Category: Austria

The day started off a little rough for Papa. He needed to stay behind at the hotel due to illness. After another delicious hotel breakfast for ourselves we raced to catch the shuttle going into town.

The shuttle dropped us off in front of the opera house and from there we walked to the Haus der Musik (basically a music museum). It was recommended to us by R’s german teacher who is from Austria.

There were quite a few hands on exhibits which is always nice with kids. I think the giant musical piano keys on the stairs was the favorite.

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After listening and playing all the music we walked around the corner to the Sacher Cafe for their famous chocolate cake and hot chocolate. We waited in line about ten minutes before getting a table.

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It was an extremely fancy place and our kids were probably the youngest I would take there. The cake was ok, a bit dry perhaps. The hot chocolate was so rich and delicious though!

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I’m glad we did it but it was much more of an adult event. Hard to be relaxed and enjoying it when you don’t want your kids to break anything. Also R told the waitress we’re sharing the cake because it’s so expensive. 😆 Kids have no subtlety.

After the cake we walked to St. Stephens Cathedral. It was neat but rather dark inside.

< Ty was stoked for a tour of the catacombs. No idea why but L just wasn't into it. So he started fussing. We would go from room to another room. Then the guide would tell us about each room before moving on. Well about the second room I grabbed L and walked out. He was fussing so much I didn't want him to bother anyone else. We spent the rest of the tour at the back of the group not hearing a thing that was being said. 😕 The tour did seem neat and a bit spooky. –

But as soon as we got out, gave the kids snacks, everyone was right as rain again. Food crankies or just being four, no idea.

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He was so pleased with this idea!

We walked from here back to the Naschmarkt. The kids requested sushi again for lunch. This we ended up back at the same restaurant as before. It’s a tricky balance between wanting to try new foods and going where you know your kids will actually eat. Here’s how we keep everyone entertained during meal times. Also a gluhwein for myself!

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After a late lunch we walked across the city center to the Haus des Meeres (basically an aquarium).

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It was neat. Very vertical, I think they has nine floors you could visit. But also quite narrow and not stroller friendly at all! We of course saw the stroller parking area as we were leaving.

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They had a little rain forest area with these monkeys just roaming about.

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This tank you could put your hand into and the fish nibbles on you. L was all about it but had the worst time holding his hand still long enough for the fish to come close. R was completely freaked out by it but finally put the tips of her fingers just barely in.

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She was so proud she finally did it!

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By the end of it we were getting a little slap happy I think.

We left there and walked across the city center again to the opera house to catch our shuttle. R fell asleep on the drive so Ty carried her into the hotel. I think a bit of playing possum may have been happening here.

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We had some tired kiddos either way and Papa was on the mend. We got them ready for bed and left them in his capable hands. By that point in the evening we didn’t want to walk anywhere else. I did a load of laundry in the hotels one washer. Then Ty and I ordered room service. Which was a total splurge for us. –

That salad was amazing!! But we also over tipped because we didn’t realize it was included until later. We’re such novices! It was a nice relaxing last night in Vienna.

We slept in till almost 9 again. I think we’re all a bit thrown by the time change. We enjoyed another wonderful hotel breakfast before taking an Uber to the Schonbrunn Palace.

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Due to some excessive lines and bad times for the English speaking guides we decided to go with just the extended audio tour. We had about an hour before our time slot so we walked around the palace and found the King Triton fountain.

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We had a bit of a photo shoot at the top of the hill past the fountain.

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I wanted to get a photo of R in her drindl and this is what she came up with. 😍

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The palace audio tour was very neat but it was pretty crowded with tour groups and pushy people. It also falls a bit short after visiting Versailles. #europetravelproblems 🙄 It was good to hear about the royalty that used to rule in Austria but it also got very confusing and none of us could follow the lineage. I was proud how well R did with following the audio tour. L spent the time listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 😄 Also no pictures were allowed in the palace.

We left the palace for a late lunch about 2pm and found this amazing Turkish restaurant.

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We all slept late this morning. Called over to Papa’s room at 9am and woke them up! We all got ready and went downstairs for breakfast in the hotel. Again thanks to Ty’s work with credit cards we have a fancy status at this hotel and it earned us free breakfast. This was a savings of $15 per person which equaled $75 per day and $300 for our four day stay! We definitely wouldn’t be eating here without the vouchers but are so thankful for them because this buffet is so good! I love european breakfasts that include olives, hummus, kombucha, and all sorts of yummy pastries.

After breakfast we realized we missed the hotel shuttle so we ended up using Uber instead to get to the Vienna City Center and the Natural History Museum.

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The kids love a good dinosaur display and all the stuffed animals are always entertaining so we try and visit the Natural History museums wherever we go. L hasn’t been a fan of the animatronic dinosaurs we’ve seen lately. He needed to be held and then was hiding under Papa’s coat in order to get past this guy. 😆

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After a few minutes like this though he realized it was ok.

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Both kids loved the interactive displays they had.

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The building as well was just incredible!

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Right across the street was the Hofburg Imperial Palace.

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Then we walked to the Naschmarkt and found some lunch and a drindl for Ryder.

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At certain crosswalks we noticed their walk signs are two people with a heart in between them and the don’t walks seem to be people holding hands. It’s a very cute detail! I tried to capture it in a photo.

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This is in front of the Vienna State Opera.

< img src=”https://hamptonsonholiday.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/img_6551.jpg” class=”wp-image-516 size-full” height=”4032″ width=”3024″><<<<< nted to visit Cafe Sacher since it's famous for its Austrian cake and coffee but the line was insane. I'm hoping we will get to it before we leave. <

So we called Uber and made it back to the hotel for an early night. Ty and L went off to find the nearest playground. Papa relaxed in his room. R came back to my room where she did school work on the iPad and I wrote a blog post. Just nice to have some down time.

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We fed the kids some leftovers and put them to bed about 8:30. Ty and I ended up staying up late trying to get laundry done. This big hotel only has one washer and dryer for their clients to use! Also european dryers are so slow and need like two hours to dry anything.