On our way to Vienna from Prague, we stopped at a delightful little town called Telc for lunch. Telc is in the Morovia part of the Czech Republic, whereas Prague was in the Bavaria part. Telc was charming….looking somewhat like a movie set. They obviously wanted to be a tourist town, but there was a combination of junky dollar-store type places run by Asian people, and some very nice gift shops. However, most of us just grabbed some lunch and looked around. A cold front had come through, and some of us (not I) were underdressed.

We arrived in Vienna and checked into the Metropole Europlatz Hotel. Abi took most of the group to the city center, but Lisa and I opted to just explore the neighborhood around the hotel, window shopping where the locals shop. We didn’t buy anything, because although the prices look reasonable, by the time we do the conversion from dollars to euros, things seem very pricey!

Our city tour on Saturday started with Shoenbrun Palace (the summer palace of Maria Theresa and her 16 kids….the most famous being Marie Antoinette). Our guide was excellent, and it was so nice to visit the gardens where flowers were in bloom! We normally travel during January or March, and often miss the pretty gardens. We then hopped back on the bus for the rest of the city tour. I don’t know what it is about buses, but as soon as the guide starts talking, I get sleepy. I tried really hard to stay alert, but am afraid I did doze off a couple of times! (The only exception is Julian, our normal guide in Paris, who is very energetic and tells really good jokes!) The walking tour in the city center was very interesting. Again, Vienna has been taken over by Football Fever, as they are hosting the European Championships this year. But being Saturday morning, most of the football fanatics were probably still hungover so it was relatively calm!

After the city tour, Renée, Lisa and I met our dear friends Vicki Harris and Brandi Cantrell (missionaries with Pray Vienna) for lunch. We had visited with Vicki when we came to Vienna for MLK a few years ago, and of course Vicki and Brandi were so kind to host my daughter Whitney for a long weekend when she was studying in Prague a couple of years ago. We went to a great ice cream shop for lunch, where we had panini sandwiches, and yes, ice cream. I ordered Tartuffe, which is dark chocolate ice cream with cherries in the middle. I promise, when it arrived, it was 4x4x2 inches! It was covered in dark chocolate sprinkles. Yes, I ate every last bit. I’m guessing it was worth about 50 weight watchers points! Hopefully I have walked enough to compensate for my indulgence!

Speaking of walking, I am on day two without my boot, and so far so good!

We walked over to Vicki’s very cute apartment, got into her little Honda Civic, and she and Brandi took us on a drive through the Vienna woods (beautiful….) up to a lookout over the Danube and the Danube Valley. It was the spot where the Austrians defeated the Turks at some point in history. We stopped at a beautiful overlook where they was a restaurant with a terrace, and had coffee. Very proud of myself, I ordered a kleine mocca, which I thought was a small mocha. But I received an espresso. Not sure how that happened, but I put two cubes of sugar in it and drank it anyway. I’m pretty proud of myself, since I don’t do coffee!

Tomorrow we are off to Salzburg. It will be a beautiful drive, which I have been looking forward to! People keep talking about how we must go to the salt mines, saying how much fun it is. So I suppose I shall do so. I hope to find time to upload my blogs before we leave. I’ll add pictures when I have a chance!