Schonbrunn Palace

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

It was a very full day.  Thankfully it was warmer!  So we were able to spend a good amount of time at Schonbrunn Palace.  We took the audio tour of the living quarters of the royals.  More lavish gold, velvet and wood decor.

Sign at Underground stop - pretty much the nicest one we've seen.

Selfie at Schonbrunn

Because it was warmer (no winds) we were able to walk the grounds behind the palace.  In the spring and summer I imagine there are beautiful gardens to explore.  Today they were just beginning to plant some pansies, setting out urns for flowers and doing upkeep on the fountain.  We walked up the hill to the Gloriette, which is now a cafe, and ordered a slice of Sachertorte, a famous type of chocolate cake in Vienna.

 Grounds at Schonbrunn - Neptune fountain and the Gloriette

Sachertorte

We hated not having more time in beautiful and historic Vienna.  There is so much we didn't get to see without the luxury of wandering streets day after day.  But with only 1 hour left in the city, we decided to take the Yellow Tram for a quick tour around the ring - the main circle the makes up the heart of Vienna.  It's a good thing we did that because we would have never seen many of those places otherwise.  It wasn't possible to really take pictures on a moving tram, but we did get a picture of the tram...

And some pictures of us riding in the tram with our headsets...

Our Vienna hotel was nice and let us store our 4 excess suitcases there for the 2 nights we are going to be in Salzburg.  So after our tram ride, we stopped for a quick lunch at another great old cafe,

went back to the hotel, grabbed our backpacks, and took the subway to the train station where we arrived at just a few minutes before our train.  Once again, we were able to get seats together for our 2 1/2 hour journey.  The sun was setting just as we pulled out, so without a view to enjoy, we mostly read and talked.  

Getting ready to pull out of Wien Westbahnhof station.

It was raining when we arrived in Salzburg, something it seems to do a lot there, so we hired a taxi to our hotel.  It's always a risk when you book a hotel online.  You have to make a decision mostly based on the comments of others.  The clerk at the desk was very kind and helpful, but we thought it a little strange when he wanted to personally lead us to our room.  It's a good thing he did.  We would have been a while in finding it ourselves.  Our room was in the older part of the hotel - where they have their rooms that accommodate families.  We had to go down a few stairs and around corners and back up other stairs into a kids play room (left)...

...then up this great staircase (right) to another hallway that lead to the 2 family rooms.  Our room was perfect for us - a room with a king bed and a room with 2 twins.  Now it's time to get some sleep so we can catch our tour in the morning.

Freezing in Vienna

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Yes.  We froze today.  It's been the coldest day we've experienced so far in our time in Europe.  I've been watching the weather in Vienna over the past 2 weeks and it's been in the 50s - until yesterday.  Then today we didn't even get in the 40s and it was drizzly and windy.  We hurried to get inside each location, so it really ruined our plans to walk around and explore.  That's been our favorite thing - to wander and discover.  Instead, we were tied to the underground and sought out places to eat near where we were, and it kept us from going a little further to see that one extra thing.  I guess we'll just have to come back!

Here's what we did get to see:

 St Stephan's Cathedral

 Interior

Hofburg Palace

 Just a little example of the interior - Empress Sisi's dining quarters.  She'd need a good meal after washing and styling her ankle length hair.

Belvedere Palace - notice there is no reflection in the reflection pool.  There were actual waves in the water, it was that breezy and cold.

What most of our pictures look like until we get real expressions.

Waiting for yet another Subway.

We finally gave up on trying to see things.  Our friend, Ethan, had told us about a Star Wars exhibit - Star Wars Identities - that is in Vienna right now, and that's all the boys could think about.  Because it was so cold, we didn't even fight it.  And I have to admit - it was really cool.  There were costumes, props, models and droids used in the actual filming all on display.  And it was interactive.  We each had headphones and a wristband.  As we walked through the displays, we could explore what makes up our personalities, and how Luke and Anakin were similar, yet came to different ends.  Our wristbands were used for us to be able to answer questions and create a Star Wars character for ourselves based on the info we linked to our wristbands.  It was very entertaining - and exciting to see real things from the movies.

MAK - the exhibition center

 C3PO, R2D2 and BB8

 The real piece they used for Han being frozen in carbonite.

 The Pod-racer model used in some scenes and the outfit Anakin wore for the Pod Race.

 Loved the detail you could see on Yoda's face in this puppet.

 Millennium Falcom model used in filming.

 The Chewbacca costume worn by Peter Mayhew, and Hon Solo by Harrison Ford.

 Costume worn by David Prowse.

 Costume worn by Ewen McGregor.

Our new identities.  (Jacob's reads: Deadlykillerpin)

It was too cold to do any more sight-seeing after the exhibit.  Adam pulled out his restaurant app and thankfully, the cafe we had passed on the way to the exhibit had 4 stars and was local cuisine so we headed there.  It was called Cafe Pruckel and we learned it has been in existence since 1904.  It looked like something from the 50s.  There was an old jukebox and a cigarette vending machine.  Downstairs was some sort of gathering with a number of older women dressed like they would have been in the 50's with cool hats and everything.  It was just amazing.  Here are some photos I found online.

 What Cafe Pruckel looked like - and pretty much still does.

Cafe Pruckel interior.

 Wiener Schnitzel

Apple Strudel

Now we are warm and snuggly in our hotel room and have The Sound of Music playing, getting us in the mood to leave for Salzburg tomorrow afternoon.

Leaping to Vienna

Monday, February 29, 2016

We made our...

...from Vilnius today.  It was SO sad!  We waited until the last minute to pack our clothes for Vienna.  I had done several loads of laundry and everything was still damp.  While we were waiting, the boys made sure we didn't leave our hall angel empty handed.  

Goodbye home!

We finally packed the clothes still damp to be hung later in our hotel room.  Our driver, Vitas, picked us up at 11:00 and ran us over to Baltic Films production office so we could turn in our keys and sim cards and say goodbye.  It felt like saying goodbye to old friends.  The hardest part is knowing we will probably never see any of them again.  We all watched after Vilnius as we flew away into the clouds.  We just couldn't believe it was really time to leave.  How did 5 weeks pass so quickly?

Goodbye Vilnius!

We were met at the airport by Ethan Vincent, a fellow film maker who worked on this shoot who lives in Vienna.  It was a comfort to see a familiar face as we came out of the airport in a new city.  We didn't have to figure out how to get to our hotel and drag our suitcases around town.  He loaded us up and dropped us off at the hotel door.  It saved us time and a ton of stress.  Thank you, Ethan!

The hotel receptionist got us a map and outlined the underground stops around us and we were soon off.  We only had a couple of hours, so we just wandered and enjoyed finding beautiful buildings.

Vienna University, main building

 One of Beethoven's residences - Pasqualatihaus; across from the University

Votive Church - near Fraud's flat, which we chose not to visit

We ended our outing with another delicious European meal.  We are now back in our room watching Amadeus to get us an Austrian mood.  It's been a long leap day.  Adam is already sound asleep.  I think the post-shoot exhaustion hit him today.  I'm sure the rest of us will be out soon, too.