Leaving Vienna We left Vienna early and headed south through the Austrian countryside, taking a scenic route through the mountains. A coffee stop mid morning in a charming little village called Kindberg, resulted in Rick and I sharing a "vanilla slice". This is a common Austrian pastry with thin layers of pastry filled with vanilla cream. Absolutely delicious . Our tour guide keeps telling us we can diet when we get home! We arrived in St. Veit about noon and h...

Vienna 2 Day 8: Vienna We had a morning tour of the city and the Schonbruun summer palace with a very Informative guide named Gertrude, or Trudy. The history we are learning is amazing. For example: Maria Theresa, Duchess and Empress of the Habsburg Dynasty ruled for 40 years, 20 of them pregnant, having 16 children, including the future Marie Antoinette. She was the only female ruler of the time and was very successful at maintaining her borders and implemen...

Vienna Enroute to Vienna today. There is absolutely beautiful scenery in Austria. Most houses and business's have stunning flowers adorning their exteriors. We enjoyed a coffee on a terrace this morning just as a mass ended at an ancient church. People poured out onto the square to all the waiting patios around the square. Many were dressed in traditional garb for this region. Next stop was the Benedictine Abbey in Melk. a huge baroque style, working abbey ove...

Salzburg: Birthplace of Wolfgang Mozart and like Maria, the local guide that took us for a tour, said, he is probably turning over in his grave today. The city of Salzburg is pedalling everything from free tuition to the Mozart school of music, (providing you can pass the very difficult entrance criteria) to Mozart pyjamas, Mozart plates, and chocolate truffles called Mozart's balls. Nice town of about 150,000 people divided into old and new. Old town is narr...

Day 4 & 5 Munich / Bavaria Falling a little behind on the blogging so I am combining a couple of days. very sorry to have to leave Berlin this morning, but it was time to move on to a new adventure. We had a great last night in East Berlin walking around the neighbourhood, stopping for supper at one place, stopping at an other for a beer at a very local pub, shopping for breakfast, since we have to be at the airport so early. Finding everything in the airp...