We spent our first day in Vienna getting settled in the apartment and then having a nap.
That evening, our friend Marcelle who’s lived here for a couple of years stopped by, taking us through the local grocer (a Spar just across the street) for some basic stuff, and then taking me via the U-Bahn to a local mobile telco shop to get a pay-as-you-go SIM card for my ‘Droid.
We ended the evening at a cafe just a few doors down from Marcelle’s place and then back to try and sort our internal clocks out. Talia was up during the night for a bit; Terra didn’t get a good night’s sleep; but I ended up doing alright.
DAY 2
Delicious coffee
This is the local basic brand coffee, which is to good beer what our local grocery store brand coffee is to Coors Light.
Talia’s internal clock is not quite sorted out — she keeps trying to fall asleep — so we took her to the Kindermuseum.
On the way to Kindermuseum
(That’s the kunsthistorischemuseum (Art History museum) in the background, at the end of our street, whose architecture is typical of the area. Imagine walking around being surrounded by beautiful architecture like this as everyday scenery.)
At the Ocean "Exhibit"
The Kindermuseum is full of activities for kids. Most are for ages 3 through teens or so, but the only one available today was the Ocean program which was perfect for Talia (0-3yrs). Started off with a quick group activity (in German so we understood nothing but played along) for about 5 minutes and the rest of the time is for the youngsters to wander around and play with things. The area is divided up into sections which are sea-themed (a boat deck, submarine, etc.).
Talia in the conning tower
On the way back to the apartment we stopped for a photo op:
Schillerpark, in front of the Academy of Fine Arts
I managed to pooch my cellphone at the museum — it crashed and needed to be rebooted. When it comes back up, it needs the SIM PIN code (which I thought you only needed to do once). I’d forgotten the code, and after three wrong tries the SIM was PUK-locked. Fortunately, back at the apartment I have the PUK code and with some Googling was able to unlock my phone again.
We spent the rest of the afternoon at the apartment. A late lunch:
Lunch!
Radler is best described as a cross between lemonade and beer. Great summer drink.
Speaking of beer, in Vienna you can walk around on the street with open alcohol.
Marcelle joined us for the evening. Dinner was at Crossfield’s Australian (yes Australian not Austrian) Pub. See two earlier posts on that topic.
The evening is pleasant so we wandered about the area:
Random Statue
(Found on Augustinerstrasse near Hofsburg Palace)
Speaking of Hofsburg Palace, here’s the north side view at night:
Hofsburg Palace
Lastly, there’s always room for a mustache on a horse-crossing sign, ja?
Achtung! Horses with mustaches!
We stopped at Cafe Central to relax and listen to some live piano while Terra had some sort of complex dessert whose name eludes me. I’ll try and share the video I took later.