Enjoying our first Vienna sausage!
St. Stephen's Cathedral:
View from St. Stephen's Cathedral Tower:
Dinner at Griechenbeisl - the oldest restaurant in Austria...an amazing, traditional, Austrian feast!
Hofburg - complex of palaces where the Hapsburg emperors lived:
Mozart Statue
Spanish Riding School...home of the Lipizzaner stallions (we accidentally snuck into the riding school...oops!):
Schonbrunn Palace (Hapsburg summer residence):
A night at the Opera:
Champagne before the Opera!
Sacher-Torte after the Opera - the world's classiest chocolate cake (two layers of cake separated by apricot jam and covered in dark-chocolate icing) - delicious!
Bieber happened to be in Vienna as well...this was the scene outside of his hotel (the Sacher Hotel) throughout our entire stay...craaaazy, annoying fans! Don't they realize he's going to sneak out the back?!
Vienna Easter Market:
Mulled wine...a staple during our trip!
Easter service with the Boys' Choir at the Imperial Music Chapel in Hofburg:
On our way from Vienna to Budapest, we stopped in Bratislava for the day. With the combination of it being Easter and the fact that we were in the middle of a blizzard, it felt like we had the city to ourselves! We all hope to return someday, preferably in the summertime, when Rick describes it as having a Mediterranean ambience.
This is seriously how I looked throughout the majority of our trip...lookin' gooooooood, Kris.
Communist style "UFO" bridge
Bratislava Castle...in the distant background
Grassalkovich Palace, Slovakia's "White House"
Hviezdoslav Square:
Slovak National Theater
Fam in the Main Square
Whimsical statues dotting Bratislava's Old Town (they were apparently erected in order to entice locals back into the newly prettied-up Old Town):
Statue of a Napoleonic officer - with bare feet and a hat pulled over his eyes, it represents the Slovaks' revenge for the difficulties they faced at Napoleon's hands
Statue of Schoner Naci, who lived in Bratislava until the 1960s. A poor carpet cleaner, he would dress up in his one black suit and top hat, and go strolling through the city, offering gifts to the women he fancied - cheering up the gloomy streets of communist Bratislava
This is Cumil ("the Peeper") - definitely my favorite of the statues - there's no story behind this one...the artist simply wanted to create a fun icon and let the townspeople make up their own tales. The poor guy is constantly being run over though!
St. Michael's Gate - the last surviving tower of the city wall - zbohom Bratislava...onto our last stop, Budapest!
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