At the Green Clean (laundromat) in Vienna with a place to document that last day's happenings. Yesterday was our first full travel day as we got on a train from La Spezia, Italy to Pisa, ran to see the leaning tower, then took a bus to the airport where we had a two hour wait. The leaning tower did not impress us too much, but we did get a kick out of the line of super tourist taking the, "I'm holding up the tower" picture. Don't worry, we got the super tourist picture as well. Then, we had a flight to Kohn, Germany with another two hour wait, and finally a flight to Wien (Vienna). We flew German Wings and by accident Tom and I were seated in first class. We felt like we were living the high life with our free sandwich, extra leg room, and petite can of Cola and ice. Mark this day down, we will never pay for first class, haha. We arrived last night about 9 PM.
As side note for my dad especially (and everyone in my family), the first ad I read coming into the airport said "WienerSchnitzel." I can't tell you how many times Tom and I have laughed and said "DERVEEENNERSCHNITZEL" thinking about you and discussing how exciting this city would be if you were here.
I was feeling a bit of frustration being out of my comfort zone yesterday and ready to stop living out of a bag. However, coming to Vienna was a fresh start with friendly people. It helps that we bought a hotel with credit card points and it happens to be really nice and feel like luxury. We both raved about the life-size towels, comfy pillows and comforter, free breakfast (with as much free AMERICAN size coffee that you want), and a place to get in a little work out. Even though we've been walking everywhere, it felt good to get those muscles working a bit while listening to our own music. They even had a sauna, but as we walked in we saw a couple wearing their birthday suit and rushed past to the work out room. I think Europeans are just very free when it comes to their bodies.` I thought I was a "cool low maitentance wife" coming on this trip, but I enjoyed these pleasures so much and realized how much I rely on my material comforts on a daily basis. I pray that my strength and joy comes from Him alone and that I no longer take for granted the simple blessings we enjoy in America everyday. I know and I'm reminded that I am weak, but He is strong and I need more of Him all the time to keep focused on what is eternal, rather than temporary.
They speak German here, which makes everything a story, but I like it. It is about 68 degrees during the day (Crazy wearing my North Face in the middle of Summer, it should be illegal really). Today we are taking a break from historical buildings and are planning on going to the Naschmarket and either an amusement park or the world's oldest zoo. More on these later.
6/28
Waking up after a good long night's sleep. Vienna is a beautiful city and the people are all very friendly, however, we realize that there is not much for us to do here. Most people recommend an orchestra or opera concert, but those of you who know Tom and I, you know that is not our forte.
We enjoyed the market yesterday, although the food was quite different. We could not read any of the German descriptions, but we did partly in accident try falafel, schnitzel, and some vegan dishes containing various types of hummus, sheep cheese, and cucumbers. I think I enjoy the food much more than Tom haha. German is a funny language and I sometimes feel like a 7th grade boy when I ready "Fahrt" in half the words.
Next, we found the Prator amusement park, but I have to give Six Flags credit because Prater did not hold a candle to our American coasters and rides. This park seemed more like a faded carnival. Next, we decided to head to Danube island because everything is more fun on the water! However, this city was sunken. Literally, the restaurants were buried in water and the place was deserted, almost an "I Am Legend" feel. We were glad to be roaming it in the middle of the day as all we saw were a group of people wearing black trench coats with mohawks...YIKES!
Finally, we found the center of the city were we saw famous historical buildings and shops. We ended up finding a great little place to relax and have dinner and drinks before heading home. I will mark this day down in the calendar because I did not take one picture!
Today, we have a plan: World's oldest Zoo (Tiergarten), a maze in a famous garden, and riding the tram around the city center. Not that we don't care about the history, but the history here is not as interesting to us as the other cities we've seen. We are more looking forward to WWII history in Berlin. We will depart for Berlin at about 3:30 AM today, so it has been great having a more laid back schedule here in Vienna. We talk about you guys at home each day! We keep seeing little dogs that remind us of Dirky and find ourselves discussing what family and friends are doing back at home. We love you guys!
It is currently 5:30 AM and we just finished the 2 hour trek to the Vienna airport headed to Berlin. We had a great relaxing day in Vienna yesterday. At Schonnbrunn Palace and went through a maze (much like our Texas corn maze, but in the middle of gardens instead) and checked out the world's oldest zoo. I loved the greenery in the palace. We saw a tree that was 140 years old and it was beautiful.
Perhaps one of the coolest parts of the day was coming across a man from Egypt in the train station. He started talking to us and we shortly found that he was a teacher as well and really enjoyed math. Tom and this man did some Math problems together and the man brought up Hawkings (a very atheistic writer). Tom was then able to share our need for Jesus and some scripture with this man whose faith was Muslim. I praise God that he blessed Tom with this opportunity whether the man contacts us or not. We know that the Gospel holds truth and God saves. We were happy and felt blessed to be able to share. I loved hearing Tom share because I would have completely butchered the talk with a man who I had no connection, but with Tom the conversation was so natural.
The bum news of the day was that I felt as if I had no energy and a little sick. Tom was the best husband ever to let us leave the zoo and go back to the hotel where I napped from about 4:30 - 6:30 and feel much better. I'm praying that God gives us strength and keeps us healthy on our last leg of the trip because I know our bodies have gone into shock with weird sleeping patterns, odd foods, and walking everywhere. We'll be arriving in Berlin at 7:30 AM, but the hostel does not open for us to leave bags or check in until 2 PM. We will be posting up in a McCafe for quite some time before starting the day.
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