Photo Friday! Viennese cakes…yum!

One of my favorite parts about this trip so far is the plethora of bakeries! There is one on every corner and sometimes there are two or three right next to each other. In Vienna, we stopped at the world famous Cafe Demel to try the Sachertorte. We have tried four different cakes so far and my favorite is Esterhazytorte. They are not just cakes…they are works of art!

Mozartorte

Esterhazytorte

Visit other Photo Friday participants at Delicious Baby!

Vienna in Pictures

Because my laptop battery was about to die, I wasn’t able to post pictures with my blog post the other day. Here are some of the places and things that I described!

The Hundertwasser House

The Lipazzaner Horses on their way to their morning exercise…they were beautiful!

Yumm! Huge pretzels EVERYWHERE!

The family in the Hofburg Palace

The Hofburg Palace–the palace of the Austrian and Hungarian emperors

Stephansdom

The nativity in Stephansdom

Looking up at Stephansdom

The view from the Schloss Shonnbrun Tiergarten (the zoo!)

Watching the performing polar bear

Days 3 and 4–Vienna

On Sunday morning, we got up and hit the road towards Vienna. A lot of the traveling is on backroads through beautiful little towns. The drive was about 4.5 hours. The kids slept well. We stopped twice for bathroom trips. I am constantly surprised at how clean the restrooms are here. I have yet to encounter one that I refuse to go into! When we arrived in Vienna, we went straight to the Schloss Shonbrunn. The castle has a zoo that is considered the oldest in the world. The castle was built in 1569. The kids really enjoyed the zoo. It was a nice way to relax. We have tried to create an itinerary with items that the kids will enjoy. After the zoo, we checked into our hotel and got ready to go back out. We ate at a great little pub/restaurant that had all of 7 tables in it. I tried Goulash for the first time…it was very tasty! Sera loved it and left all of her own dinner behind! After dinner, we walked around a little Christmas Market.

Today, when we woke up, we caught the UBahn to Stephansdom. We wandered around the inside of it for a few minutes and then walked down the Graben. The original foundations of Stephansdom dates back to 1147. This was fascinating to me because I recently finished reading Pillars of the Earth and it reminded me of that book. I could just imagine everyone milling around and building this church up.

We walked down the Graben and checked out some great little stores and cafes. I found the famous Demel Cafe, known for their amazing tortes. I bought each of the kids a chocolate bar and then we sampled three of the famous cakes: Senegaltorte, Esterhazytorte (almond sponge layered with cream, and Sachertorte (chocolate cake covered with apricot jam and chocolate). YUM!

We saw the Hofburg Palace next. This was a great place for the kids to run around in. They had a large square that people were running around and shouting in. The kids were able to expel some energy before it was time to head out. We hit another Christmas market, where we found these fantastic delicious pretzels. We are now back in the hotel taking a little rest before dinner tonight!

The laptop battery is about to die, so I will post pictures later!