Round the World in 150 days!: Day 25, 26, 27, 28, & 29

Hallo from Vienna, Austria! We landed in this beautiful city on Thanksgiving week and are finding it to be a wonderful mix of German, Hungarian, and Austrian culture. Music fills the air in this city, where Beethovan, Strauss, and Mozart (among many others), made their mark on this city in their day, playing operas for audiences past. Today, their presence and music is well displayed, with performing arts taking the forefront on the list of things to do in this city.

We settled in on walking around the city the first day, visiting a Viennese museum, the Kunsthistorisches, housing the largest and most varied collection of art in Vienna. We opted for the audio tour, listening to the histories of all the artifacts collected for the museum from ancient Egypt to modern graffiti art. Before we knew it, two hours had passed and we’d barely reached the second floor of four floors of exhibits! We then moved onto a cafe at the top of the a city mall, overlooking Vienna in all of its splendor, sipping on a Weiner Melange (like a cappuccino) and locally brewed beers while watching the sun set as the buildings of Vienna light up in the night sky.

Ballets, Operas, and Symphonies, Oh my! Ines is in heaven looking for tickets to this and that, having to translate the German summaries into English to know what we might attend. Korey had to remind her that we are only in Vienna for three days. We settled on Mozart’s Opera, Don Giovanni, in German and Italian with German subtitles. Korey states that we are not going to know what is going on, and Ines reminds him that he is going to have to “feel” the music and interpret for himself the story, and promises she will read him the summary afterward. We both enjoyed the opera very much and were pleasantly surprised to have followed the story almost to its online interpretation! Yay for us. Ines thinks the cultures and artistic parts of our brains expanded by a few cells, Korey agrees.

We had a wonderful surprise while in Vienna, with friends serendipitously meeting us for an evening! Martin and Gary just so happened to have their yearly trip to Europe accidentally coincide with our journey and for one night, in the city of Vienna! We spent the evening strolling through the “Vienna Magic of Advent”, Austria’s version of the Christmas Market and having a traditional Viennese dinner of stewed meet and Weinerschnitzel. We shut the place down over cappuccinos and chocolate and apricot cake. What a wonderful surprise and much needed so close to Thanksgiving, making us even more privileged to be able to spend this time traveling and exploring the world.

The next day, Thanksgiving Day, we were off to visit the town of Salzburg, Austria. We noticed more of a police presence traveling, with frequent passport checks, particularly as we move across country borders. We were only able to spend one day in Salzburg and we both agree this is a city to come back to another time. We filled our bellies with another Weinerschnitzel meal (and for those of you reading this from New Mexico, it is not the Weinerschnitzel you are thinking of, no chili cheese covered hot dogs here! We are talking about the Viennese version of a breaded and baked veal cutlet, served with boiled parsley potatoes and sauerkraut). And then, with full bellies, we decided to climb up the steep Salzburg hill to tour their salt-protecting fortress/castle, complete with a torture chamber and a prince’s quarter. Ines barely made it up the hill and blamed the planner for the unwise decision to fill her belly then demand what equalled a strenuous workout. Ines debated whether the Prince’s quarter was actually a man-cave and Korey debated whether Ines would talk to him for the rest of the day.

We ended our Salzburg adventure with a train ride to Germany, filled with thanks for all the good things in our lives, our families, and our friends. We were lucky to be able to spend the night before Thanksgiving with friends from Baltimore and Thanksgiving with each other and thankful for this amazing adventure!

Things we learned, 1) Korey likes the Opera! 2) Exercise with caution after eating Winersnitszel, and wait at least an hour before strenuous exercise, and 3) We love meeting up with friends! So anyone out there that might be thinking of a vacation, check out our itinerary and meet up with us for some fun!