So this is the story of our fabulous trip to Austria and Czech Republic.  It really was wonderful.  A nice break from Russia, and a prolonged Autumn compared to what we've experienced in Moscow.  Two weeks of relatively warm weather, and the rain managed to keep mostly to days when we were travelling, leaving us nice weather for sightseeing. One of our biggest worries was how Aiden would do with a busy travel schedule, but he was fantastic.  We really had a wonderful time. 

Of course, there are a lot of pictures, and there are some here in the blog, but you can see them all, if you want, using this link or the link at the bottom of the page.  

Everything went smoothly for our travel, which is always a good omen. We walked out our front door to the metro, and then connected to the airport train. We found our way through the airport with no problem, checked in and made it to the gate. No muss no fuss.  On the flight, the flight attendant gave Aiden some toys to play with and reseated the gentleman in our row so that we had all three seats to ourselves. Aiden even got a special seat belt that hooked on to mine so that we knew he was safe.  And even though the flight was only two and a half hours, they gave us meals. 

In Vienna, our bags came in no time and we had no trouble getting a train into the city and finding our hotel. As I said, it was a great start to our trip.  Our hotel in Vienna was a short walk from the old city and was very quaint.  The proprietor was a little old man who was married to a famous musical conductor. He was very nice, and very excited about his dog and bird. In fact, every time he saw us, he gave us another one of his business cards, which featured pictures of them on the back .

The next morning, we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel including crepes with Nutella, and it turned out that the cook was Russian.  It was kind of funny to travel all that way only to speak Russian over breakfast, but since we don't speak much German, it was nice to be able to have a conversation at all. The only downside about the hotel was that we only had one key between us, so there were a couple of times where we went back to the room at different times and Stephanie had to knock.  The second time, she was reprimanded by the proprietors wife for being irresponsible and coming back without a key.

Our first day was a little dreary, but we headed out for sightseeing, taking in the Hofsburg Palace and surrounding areas.  We made  a decision early on not to do much in the way of museums because we didn't think we'd get to enjoy it with Aiden, but there was more than enough to see from the outside in terms of beautiful architecture and fountains.

From there we made our way to the Rathaus, the Parliament, and the Votives Kirche (which looked rather derelict from the outside but was beautiful inside).

Stephanie took Aiden to a playground while I scouted out a restaurant, which was surprisingly difficult to find.  Our prior experiences in Western Europe have been that everyone is on a later schedule than we are used to.  When we went to Spain, many restaurants didn't even open until after 9pm.  Austria is like the anti-Spain.  Everything closes down around five pm.  I did end up finding a restaurant that was open, but we decided to look for pastries on our way back to the hotel.  Boy were we disappointed.  Apparently, you can't get pastries in Vienna after lunch.  Poor Stephanie had been looking forward to a good Viennese pastry for so long, but we didn't end up having any until the next day. 

The next day dawned bright and sunny.  We started at the opera house and made our way into the historic center, home to St. Stephen's cathedral. 

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As you can see, the cathedral was incredible inside, but just as impressive were the views from the bell tower looking over the city .

We obviously didn't carry Aiden up several hundred steps, so we took turns walking around outside the cathedral with him.  He enjoyed looking at some beautiful fall centerpieces outside a flower shop and entertaining passersby.  Asian women in particular seem to be particularly taken with him and we had to rescue him from being overwhelmed from time to time.  They all wanted to take their picture with him and try to pick him up or pinch his cheeks. It was very strange and poor Aiden seemed a bit nervous.

One of the great surprises of our visit was when we ducked inside this rather plain looking church only to find one of the most ornately decorated spaces we've ever seen on the inside.

We passed through Karlzplatz on our way to get lunch at the Nachts Market, where we had planned to get lunch.

I had read that there are a lot of placed to grab a bite to eat in the Nachts Market, which is a huge historic outdoor market. But when we got there, most of the places to eat were packed with smokers, which was none too appetizing. In the end, though, I think we made out even better. We found a guy selling local cheese, including one infused with saffron.  We rounded out our meal with some figs, cured meat, some sort of berries that grew in little paper wrappers, and yes, some strudel.  And thus, Stephanie got her pastry.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at Schonbrunn palace, which has beautiful grounds where we were able to let Aiden play.  It was a wonderful way to wrap up our time in Vienna, and we went back to the hotel that night to pack up for our next move to Olomouc (pronounced Olomouts), in Czech Republic.

We had a wonderful train ride.  We had a compartment all to ourselves, so we were able to relax while Aiden played or looked out the window at the passing scenery.  There was only a short stopover on the way, and the whole trip was over in about two and a half hours.

We arrived in Olomouc around lunch, took a short trolley ride to our hotel and walked down the street to the main square, which houses the centuries-old town hall.  It's a relatively small town in Moravia, and dates back to Roman times when it was settled as a fortification.  It's a beautiful town, but relatively unknown to tourists, so it's very peaceful. 

Of course, by that time, we were quite hungry, so we found a restaurant and quickly learned that Americans do not quite deserve their reputation for huge portions. I've never seen so much food.  I don't think we even ate dinner that first night.  Of course, some of the fun was trying local delicacies like a local pungent cheese, served in a dish with butter and onions, called the Lord of Lostice's Smelly Breath.  They actually serve mints with it, but it's quite good.  We also had some delicious and very strong garlic soup that the area is known for and shared a nice bottle of Moravian wine.  That was just the appetizers...

We pretty much spent the rest of the afternoon walking lunch off and just enjoying the sites around town. All in all, it was a fantastic way to mark our 5th Anniversary (particularly the bottle of wine).

By the end of the day, Stephanie and I were both pretty exhausted, but not Aiden.  He was still running around the room, playing and laughing and jumping on us in bed when we tried to go to sleep.  We were worried that he would get tired out because he wasn't taking his normal naps, but if anything, the effect was the opposite. 

The next day the weather looked a little uncertain, but we headed up to the main cathedral. There was a service going on at the time, but that didn't stop us from admiring the architecture. 

After that, we went to the Archbishop's palace.  One thing that was interesting is that it was very easy to see similarities between Czech language and Russian.  In many cases I could understand things in writing very clearly. But due to lingering bad feelings regarding the Soviet occupation, most young people in Czech Republic did not learn Russian, and even older people, for whom Russian was compulsory, will not speak it. While I understand the sentiment, and while many Czech people speak English very well,  it was a bit frustrating  at times when I knew someone could speak Russian but wouldn't.  On the other hand, at the Archbishop's Palace, I had to dredge up the tattered remnants of my Spanish because it was the only language we spoke in common.

I guess because it was Sunday morning, we had a great private tour with a knowledgeable guide (who spoke English).  We even got a great history lesson on the Austro-hungarian Empire as part of the deal!  

Better yet, when we finished, the sun was out and another beautiful day was at hand.  We spent the rest of the day just enjoying the town, and climbing the steps of church towers to take in the incredible views.

In the afternoon, we took Aiden to the botanical garden, which featured playgrounds, and an Aiden-sized chess board.  We finished our stay in Olomouc with dinner at a microbrewery, which specialized in cherry beer. No complaints here.

The next day we took a train to Prague and, once we got our bearing, we found our way to our hotel, which was just a short walk from Wenceslas square.  

When we got checked in, the first thing I did was log on to check our e-mail since I had been deprived for several days at that point.  I was sure glad I did, my boss and several of my colleagues were nice enough to write to my personal e-mail to congratulate me on being promoted at work.  It was a great surprise on an already fantastic trip and the guy at the reception desk gave us a recommendation for a brewery/restaurant down the street where we could celebrate.  They had a great beer sampler that included flavors like nettle, coffee, and banana.

The only thing that wasn't aligned was the weather.  It was a bit chilly and rather dreary, but we got out and about anyway.  We were further disappointed when we got to the old Jewish quarter of the city to find out that everything was closed for both days we were in town for the holiday of Sukkot.  We got to see some of the synagogues from the outside, but I've heard they're beautiful on the inside  and was sorry to miss seeing it.

I tried to drown myself in Absinthe flavored ice cream, but honestly, it didn't taste that good - worse that Absinthe itself. 

As it turned out, the bright spot in the day was when we were going through the old town square and there was a young lady making enormous bubbles. Aiden was thrilled and we spent a long time letting him watch and chase the bubbles. 

The next day was still pretty cloudy when we made our way across the river to the Prague Castle, so we toured the interior first.  The architecture is impressive today, even  more so when you consider that it was built in the 15th century.

And luck favored us again, with blue skies returning before we left the castle compound, providing amazing views of the cathedral that was built inside it and creating beautiful colors on the interior walls from the stained glass windows.

Then, with the sun at our backs, we made our way down through the lesser town to the Charles bridge.

We stopped on the banks of the river to try to find lunch, and there was a stall selling delicious looking roast ham and potato salad, but they had misleading signs showing the prices.  It turned out that the sign was the cost for 100 grams, but they won't sell you 100 grams (which would have been plenty), they insist on selling 300 grams in a portion.  So a lunch that would have been around $10 a person became more like $30 and I just wasn't having that.

We opted instead for trdelnik, little pastries rolled around wooden pins, and then roasted over hot coals and coated in sugar and spices.  They held us over until we made it back to the town square.

The old town square being the center of tourism, it's not the place you'd expect to find a reasonable restaurant, but Stephanie found an out-of-the-way place with traditional food and good prices. I had a pig knee, which sounded like pygmy to Stephanie and brought rounds of hilarity.  I was oh so glad we didn't give our custom to the ham rip-offs.

We spent the rest of our day enjoying the nice weather (the bubble lady was back), and trying desperately to find a bavarian crystal christmas ornament.  We never did find one, and the best answer we got is that they aren't made anymore because they were fashionable last year.

Despite the lack of an ornament, we had a wonderful stroll at sunset to take in the city at night on our way back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we had an interesting experience when Aiden threw his first temper tantrum. Stephanie left the room to get coffee and when she didn't let Aiden go with her, he became furious and took out his wrath on the clothes in the suitcase, pulling them out and tossing them all over the room, and yelling at me.  I suppose at some point we'll have to teach him better ways to deal with his disappointment, but at the time, it was so hilarious I had to laugh.

After Prague, we took a break from public transportation and hired a car to the ancient village of Cesky Krumlov.  It is possible to get there by train, but it requires a number of transfers and takes about twice as long as driving.  We had a great driver and got to enjoy the countryside on the way.  When we got to Cesky Krumlov, we found our hotel was in a quaint room above a little shop with a nice homey common area. 

Just steps from our front door, the main street turns onto a little wooden bridge crossing a small river, directly under the castle overlooking the village from the cliff above.  It was fantastic. 

We went to a nearby restaurant for lunch and were seated at a table with a great view of the castle, and had an authentic Bavarian meal of rabbit and pheasant. It was a beautiful day and with the nice view and the sound of the river rushing by, it was probably one of the best moments of the entire trip. 

We spent the afternoon exploring the narrow, cobblestone streets, and stumbled across a restaurant with a nice terrace overlooking the town where we had some coffee and dessert. Again, what a day!

In the evening, the castle was beautifully lit and we enjoyed a nice walk around before bed.

We awoke to applause the next morning. Aiden was sleeping soundly and suddenly his eyes flew open, he sat up, and started clapping. It was as if he was saying, "Hooray! I'm here! Let's get the day started!"  After a nice breakfast at a restaurant down the street, we trekked up to the castle and took turns climbing the tower to take in the amazing views of the town.

While Stephanie was taking her turn at the top of the tower, I took Aiden to see the bears that live under the drawbridge. He was fascinated by them and I'm pretty sure he said "Bear".

Walking along the outer walls of the castle complex, we had incredible views over the town. We particularly enjoyed the fall foliage, which doesn't really happen in Russia as far as I can tell.  It was the best of Fall all in one day.

The path led up to the Castle gardens where we were able to let Aiden run around freely.  But while we were admiring the duck pond, we heard these enormous booms that literally shook the ground. We were a bit concerned before I realized that it must be the work going on in the graphite mines nearby.

In the afternoon we walked along the river, which was generally very beautiful. But eventually we came to a strange part of town with fanged benches and strange figurines in the window. I even found a foot bench to sit on. 

But about that time, it started to rain, so we hustled back into the town proper and found a place for dinner.  I had to have pig knee one more time before we left Czech Republic and happily, we found a place that served it. We called it a day early as our transfer to Salzburg was leaving earl the next morning.

The weather was nice again when we got to Salzburg, so we took a bus into the historic center, had lunch and made straight for the castle overlooking the city.  We had watched The Sound of Music just before leaving, so we were looking forward to seeing some of the sights shown in the movie and the hilltop castle seemed like a good place to take in an overview.

There was a funicular going up the hill, but it was fairly pricey and we would have missed a lot of great views.  The views were worth it, but the way was not easy and we were pretty hot and sweaty by the time we reached the top.  When we got to the ticket counter, we learned that we could only buy an all-inclusive ticket, which included a trip on the funicular!  I'll admit it, I was furious. There was no indication that that was an option when we were at the bottom. When I mentioned this to the ticket guy, he said I could take the funicular down. I nearly exploded, and pointed out that down is the easy part and I didn't need help with that. Stuck between my desire walk away, depriving them of my business, and my desire to see the castle, I caved and bought the tickets, but not without some very ugly looks and indistinct muttering.

The visit to the castle was very worthwhile, for the views from the guard tower, if nothing else. We also enjoyed the marionette museum and castle tour that were included.

Of course, we did take the funicular down. I mean, it was included in the ticket and I wasn't going to cut off my nose to spite my face.  By then the afternoon was getting along, so we walked around and found a restaurant that served a traditional Salzburg dessert - the Nockerl. It's a huge fluffy soft meringue over a berry jam sort of filling and was quite impressive.  I now understand that we've been spending too much time listening to Aiden's music because Stephanie and I both burst into song with "Hey ho, the Nockerl!" because it reminded us of a tune about a narwhal on his animal alphabet CD.  By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were pretty beat, but it was awhile before we could get to sleep thanks to the loud conversation in German going on in the room above us...

Aiden was not bothered by the conversation in the room above, so he was up bright and early and off we went.  We saw Mozart's birthplace and stopped in a cemetery where some of his family is buried.  We noticed that some of the tombs looked fairly morbid with decorations such as skulls with snakes winding through them. At least it seemed appropriate with the approach of Halloween. 

From there, we hiked up a hill to a little church with great views over the old town, before heading down to explore the Mirabel Schloss, where the scene in the Sound Of Music featuring Maria and the children dancing through gardens was filmed. 

Although, I can't say I remember the Gringott's goblins being there in the movie, the statues in the dwarf garden kind of look like them. 

 By that time, I was coming down with a rather bad cold, but learned that in addition to restaurants closing early, pharmacies in Austria close at noon on Saturday and don't open again until Monday morning.  I wish someone had sent me the memo so I could have rescheduled my cold for a weekday. 

But I'm not one to let a little cold get the better of me, so we had a great lunch of venison ragout and fresh cider at a little restaurant down the river and then walked along the banks back into town for some sightseeing and visits to the various churches. 

After one church, we followed a guy through a little side door and into a beautiful little cemetery.  Each of the plots had been turned into a little planter, turning the whole thing into a large garden.  In the back was a row of tombs that looked very much like the place where the Von Trappes hid from the Nazis - I know it was filmed in a studio, but perhaps this is what inspired the set.  We also found the concert hall where the concert was held in the movie, but unfortunately it was closed. 

We generally spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the old town, and had a nice dinner before setting out to see Salzburg at night.

Hard as it was to believe, we set off the next morning for our final destination; the small town of Melk in Austria's Wachau Valley.  Our luck with the weather finally failed and it was pretty dismal and raining.  The main attraction in Melk is a huge abbey overlooking the town, so we decided to go ahead and tour the inside.

It was incredible, with amazing paintings on the ceilings and sumptuous decorations.  One difficulty was that it also had great acoustics and once Aiden discovered that fact, he wasted no time in vocal experimentation to see how his voice sounded in the huge empty rooms. Luckily, the other visitors seemed to find him as charming we did.

Despite the dreary weather, an exterior balcony provided great views of the town, but we hurried into the library, which featured tens of thousands of volumes and more amazing frescoes, but photographs weren't allowed.

That was alright though, because the church inside the abbey had some of the most amazing decorations we had seen so far, and some of the most unusual.  Among other oddities, there were entire skeletons dressed and posed, and many of the frescoes depicted battles between angels and demons.  By that time, Aiden had fallen asleep in his stroller, so we had plenty of time to look around and admire everything, including a beautifully painted spiral staircase.

After we toured the abbey,  the weather was clearing a bit and we attempted to cross the Danube River to the town of Emmersdorf.  However, one thing that google maps is not good at, is showing pedestrian paths.  So while the roads appeared fairly direct, the paths that we would have had to follow were much longer and when we finally made it to the bridge, it became apparent that we would not be able to make it into Emmersdorf and get back to Melk before dark, so we reluctantly headed back into town for the evening.

On the other hand, I guess everything does work out for a reason because we found a fantastic restaurant, that served things like pumpkin gnocchi and wild boar.  Aiden was in high spirits and seemed to want to join in with a party of locals at another table.  He was very engaged in their conversation and would laugh loudly whenever they laughed. It was absolutely hilarious.  On the way back to our hotel, we passed a spectacular view of the abbey at night.

The next morning, the weather was back on our side.  And the pharmacy was open, so I was finally able to get some cold medicine.  The funny thing was, the medicine they gave me contained menthol, so about an hour after I took it, I started exuding menthol so that there was a little cloud of it around me all the time.  I guess since it was coming from me, I didn't notice it that much, but Stephanie said it was quite strong. I guess there are worse things to smell like.

We spent the morning at the abbey gardens, letting Aiden run around, and then meandered through town, where we found a centuries old grape vine growing out of a gap in some rocks.  We also thought we found a Heurigan, which is a little restaurant where they sell the fall harvest wine and is marked by a wheel made from wheat, but it was closed and we had a boat to catch!

Our last big adventure on our trip was a two hour boat ride down the Danube.  It was a perfect day for it and the sights were incredible.  The only thing that marred the experience at all was that a class of poorly controlled fifth graders boarded at one point, but they didn't stay on for long.  It was such a relaxing way to wind down as we passed the beautiful castles, quaint villages, and hills terraced with vineyards, all to the tune of The Beautiful Blue Danube.

Our boat ride ended in the town of Melk, and rather than rush back to Vienna, we headed into the historic district, luggage in tow, to see some last sights and have a final meal.  It was a good choice because there were no restaurants near our hotel in Vienna. We found a nice place with traditional meals like cheese spatzel and Weiner-schnitzel.  It couldn't have been more perfect if we had planned it.

On our way back to the train station, we found a pastry shop that was actually open and picked up some treats for the train ride back to Vienna.  I had a marzipan potato, that looked fairly realistic and contained cake and bavarian creme on the inside. Not a bad note to finish on.

As a little coda to our trip, the hotel room we stayed in on our last night had a very interesting lighting system, with a control panel above the bed. Aiden mastered the controls with surprising ease and soon had the various lights flashing on and off much to his delight. It was difficult getting him to sleep with such an interesting toy just inches above his head, and when he woke up in the morning, he immediately reached for the console and brought us quickly out of sleep with a spectacular light show. 

It was probably a good thing because we walked around for a long time trying to find breakfast, before picking up some sandwiches and pastries from a little deli, only to pass several cafe's on the way to the subway. 

Our trip home was as uneventful as our trip out, which was a blessing.  We returned to a colder and grayer Moscow than we left, but the nice time we had on our trip should hold us for a little while, despite the fact that it snowed last night...

In case you're still looking for them, here are the rest of the pictures.