The Hills are Alive

Back to the Austria trip...After 2 days in Vienna, we loaded up the clown car and headed to Salzburg, aka Sound of Music land. It was our first trip to Salzburg, so we were all excited to see something new. We arrived after a 4 hour drive and immediately headed out to see the city. Our hotel was near Mirabell gardens, so we began our tour there. The flowers were gorgeous and Chelsea loved the unicorn.

Mr Unicorn is next to the Do Re Me stairs from the movie.

After walking through the gardens, we crossed the bridge into the Old Town. Old Town is just as you would imagine - narrow cobblestone streets, cute little shops, flower markets, and lots of people!

We are fans of the Rick Steve travel books, so we followed his recommended tour. We were all getting tired, but we came upon the funicular to visit the Hohensalzburg Castle. It is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe and almost 1000 years old. We decided we should go ahead and see it while we were there. Larry hiked up with Chelsea on his back...the rest of us took a quick ride to the top.

We were all rewarded with lovely views! There are several museums on the castle grounds, but we decided to take a break and let the kids play instead.
Chelsea enjoyed building a castle out of blocks...
Cade enjoyed running around and climbing things.....

and daddy enjoyed knowing that his Blackberry still worked high over Salzburg.

We headed down from the castle and finished our walk around Old Town before heading back to the hotel. We were all tired and we had two tired kiddos....

It was Cade's first time in a big bed and he did great!

The next morning brought the official Sound of Music Tour....stay tuned!

Hofburg and Horses

We spent our final afternoon in Vienna at the Hofburg Palace. We began with a visit to the Imperial Treasury museum - it was quite impressive and filled with some serious bling.
We visited on Good Friday, and the museum holds this cross which holds a pice of wood purported to be from the Cross of Christ. Regardless of the authenticity, it was a great way for us to remember the Cross, and for Chelsea to get a glimpse and understanding that the Cross isn't just something we read about in a book. It is real and was real.

We had tickets to the Lipizzaner Stallion show that night, so we filled our extra time with a nice cafe dinner.

Chelsea chased the pigeons while Cade played with knives. Butter knives make nice drum sticks.

After our dinner, my parents and Chelsea and I headed to the horse show. They don't allow kids under 3, so Cade and Larry hit Starbucks and then headed to the hotel. The horses did some amazing feats and dances that horses shouldn't be able to do, as far as we understood. If we had known more about horses, we would have been more impressed. Regardless, it was a fun, unique Vienna experience!

Vienna - Schonbrunn Palace

Must catch up on blogging.....rewind with me to the week before Easter...

On the Thursday before Easter, we piled into a way too small car for all of us and headed to Vienna with my parents. I am learning a whole new way to pack. We seriously had NO luggage space, so somehow Larry and I managed to pack for 5 days in one carry on size suitcase. I was impressed with myself.

After checking in to the hotel we took the tour of town, hitting many of the spots we visited back in November. This time, we also visited the Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg Palace, which we enjoyed.

Friday morning, we woke up and headed to Schonbrunn Palace. The grounds of Schonbrunn are my favorite place in Vienna.

The flowers were just starting to bloom - I can't imagine how pretty it is when everything is blooming.
They were having an Easter market, and we enjoyed looking at all the painted eggs and Easter goodies. This guy stopped to say hello to Chelsea....

We all got to practice walking on stilts.

Why is stilt walking part of an Easter market? I don't know.

Larry was the stilt walking winner - managing to do it alone with a baby on his back. Impressive.

Our next stop was the Schonbrunn labyrinth. On our way to the labyrinth, we discovered this great playground. The kids could've stayed all day!Climb into the bird via the ropes and then the bird flies...pretty cool!

Lots on sand for little man - he and daddy enjoyed digging.

Eventually we made it to the labyrinth. We let Chelsea lead the way, which was a little frightening. At times we thought we may have to hoist someone on top of the bushes to help us find our way out.

In the end, she was a good leader and we made it out!

It was a fun morning for all!

Around Budapest

Some random shots from around Budapest....

I love the spring flowers!

Great Market Hall

Riding the lions in Vorosmarty ter

Outside Matthias Church

Cade and Nana
My handsome little man

More ice cream! He likes getting his whole head into it. (That's not a bruise!)