating for much of this climb.

 Just a couple of honeymooners at Stephansplatz!

 Okay, Spencer might have to correct me, but I believe this is one view of Hofburg, which was a Hapsburg Dynasty Palace.  There were so many amazing buildings and they were so expansive sometimes it was hard to know what you were looking at.

 Look at this handsome guy.  Unfortunately he's in way fewer pictures than I am because 1) he is better at manning the camera and 2) he finds my awkwardness in front of the camera amusing. 

See below:

 That's just one of dozens of sculptures that pepper this city.  Can you imagine living in a city where you are surrounded by astounding, historically significant, artistically singular architecture and sculpture?

 Below: Ok, maybe my favorite thing in Vienna was the Hofburg.  The imperial palace has been turned into a handful of museums, including the "Silver Collection" which you will see a few items from below, and the "Sisi Museum", which tells the story of Empress Elisabeth, wife of the final real Hapsburg Emporer of the Hungarian-Austrian Empire, and the "Emperial Apartments Museum", where you get to actually see part of the living quarters of the Emperor and Empress and get a feel for what their lives were like, and how their quarters were used and decorated.   It was as cool as any museum can get, I thought.  I'd rather take my kids to see a real palace than Disneyland anyday, I think.  No pictures were allowed in the second and third museums, though, sorry!

 Above: this doesn't seem that impressive, but note the people who were incidentally in the picture and you get an idea of how huge it is.   below: oh, just a centerpiece.  Interesting note: When having a royal dinner party, whenever the king finished, the course ended and was cleared for the next course, so the king was very careful to watch his guests and made sure not to put down his fork until all his guests were finished eating.

 Sneaky, sneaky, sir.  Spencer took this contraband picture of a bust displaying the Empress Elisabeth wearing a replica of the royal jewels worn at her wedding or coronation (both were displayed, can't remember which this was).  The jewelry is "no longer in existence".  hmmmm, would love to know what happened to it.

Sometimes in Vienna large staircases are painted like impressionist canvases.  It's no big deal.

Below: The Staatsoper, or State Opera House.  Apparently every region has one of these around there and they are palaces in their own right, really.  So fancy.  Sooo fancy.  Also, I was surprised to find that my singing didn't attract anybody who wanted to pay me to perform. 

 Below, a truly classy gentleman in a truly classy joint (staatsoper).  We went to see the ballet "Anna Karenina".

 One of the most memorable parts of that night was getting to our seats.  We were in the top balcony, second row.  The box was shared with only about 5 other people.  The lights lowered, and the curtains parted, the orchestra began to weave a story of emotion and what sounded like a plot but... if there were dancers, we had know way of knowing.  We stood.  Spencer leaned back against the wall and as far foward he could.  I stood on my chair (classy, right?), leaned over, holding Spencer's shoulders so that I didn't fall into the orchestra 3 stories below.  Hmmm.... Oh, I see-- some are going in and out of backstage, stage left.  Wow, this is great.  literally could see NOTHING. 
Spencer then admits to me that he paid a whopping $8 dollars for our tickets.  But still, who sells tickets for any price for seats that allow NO view at all of the show?  What the heck!?!  We went to complain and were told, "well, you can watch it on a moniter in a lobby."  Uh, yeah, thanks.  We finally convinced them to let us stand in the standing section in the back, where the view was maybe not great, but a million times better than it was.  We enjoyed the rest of the ballet and decided next time to pay a little more money for a good view :)