Monday, February 6, 2017

Rachel, this only took me 41:23.87, and that's cause I got distracted planning our next trip

Well, I just got back from vacation.

Technically four of those days were educational, but it still felt great not to be stuck in the traditional classroom setting.  As pretty much everyone else will no doubt give a detailed account of every stage of our adventures, I'm going to focus instead on my personal highlights from each day.

Day 1: We had to wake up at 3am, so the extra hour of sleep I got on the plane to Vienna was sure appreciated.  The second highlight of our inaugural day was definitely dinner - we went to the Goulashmuseum, which had some of the best goulash I have ever had.  We washed dinner down with some wine and tasty desserts as well - quite a lovely way to introduce us to Vienna, I think. :-)

Day 2: I-C-E S-K-A-T-I-N-G That spells ice skating, which was definitely the day's highlight for me, provided I had to choose only one.  However, since I am the author of this blog and the contents of my ramblings are up to my sole discretion, I can pick more than one highlight, as evidenced in Day 1.  Thus, I shall also talk about the zoo behind the Imperial Palace.  This zoo had the most active animals I have ever seen in a zoo, from cheetahs to twin panda cubs to ducks in a row to penguins to polar bears to elephants to fish to tropical birds.  We spent so much time in the zoo, in fact, we missed our tour of the Imperial Palace and had to go back the next day to get our money's worth.  But back to ice skating:  We skated in front of Vienna's Rathaus, or city hall.  This ice skating rink was the most fabulous rink I have ever skated on; it had multiple lanes weaving around, connecting three little rinks to one large one.  It was pretty magical, especially with the city hall all lit up behind us.

Day 3: The Josephinum had some pretty remarkable wax figures displaying the human anatomy and physiology.  They were incredibly realistic, so of course all of us bmen, bims, and bio kids thought they were crazy cool.  That night, we went to a classical concert put on by a string quartet in St. Anne's church.  The first half of the concert was Beethoven, the second half Mozart, and it was all very well done and quite a charming night.  To top the night off, we found pizza for three euros and a quaint little 60's bar to get our groove on (just kidding, it was really small and we were crammed into a booth in a corner, being quite tame).

Day 4: The Spanish Riding School.  'Nough said, I've been looking forward to that since forever.  This school is home to the world-renowned Lipizzaner stallions, famous for their incredible training and stark white coloring.  We were able to sit in on their training session for two hours, and I enjoyed every single minute.  If you're ever in Vienna, either try to go to a practice or, if you're fortunate enough, a real show, especially if you like horses.

That day we also left for Prague, but in an effort to finish this blog post as soon as possible (I have to beat Rachel's time of two hours for one post), I'm saving that for another post.

Claire

Quote of the Week: "Adventure is out there!" - UP


No comments:

Post a Comment