Vienna

Another weekend, another pilgrimage to a famous European city.  A few weekends ago, the destination was Vienna.  MITers flew in from all over Europe and Clarke prepared himself for “a very nerdy weekend”.  

Vienna crew in front of one of the many royal palaces

Ahem Clarke we only made a few Schrödinger jokes and just thought briefly of visiting his grave several hours outside Vienna.  For my non-science loving readers, Schrödinger is a famous Austrian quantum physicist and we encounter t-shirts like this on a daily basis at MIT.  Clarke and I got in before everybody else and had a chance to explore the old town Friday evening.  What a beautiful city!  As is the family traveling tradition, we wandered around aimlessly, following both the melodious strands of street musicians and the distant glow of a palace displayed in its finest evening splendor.   

Vienna has a plethora of picturesque statues and fountains

Karla, our resident LGO tour guide, had a slew of sites for us to hit on Saturday.  We walked through Hofburg Palace, Rauthaus, St Peterskirche cathedral, Stephansdom cathedral, and the astonishing painted ceilings of Karlskirche which may have been my favorite site of the day.  The church set up scaffolding so visitors could walk up to the top of the dome to see the collages from a few feet instead of several hundred.  Since middle school art was a challenge for me, I looked at the painted ceilings with pure wonder. 

Karlskirche ceiling

My classmate Kacey brought her husband and their two year old son Nolan which certainly added a foreign element to the trip for a bunch of twenty & thirty -something unmarried people.  Nolan's a gregarious, sweet kid and Clarke and I both had fun chasing him around to tire him out and give his parents a well-deserved break.  I think Clarke made a friend for life.

Clarke and Nolan

Sunday we journeyed out to Vienna’s number one tourist attraction Schönbrunn Palace which is the former imperial summer residence of the Habsburg.  Wow beyond the impressive physical palace, the estate has a gloriette, roman runins, hedge maze, large zoo, a litany of sculptures, and the most impressive gardens I’ve visited in memory.  You could easily spend all day on the palace grounds and not see half of it.

Siblings in front of th palace

Not that we didn’t try!  I marveled at the imperial quarters, got a kick out of running around the maze trying to beat my friends (if only Donovan wasn’t 200+cm tall), trekked up the hill to the gloriette to see the palace aerially, and sipped a Viennese coffee at one of the cafes on grounds.  A fitting ending to another fun trip.

LGO ladies w/ city backdrop