Angels in the Architecture

We've seen some super ancient stuff along the paths of our trip! It kinda blows your mind a little.

Our last day in Positano was bittersweet. We had such a debacle getting there that we decided to go for it and hire a car (Bill Risdon style) to pick us up from our hotel and take us to Pompeii for a few hours before dropping us off at the train station. So, after one last dip in the rooftop pool ( I will never get tired of that view!!), we packed up and met our driver, Mosimo downstairs. He had extremely quaffed hair, and wore an Italian suit that made him look like he might either be a member of the mafia, or he had a wedding to get to after our ride. Maybe both. He was a very good natured man who liked to tell us stories about how he had driven Tom Selleck around Italy and how his wife nagged him too much, but his daughter was his princess and how his boss would call him regularly to say "Mosimo, you hav-uh to peek up the nice-uh peeep-ul!" He was a character for sure!

We did quite a bit of walking around Pompeii, which is way bigger, and one of the more preserved places we've seen. My favorite was the bathhouse and just wandering down the streets. Seeing Mt. Vesuvius loom in the distance was pretty weird.

The rest of the day was spent in train stations and on various trains. It proved again that we love Eurostar, especially the sleeper train that we picked up in Bologna, which we had our own private room with a little sink and it proved much more comfy than the trains in Vietnam (although the rocking from side to side all night got a little old). We arrived in Vienna not so bright eyed, but relatively bushy tailed around 8:30 am.

We taxied it to our Holiday Inn (we used airline miles for that!) and found ourselves a map before venturing out to Belvedere Palace to see some Gustav Klimt and an amazing palace both inside and out. Next up, Ryan wanted to see the Austrian War Museum, which was reached through a cockamamie effort at following a misguiding sign, and a feeble attempt at reading the map. It was more interesting than I thought though, and the angels, demons, gods, lions, and super old famous people in the architecture was pretty sweet. I was getting very, very tired, so I sat down on a bench between the WWII uniforms and the bayonets and watched the school kids and their teachers walk through. Just goes to prove that kids are kids, and teachers are teachers the whole world round. "Shhhhh" translates to any language. Funny kids! Makes me miss my BECA babies!

When Ryan wandered up to the second floor, we saw the car and the uniform Franz Ferdinand was wearing when he was assassinated (complete with tiny bullet hole) at the event that got the ball rolling for WWI. Weird, but a little cool I guess. Takes me back to Mr. Finn's history class at Gull Lake , for sure. Actually, I've been referencing a lot of Mr. Finn's info since my journey began around Europe. I heart teachers!!

Anyway, I needed another break, so I sat down in some sort if guilded ball room with columns and gold plated moulding that was set up for some sort of event that night, and started to read some of the informational leaflets( you know, to supplement Mr. Finn), and was so tired that it made sense to my brain to just rest one eye and continue reading. That lead to closing two eyes, and then I'd jerk awake and see this crazy ornate room surrounding me and try to talk myself into staying awake. This happened several times, but the architecture was begging me not to take a nap! Ryan returned soon, and thankfully, we found a delish Austian pub lunch (yum- potato/mushroom soup and goulash...and beer...mmmmm, beer.) It wasn't long before we were comfortably back at the Holiday Inn and napping. The only other notable event of the day was finding a beer garden, full of locals for dinner, which proved to us that we love Austrian food (Ryan found Beer bread, it's awesome, he has plans to make it upon returning home), even though it does a number on our plans for fitness. We have been keeping food diaries, and it turns out that 4-6 hours of walking a day burns quite a few calories. I can continue to keep that up as long as my feet don't fall off. Damn you plantar fasciitis! I need new shoes!

The next morning we got another early start because our stop in Vienna was a quick one. We decided to walk down to the old town and just see what we could see. First of all, the primary miracle we encountered was a street fair to beat all street fairs. I guess the Naschmarkt in Vienna is a flee market on the weekends, but during the week it's a food stall extravaganza. Our eyes were bugging out of our heads as we walked past glass counter displays of cheeses, dried meats, stuffed peppers, fresh baked breads covered in poppy seeds, olives, olives, and more olives. Food heaven, basically. I settled on a stall that had a lady describing how to decorate using her embroidered doily flowers, but she also had delicious homemade apple strudel. Yes, please!!

The old city centre of Vienna was astoundingly beautiful, every corner I turned an "ohhhhh" or "wow" escaped my lips before I could even pick up my camera. Really, really beautiful, with statues everywhere the eye could see, all backed by a bright blue sky. The weather was PERFECT! Autumn and I have found each other at last! No more sweating, it's jacket weather- yay!

After we walked through incredible arches, felt the cobbles beneath our feet, smelled the leaves and the coffee in the air, all with our faces pointed up to spires, cathedrals, statued faces from almost any century of art, we headed back to our hotel, via the market again, to grab lunch at a little table outside for cheese schnitzel (think a tastier version of Mac and cheese, with paprika), and maybe another beer before we grabbed some of the aforementioned snacks for our dinner on the train.

We had 5 hours to kill on the ride from Vienna to Prague, so what better way than a glorious picnic?! We had bought a fresh baguette, a sweet/spicy apricot mustard, speck, buffalo salami, two kinds of cheeses and a mix of cheese stuffed and kalamata olives. To complete the feast, we'd saved two little bottles of wine they'd given us on the sleeper train, so we dined to our hearts content on the goodies, while the Austrian countryside rushed past us out the train window. So awesome, for all the amazing food I've had on this trip, that will be one of the most unforgettable meals. :)

Prague greeted us with open arms, and we took the metro a few stops before winding our way down the hills through a park towards the King Charles Boutique hotel. It's a renovated building from 1913 that you enter through a large, heavy oak door that feels like you might be entering a stable, but its beautiful and quaint inside, and our room has sloped ceilings, dark wooden beams, and a window overlooking the walls of Vysherad Castle. The peel of the church bells greets me in the morning and evening, and I can open the little window to the crisp fall air. Great place to stay in Prague! Feels a little more homey than a Holiday Inn!

We've had a lot of fun running around in Prague, it's another beautiful city, especially with the leaves changing colors over the river. The Prague castle, which is like its own city complex overlooks the whole city, so of course we ventured there first. Our ticket covered 4 of the 8 places to visit within the castle walls. We were overcome by St. Victus church, which its soaring ceilings and stained glass everywhere. Really one of the most notable churches I've seen in my traveling days, and I've seen a LOT! Ryan and I took our time in that one, taking a few minutes at each window to really study the designs and intricate scenes laid out in glass. So beautiful. We stopped and lit a candle for our grandmas and grandpas and tried to take in the whole place.

Behind St. Victus stood the much smaller St. George's basilica, but just as beautiful. Simpler, and containing just one row of about 20 pews and a few tombs, the acoustics were perfect. Just outside the entry, two women were selling tickets to a concert that night featuring the Prague Royal Orchestra strings, playing Pachelbel (Cannon in D, I was SOLD!), Mozart and Vivaldi. Of course we got tickets for that! How could we pass it up?! The music and setting were magical, and why I keep hearing my wedding songs, I don't know, but I guess it's a sign that I married the right man.

Yesterday we rested in the morning , while it rained out on the castle wall, and around 1 it stopped and we went out to find a quick lunch, stumbling upon the Czech Food Festival, featuring sausages on the grill, fried potatoes, fruit beer and a sweet chimney cake, then joined a free walking tour around Prague's Old City, Lesser Quarter and Jewish Quarter. My camera is now full of breathtaking scenery and architecture. It never ends! After the tour, we finished up our tickets at Prague castle, against our feet's wishes and caught some amazing sunset views over the city from the castle steps, and across the Charles Bridge. We thought we might pass out, but made it up one last cobbled hill for dinner at a really good restaurant (thanks again TripAdvisor, you never let me down!) for some Czech fusion type food, which ended in one of the greatest cakes on the planet (a Czech Misa traditional cake) that I hope will become a birthday cake tradition in the years to come, and the cute waitress made us fresh ginger tea with honey and lemon, probably because she thought we'd eaten too much and needed help digesting, which wasn't too far off! Good day!

Our room has no bathtub, so I had to drag the little stool in there and soak my tired, aching feet in the shower before bed. They feel a bit better now, but I think I'll only take a brisk walk around the neighborhood this morning. We have a flight to catch to Denmark this afternoon. I wonder how different the architecture of Copenhagen is compared to the crazy beautiful stuff we've seen so far? I shall just have to wait a few more hours to compare. :)