Vienna

Vienna! I was here 25 years ago (eek) on my first-ever trip to Europe (which was also my first-ever venture outside the US) with a group of my fellow high school students. It's kind of disturbing that I remember exactly NOTHING about that visit. At least I'm so lucky that I'm here again to get to know Vienna a little bit. It's so...GRAND!

And we had a lovely couple days here. We took a tour of much of the city center on electric bikes (here, pausing for a photo next to some graffiti by the river canal)...

...toured Schönbrunn Palace (a residence for the Habsburgs), where my mom flexed her royal posing muscles...

...checked out St. Stephen's Cathedral (including going down into the catacombs and up into a tower--the one that has an elevator!)...

...and did a food tasting tour of Naschtmarkt, one of the oldest markets in the city, which is now the place the Viennese go for the kinds of ingredients they can't get anywhere else in the city.

We tasted soooooo many yummy things, I could have taken 10 pictures similar to this one. But you get the idea.

And there was a section of the market we saw at the end of the tour where they sell more traditional, local foods.

We also dedicated quite a bit of time to experiencing Vienna's cafe culture, which was a very nice way to spend time!

We had amazing apple strudel and hot drinks and felt so cozy as we read our books on a chilly, cloudy afternoon.

If I don't remember this visit to Vienna with my mom in another 25 years, I feel pretty comfortable it will be because I am old and can't remember anything. :)