Train through the Austrian Alps! There are no words. It was so beautiful. We headed out of Budapest on a train track that we have traveled before. To get to Zurich from Budapest via train one must travel once again through Wien (Vienna). So we have seen a bit of our route but from the opposite direction. From this angle the landscape looks a bit different than before, plus four additional days of spring make the colors more brilliant too, The first s...

A person cannot say they have visited Vienna without spending time at Schonbrunn Palace. Let's stop and take a moment to think about the word, palace . . . then think of descriptors, like opulent, grand, royal, decadent, rich, and gilded. Yes, I am trying to conjure up visual images because this palace is more than I can get my arms around; it is more than I am capable of relating here and further, we were allowed to take no photographs of the interior or the...

Before we leave this beautiful place, I plan to purchase a CD in the city of Vienna of the Vienna Philharmonic. It wouldn't be the same if I downloaded a collection of the music or if I ordered it from Amazon. I must have a CD from here, Vienna, right here where the music is born. Famous Viennese waltzes are played everywhere. It's the music you remember spontaneously dancing to as a child with your brother or sister when no one was looking. It is spring...

Our flight from Berlin to Vienna, Austria was scheduled for 3:05 pm. We took our time waking, checking mail, etc., and drinking coffee. Then we dressed and went out for one of our fast walk/runs for exercise - the very first we have had a proper chance to do since we left home. Our exercise time gave us a chance to get an up close look a Lichtenberg. Sound familiar?? Yes, it is a suburb of Berlin but it also was among the towns that housed concentration cam...