It was our last full day in Vienna, and James didn’t have to go to any Fullbright training. We all slept in (happily for me, as I was awake last night from 1:00 am to 6:00 am), and three of us went to a 10:30 breakfast. One kid dashed downstairs at the last second, and the other…well…we had digestive biscuits. We got ready and planned to tour the Imperial Apartments and the Hapsburg Jewels and Really Nifty Things Vaults. (I am sort of too lazy to look up what it was really called.) The kids were rather “rain-shy” after last night’s Tour of Misery, so they were less than excited to go. We began walking and voila! There was a gorgeous church in front of us. It was…uh…a lovely church in Vienna. With gold bits and a statue.
We kept walking and got to take pictures of things we saw last night but did not photograph due to darkness and rain. These are the formal gardens. We walked through them before, and I wondered what all those funky things were. Shrouded parking meters? An art display gone bad? Do you know?
It turns out they are rose bushes of every variety. They wrap them up to keep them cozy all winter long. Apparently, these formal gardens are the pride of Vienna.
I wanted to take lots of pictures of the things we saw last night in the rain, and I though it would be great to get some family shots, too. “Okay, everybody pose however you want!”
Yeah. It looked like it was going to be a loooooong day.
We saw a gorgeous building nearby which we had been told was City Hall. “Please, let’s go take some pictures!” I said. So we all trudged over and were duly impressed by how lovely it was.
But what was this in front of City Hall?
Last night, our tour guide had mentioned ice skating in the park, but we didn’t pay much attention. But once we saw it, oh boy! We debated for a few minutes, but we quickly decided that skating was more fun than touring a museum. First, we got a family pass for the three children. James didn’t want to skate, but he was happy for me to skate. So we got a pass and skate rental for me as well.
We were told Austrians were pretty laid-back and that Vienna was a safe city, but I didn’t realize it was like being in State College! People just left their stuff sitting out unguarded while they skated.
There were two skating rinks. One was the size of Penn State’s indoor rink (or maybe a little larger). It had a bridge across it where people could stand and watch the skaters from above. The other rink was smaller, but still a nice size.
And the most fun was the three acres or so of tracks. They were clearly marked with blue signs so that we knew which direction to skate. There were several roundabouts, which gave cause for some “excuse me” times. The park was not perfectly level, so some of the trails were downhill a bit, and some were uphill slightly. It was a lot of fun zooming downhill.
For those of you who have skated with me (Dennisons…all three), I didn’t do too badly, but I thought of you as I did that arm-swinging thing. And I never fell down or crashed into anyone. However, someone crashed into me, and I thought it was Michael teasing me, so I turned around and said, “Michael!” and it was this poor Austrian man apologizing all over the place. Embarrassing…
We had a great time skating for an hour or so. Then we got thirsty and felt bad that James was just wandering around and waiting for us (and also doing a few errands), so we left the ice. I realized that the rink was open until 10:00 pm, and our passes and skate rentals were good until then. So, we rented a box and put our skates in it. We headed to a grocery store
for sodas and very disgusting croissants (didn’t KNOW they’d be gross, glad I got a Mars bar instead) and finally headed to our original destination. But, we’ll talk about that in a different entry.
After supper, James headed back to the hotel, and the kids and I worked off our pizza and pasta with a few hours of skating in the dark. Radio Wien played music. I was surprised that 75% of the music we’ve heard here is American stuff–from Adelle to oldies. Only about a quarter of the songs have been in German and unknown to us. It was crowded at night, but still quite delightful to skate in 48 degree weather on great ice with gorgeous views!
All in all, it was a great last day in Vienna! Tomorrow, we travel to Linz to meet our new apartment and city!