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.

That's a Wrap

Sunday, February 28, 2016

That's it.  We're done.  I got to sneak in with Adam onto the set and be one of the few to witness the final shot of the show.  What an adventure it's been!  The film crew at Baltic Films here in Vilnius has been just amazing.  They are talented and professional and hard working.  Everyday there was a good feeling on the set.  BYUtv is very pleased with this project.  We all honestly hope to be able to come back and make another movie some day.

But let me back track to Friday before I get too ahead of myself.  We woke up that morning to sunshine and after some morning jobs, we knew we wanted to be out and about.  We've seen almost everything we have wanted to, expect for one church that is mentioned in every book, pamphlet and website about "things to do" in Vilnius: the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, built in the early 1700s.  It was a bit of a walk - over a mile to get there - but with blue skies peaking out of white clouds, we were up for it.  We are getting low on groceries as we are wanting to leave an empty fridge when we go, so we started our afternoon with lunch at The Forest.  I'm sure the inspiration for it's name came from the tree that is growing in the middle of the restaurant.  Jacob had a burger with a fried egg on it and I had a salad and a pasta dish.  Yum.

Our walk took us up by the main river through Vilnius, the Neris, which we got to walk along for a part of our journey.  We also walked by the International school, an option where we could have enrolled the boys in school.  But it was more fun to have them around to go exploring with me each day.

 Church of St Peter and St Paul

 There were white carvings and sculptures everywhere.  It really was quite spectacular.

Looking back at the pipe organ.

With Jacob as my map expert, we realized that in walking to this church, we were only about 1/2 mile or so from the sound stage.  As Jacob had yet to go out to the set, we decided to head that way - also knowing that one of the drivers would likely be available to give us ride home when we were ready.  At one point we needed to cross the street.  The light was close to turning and with how busy the road was, we wanted to make the crossing so we wouldn't have a long wait for another chance to cross.  We started running and Jacob zigged when I zagged and he accidentally tripped me and I went flying.  Thankfully, I had on my big coat and fleece leggings or I would have been really scraped up.  I did, however, bang up my left knee pretty good, also putting a hole in my pants.  There were only about 20 cars and a dozen or so other pedestrians watching my gracefulness.  But everyone was nice not to stare and they moved on their merry way.  My knee has a good rug-type burn on it and has been swollen.  I've cleaned it and iced it and used Tylenol.  It is pretty sore, but am thankful it's not worse.  I didn't even get a hole in my coat or my leggings, nor did I get run over by a car, so we'll just count the blessings.

 Jacob got to be right on set to watch some filming.

He even got to take a peek inside of the camera.  His dad sure was happy to see him!

Saturday was pure girl heaven for me, something I don't get real often in a house of boys.  There were some things the men-folk wanted to get for cast and crew members.  It was the last day of filming and they wanted to give some thank you's to people, but neither of them have much free time.  So Christianne and I left the kids together and shopped and shopped.  We found the things we needed as gifts, but also decided to stop in any shop that looked interesting and just browse around.  It was probably a good thing we didn't do this more often.  We found some very fun things. Tee hee hee.  We did finally go back for the kids and took them out souvenir shopping.  We had told them to be on the lookout for what they might want over the past several weeks, then said today we would go back and get what they had decided on, in hopes that there would be no regrets on what they ended up getting.

We finished our shopping just before a driver came to pick us up for the wrap party.  We arrived on set just in time for me to sneak in to watch that final shot and hear the call - "That's a wrap!"  Since most of the Utah people and our principle cast were all leaving the next day, we had to have our wrap party immediately following the final shot.  And that just shows how efficient and good-spirited this shoot has been.  They actually finished each day on schedule and ended a little earlier than expected today.  That just doesn't happen.

As they've been shooting, they've had 2 editors working right there on set.  As things are shot, they are given the footage and are able to immediately start putting the scenes together.  It's great because they have the director right there and everything is fresh in his mind - what takes he likes and how he envisioned everything going together.  So there is already a rough cut to the show.  Last night, the editor had clipped some of the scenes together to show us a sneak peak of what the movie will look like.  It was quite beautiful!  Travis, the cameraman, and his lighting crew did an incredible job.  It looked so great - like a real movie!  Can't wait to see the finished product!  There have also been a couple of guys here filming some behind the scenes footage.  They will make a "Making Of" to go on the DVD with the movie, but they also put some clips together to show last night.  It was creative and showcased the hard work everyone put in to this project.  All in all, it was a great evening and a big success for the project.

We wanted to celebrate after - the 2 families who got to have this amazing adventure together.  We decided to take those who hadn't been to Forest there because we had liked it so much.  They still had amazing food, but because it was a Saturday night, they were really busy.  It took us over 2 hours there to eat.  We made the best of it by sharing stories and memories.  We really can't believe how quickly 5 weeks have passed.


It's now Sunday morning and I am home from church.  My knee is very angry with me today and doesn't want anything touching it.  So I am here nursing it.  I've cleaned and iced it more and it is starting to look a little better.  It was sad to miss the last Sunday in church here.   And I feel little guilty not being there to play the piano in RS.

The packing process has begun.  We leave tomorrow.  Sniff. Sniff.  Our flight is at 1:30 pm.  We are fortunate because one of the guys who has been here for the filming lives in Vienna.  He will pick us up at the airport tomorrow afternoon, help us get maps and metro tickets, and drop us off at our hotel.  Another blessing!


Some fun parting tidbits:

This street is about a 3 minute walk from our flat and this is where we have to come to throw away our garbage.  Often, there is a man here who immediately goes through your garbage bags when you throw them in the dumpster.

 Jacob named him Hobo George.

Sometimes we need things to dry faster.  We have devised our own speed dryer:

Heated Towel Rack + 2nd Fan

Hopefully, we can get a few things dried before they have to go in our suitcases tomorrow.

I once took pictures of the rooftops we enjoy from our flat.  Here are the views looking down.

 This is the courtyard across the street.  I'd love to see it in the spring.

This is looking south.  The church is St Nicolas, the oldest church in Lithuania.  The apartment building across the street from the church (yellow on the right) is the Kendall's building.

This is looking north.  This is where our little street leads to Vokiecui (vok-ee-choo) Street.  Turn right there and you will soon be at Town Hall.  Cross to the other side of the street and go left, and there is our Iki express grocery store.

My sad knee: