Vienna A to Z

A A+++ to the accordian player performing "Flight of the Bumblebee"
B Breugel's "hunters in the snow". Just as my art history teacher said: beautiful in person
C Carmen Opera performed in German. See "P" for more detail

D Dogs with leashes and muzzle cages only allowed on trains

E Edelwiess. Everyone sing now
F Fairly frost bitten fingers
G Gasse, translation "an alley". That's why every street name ends in "Gasse"
H Hofburg family tree. 5 gold stars to the first person that can explain it
I Insert break here. We never did
J Jam session during mass at Stephansdom Kirche

K Kunsthistoriches museum the trifecta: warmth, wc, gift shop. And the art of course
L Lippizaner stallions

M Mozart
N Next stop: Bratislava Slovakia
O Ordering in German or Spanish, whichever comes to Katie's mind first
P Peanut butter Captain. Sure they sang that during the opera, Katie, sure
Q Quest for Döner Sandwich. Success!

R Ring (a cameo added to my souvenirs)

S Schönnbrun Palace the Versailles of Austria

T Ten million euros. The cost to restore the royal bed in the Schönnbrun Palace
U Ungargasse. Our street
V Verstanden? Nope we didn't understand much at the opera
W Walking lots of walking

X marks the spot. The room where Mozart performed at age 6 in the Schönnbrun Palace
Y Yodel, you know you want to, we did
Z zzzzzzzzz what I need after walking everywhere in Vienna

I don't know, YOU pick

When you have this many choices for dessert how do you decide... you turn to your friend who generously goes halvsies on 2 with you.

Apple strudel and cranberry mascarpone heaven.

So just like dessert when you have 2 days and so many exciting options before you need to be in Bologna what do you do...turn to your friends of course. So I need YOU to vote by commenting on this blog or Facebook with where I should go and why, before arriving in Bologna.
1. Munich -I've been before but only for a day a few years ago and it's on the way
2. Zurich - never been and its Switzerland!
3. Pompeii - on my bucket list, but a trek out of the way to get there
4. Rome- also a trek, I've been before, but it never hurts to throw another coin in the Trevi fountain.
5. Write in vote

Ok voting starts NOW and closes at midnight tonight, Sunday March 17th (Pacific time).

2 cities in 3 days with lots of yummy food

Starting in Prague we enjoyed a meal of traditional Czech food with a modern twist

Cucumber ginger lemonade. Loved this drink, however they did NOT use burp-less cucumbers :)

Katie's dish of Duck Confit with potato dumplings was my favorite. I will take duck like this anytime.

My dish of beef tenderloin was tastyreminding me of thanksgiving dinner with the stuffing-like bread dumplings and current dressing.

Then off to Vienna o the train. Yes we sang the Blue Danube waltz and may have yodeled as the train crossed the Danube into Vienna.

Before the opera that night we had italian. That is a calzone the size of a football on Katie's plate. It was prepared and baked in an oven right next to us and the man was a magician with dough. Wow! 

Gutenmorgen Vienna! We worked up quite the appetite during our cold morning walk around the city and meandering with the hordes of people through the farmers market. My pastries weighed at least 2 pounds. An apple strudel and something filled with a less sweet tasting eggnoggy custard. It was hard to balance them on our laps they were so huge. You know that pigeon is just waiting for one to go down. We both almost lost our fingers to frostbite to enjoy these sweeties.

Later hotdogs. These aren't just any hot dogs. This is a hotdog/bratwurst filled with cheese in a whole crusty baguette. Perfect when sitting on a bench when accompanied by an accordion player performing Flight of the Bumble Bee.

After a very packed day (more tomorrow) we ended the evening with this: an original Sacher Torte. The cake is drier on the inside than expected but the yummy dark chocolate on the outside makes up for it.

Bittersweetness in Dresden

Last night I didn't know how good I had it in my "splurge" hotel until I took a stroll around the block after breakfast. What?! I was sleeping right next to this amazing-ness.

I circled back to Frauenkirche to find you can hike to he top of the dome for 8€. Excellent morning excercize.

The view on the way up...

I love the decorator here, pink in abundance.

This church was destroyed in WWII but was recently rebuilt. I imagine the stairs before we're not so easy to navigate.

And the view....the best 8€ I've spent. My hotel room is down on the lower right.

The bitter part is that I am leaving Dresden and this car.

Now for more of the sweet. You know the Storybookland ride at Disneyland where you can take a boat ride or the train to ooh and awe at the the miniature Cinderella's castle or the Three Little Pigs cottages, and the line is always super long or it's closed when you want to go. Well I got to go today! On the train from Dresden to Prague! It follows the Elbe river. I along with several other grown adult passengers were pointing and saying ooh look at as we all stood at the windows. We had seats that we paid for. I tried to get some pictures but gave up because I now have too many pictures featuring electrical posts.

Can you see the bridge connecting the two cliffs?

Proof I'm in the Czech Republic. I chatted with a Czech gentleman on the train for a bit who has seen a lot of years. I asked him what has changed in is lifetime in Prague. He said everything used to be grey. There is more color now.

I'm looking forward to discovering the different colors in Prague and the sweetest part...I'm traveling with my friend Katie for this leg of the journey.

Seiffen in a . . .

For one heart dropping moment I was overcome with sadness when the car rental agent pulled out keys for an Opal. She looked at my ID and said wait that's wrong and pulled out another set of keys. Then my feet did a little happy dance on the other side of the counter and my eyes started to tear up from joy.

I found my little car, yikes it's not an automatic as requested. But I'm still giddy. It's been 10 years since I've driven a manual and longer since I've driven one in the snow. Thank goodness it's like riding a bike and after a practice lap in the parking garage I was off. Here, I need to give props to my sister Christy who was the driver during our London adventure. She did a great job. I on the other hand had a couple close calls and I was on the RIGHT side of the road.

While I don't think I was on an official stretch of the autobahn I was on the freeway reaching 145 km an hour (approx 90 mph). I'm still checking it off my mission possible list. Give me a break it was snowing.

For you soccer fans I followed this bus for a while. They probably thought they had a stalker.

I also need to give a shout out to my sister Melissa for recommending the town, Seiffen. She will recognize this picture.

Everything combined made for a fairy tale vacation day. Driving a BMW (he he) through villages, over scenic hills, through fields stitched together with trees, winding in groves and forests, stunned by copper steepled churches, and stony buildings covered in snow, everything covered in snow. I tried to take a few pictures but there is only so much you can do as the driver and passenger.

I arrived in Seiffen that is so cute and bursting with shopping possibilities. It is the kind of town that is over run at Christmas with everyone trying to nab an authentic nutcracker or pyramid (pyramids are the wood towers with varying levels and carved wood animals or crèche scenes and when the candles are lit the heat causes the little figures to whirl, you know what I'm talking about). I had the stores and the frozen museum all to myself.

Aren't those the most perfect snow flakes stuck to the side of MY car. Oh and I want this to be my next car!

So today was definitely a splurge day: BMW, hotel next door to Frauenkirche, room service, and a large souvenir purchase. But it was the kind of day I needed to wrap up this first month of travel and begin the next one. And tomorrow I'm meeting a friend in Prague!

The view from my window in Dresden. The bells rang for a good 15 minutes tonight after the announcement of the new pope. The church is Protestant now, but was originally built as a Catholic Church.

Hamburg winter Wunderland

Look I rented a mini and I'm driving through the "green" German countryside. If only. I did rent a car for tomorrow, but there is no green in sight. I'm feeling a little blue today: cold, sick, homesick, cold. It's strange how difficult it is to look at the pictures from yesterday, because there is some fun stuff here, but all I'm thinking is "man I felt horrible there", still do. Blah.

It started with the walking tour I was supposed to take at 11:00. I left with plenty of time. I got stuck in a vortex called the hamburg subway system. I thought I had it figured out. I ended up at this station 2 times, by mistake. Figured I should take a picture of the cool windows to document my conundrum. I'm going to blame it on being sick (I just hadn't admitted it to my self yet).

Finally emerging from the correct train station and seeing this induces an "everything will be alright in the world" sense of calm. Not just here but in Oslo, and Paris, and London too. I'm not an apple nerd, but I do have a suite of their products.I think seeing that logo reminds me that we are all the same, with our iPods and love of gadgets, plus if I'm in a bind certainly the apple geniuses will help me out.

So I missed the walking tour by 28 minutes. I was so frustrated and cold that I stopped here. You may be disappointed to hear it was Starbucks, but the hazelnut hot chocolate was really good and I needed to mentally prepare for those whiteout conditions on the other side of that door.

New plan of attack. Walk to Minaturwunderland. So it sounds like a mecca for all the train geeks, and I'm kinda expecting an oversized version of those train conventions that are in big warehouses and kinda smell funny. Old. But the reviews on trip advisor are promising and I'm intrigued. So I walk past places like this. Hamburg has a mix of old and new buildings, primarily new, because it was devastated during WWII.

At the Wunderland...First of all there are some really good looking geeks that work there. Starting with the one I buy my ticket from. I ask, "ein ticket bitte", to which he then rattles off a bunch of other stuff in German I don't understand. Dang it I hate that. I think I'm trying to be cool and speak the language and all I can do is stare and say "I'm sorry". Then the modelesque blonde flashes his pearly whites at me and says, "is it your first time here". I can see my high school German teacher shaking his head at me now, just like he did back then, when he told me to go outside and practice with a classmate before retaking the test.

Instead of going outside this time I go down the hall and am caught up in the "wunder" of this elaborate display that goes on room after room with a throng of other people. It does smell a little funny by the way.

Below at the palace someone starts a fire. You see the fire in the windows. The smoke comes out of the building and the fire engines wiz their way up from the village. Check out the monks checking out the woman in the foreground. There are little moments like this everywhere.

One of my favorites: a bank heist complete with underground tunnel. And the cops are waiting for them on the other side.

Here at the airport, way in the distance, you can actually see planes taking off and landing.

And look its the 15 freeway in the USA section.

The pictures don't do it justice, I really am sounding like a geek. But I think it was the best part of the day.

Then I walk back by way of St Nikolai church. The remains of a bombed out church. I thought elevator rides were available everyday, but I guess I was mistaken again. I just took pictures in the calf deep snow instead.

So tomorrow. I need everyone to cross their fingers because I'm supposed to pick up a BMW or equivalent rental car. I'm really really hoping it's a BMW so I can drive it on the autobahn!