Aug 28, 2005 - It's the end of the trip as we know it, but we feel fine!

Ah yes...five days in a five star tropical island resort is just the way to wind down after 3000 km of riding. There are only a couple of photos on this page as the ones we've posted say it all. The only downer was the jet lag that saw us in bed at 9pm, up at 3am - wide awake and giggling - back to sleep by 6am and sleeping in until 10 and almost missing the AMAZING breakfasts. Highlights were happy hour at the pool cocktail bar, hotel restaurants, shopping at the mall, his and her spa treatments and the naughty monkeys. We had the pools...

Aug 22, 2005 - Vienna, Austria

Hello, Well, the last stop...Vienna. The train ride here from Bled was a day well spent. The southern Austrian scenery is incredibly beautiful (viewed from our own first class compartment on the train). Vienna is the first city we visited that has not completely sold itself to the tourist industry. As a matter of fact, for two days we could not locate a bottle of fresh water or a (very) badly needed tube of toothpaste (gross, we know). We arrived Saturday evening, and nothing was open until Monday, including most restaurants. There are no...

Aug 14, 2005 - Vivacious Vienna

Vienna aah Vienna. What a monumental city. Never before have we seen architecture with so much muscle! The city avoided much of the allied bombing during WWII that had been concentrated in Germany, leaving much of the fantastic 18th and 19th century buildings intact. We arrived in at our small and obscure letting bed and breakfast not knowing what to expect, and we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of our accommodations. Can't remember the name of it, which is a shame, but it was very good value for money. The older couple who...

Aug 11, 2005 - Vienna, Austria

Hello hello I had to leave beautiful Hallstatt and make my way to Vienna. When I arrived I actually met a friend from Munich by chance at the hostel that was going to see a classical music performance by a string quartet. I decided to go, since music is very important in Austria. It was a two hours show and surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the whole thing. It took place in the Mozart House. Apparently this is one of the oldest places in Vienna, dating back almost 800years. Mozart lived and played here for two years. The musicians were...

Aug 3, 2005 - Wien

So, officially, Jon and I are wieners for the day. In case you don't know, Vienna in German is Wien and if you are from Wien you are called a Wiener. Sadly, this lovely city is just a stop on the way to Budapest. We've heard good things about it from these awesome guys from Marquette who we got really wasted with in Cesky Krumlov. Yeah, I thought about sugar coating that last sentence, but decided not to. Got to go, time to eat some wiener. Jonny here. So being a wiener is pretty fun. After today we'll have had Pizza in Pisa, Frankfurters...

Aug 1, 2005 - Vienna

We're leaving today for Vienna to take a look at the Habsburgs and to catch up with Steven. It's only a short train-ride from Budapest (about 3 hours), so we should be there early enough to visit Grinzing, the local area of choice for food and drinks. We're planning to spend only a day there, then we're on to Much on Tuesday for our date with U2 Wednesday night. I'm doing some backwards clean up and additions. First of all, this was written before we actually arrived in Vienna. When we got to the Vienna train station, I was just commenting...

Jul 24, 2005 - Beautiful Waltz, beautiful Danube

Vienna, Austria Waltz was invented in Vienna and who could forget "The Beautiful Danube" waltz by Strauss?! Today we all drove to Danube valley and enjoyed hiking and wonderful scenaries. We picked some fresh straberries and plums from farms and came home and cooked. We also visited Schloss Schonbrunn, a similar construction as that of Varsaille's Palace in France. Later at night we went to a beach party on Danube. Sonya, Skye, and myself also broke out and went to a Salsa club. We walked and ran around Vienna and finally came home and...

Jul 23, 2005 - Vienna - the wedding cake of the world

Vienna, Austria I woke up nice and easy in the morning. Sonja and Andre were also not in any hurry. Sonja suggested that we should have breakfast somewhere outside in some cafe. I readily agreed. Andre had to go for some work. We decided to catch up later. Sonja gave me a general idea of Vienna's geography. The old Vienna was inside a small circle that can be easily covered on foot. This inner circular road, the Ringstrasse, is decorated by Marzipan-like buildings. Sonja explained me how the metro and tram system worked there. She told me...

Jul 16, 2005 - Vienna, I guess

Vienna turned out to be about 10 times the size we expected, but still was pretty interesting. Once you escape the early 20th century urban sprawl, which is somewhat of a feat, the Inner Ring offers just about as much classic Baroque palaces and buildings as could possibly be built. Looks like the Hapsburgs knew a little decadance. St. Stephans could be the most impressive cathedral we have seen yet. The ceiling was amazingly massive and columns were extreamly decorated with small statues and other artwork. For me (ben) it really put notre...

Jul 14, 2005 - Venice to Vienna

Arrivederci Venezia - Hello Vienna This morning is another beautiful morning,up early again, breakfast at 7.30 and then we leave, heading towards Austria, Vienna. We drive for about 2.5 hours through lush green country, we leave the industrial north of Italy far behind, through small villages and into the mountains, waterfalls from high in the mountains appear. The water in Austria is pure and clean and comes from high in the mountains. After crossing the border we make our first stop. Now we continue on through the valley and leave the...

Jul 14, 2005 - Vienna

Well, I arrived yesterday safe and sound to Vienna. Even though the train ride was only 4.5 hours it seemed longer and I was eager to arrive. I guess my tolerance for long distances is waning here in the last stretch of my trip. Upon arrival, I found my hostel which is yet again turning out to be great. It is recently reformed and has a lovely garden, living room and kitchen for everybody to use. My first observation about Austria is that I am defintly back to a Western European country as far as pricing goes. No more 2-3 euro lunches like...

Jul 11, 2005 - monasteries and palaces continued...

Phew, the whirlwind continues, We spent a few days near the town of Melk, home of yet another gigantic monastery and breathtaking church. It allowed us access to local sites as well as easy access to Vienna. Vienna was the seat of the Hapsburg dynasty. It has plenty of palaces to show for it. We spent most of the day at Schonbrunn, the summer palace built/enlarged by Maria Theresa and favourite home of the child Marie Antoinette (and we already know how that all ends). The palace tour was generous and informative. We opted for a demo on...