The Great European Road Trip of 2010: The Finale

Our first stop was Peterskirche. Along the way we saw the lovely Carlskirche and got a nice view of the road ahead..



And saw yet another road named for a philosopher


This is Vienna’s plague statue:


And we made it!


We found in several of the cities we visited that if there was construction on part of the building, the area that was covered by the scaffolding was an image of what was behind it. A much nicer thing to look at than scaffolding!


The inside of the church was very ornate and had a beautiful ceiling.



This was a statue that Ian couldn’t pass up.. He said it reminded him too much of himself and Aed :)

Our next stop was Café Central. Ian was drooling over the opportunity to have a cup of kleiner brauner at this café. The Café Central was the café of choice for many big names such as Freud, Hitler, Lenin, Trotsky, as well as the Vienna Circle.


Aed enjoyed a delicious Rusk.. (can you tell these are a favorite snack?)



While Daddy enjoyed a delicious cup of coffee..




We wandered back over to the Hofburg area to consider whether we wanted to see anything else. Buuuuuuut after Aed took 15 minutes to scream himself to sleep in the stroller, we decided we’d had about enough sight seeing as well, so we headed home.

ERT Tip #13: Be aware that Austrian grannies are very sympathetic to screaming babies. They will stop you so they can have a chat with your exhausted, screaming child, none of which you will understand. If your child is anything like ours, he will resume his screaming as soon as she walks away thus prolonging the whole ordeal. We are all very thankful that cameras do not record sound..

Some sunny views along the way



Dinner that night..


It may not look like much, but that was without a doubt the best sweet corn that we have had since we left Indiana. I think it’s been over two years since we've even had a bite of Indiana sweet corn and it made our mouths very happy. :)

The following day was our last day in Vienna before we began the long trek home and it was a day well spent!

We headed to the Schönbrunn Palace first. We didn’t go in because we didn’t have time, but the outside was incredible. We are pretty sure that the insides would have been similar to the Hofburg anyway, based on the information we got about the Palace.

Our walk into the grounds was exceedingly picturesque


As was the little Gloriette on top of the hill that overlooks the city



This is only the back of the palace!


And this is the front.



We had plans to meet up with a family that just moved to Vienna later that day at the Vienna Zoo (conveniently located on the grounds of the palace). Carolyn graduated with a PhD in Philosophy last year from St Andrews and got a post doc position at a university in Vienna. She was pregnant with her little Katie at the same time I was pregnant with Aed, so it was very fun to get together with them with babies on the outside! Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take pictures of us all together – why do I always do that? You think I’d learn..

Anyway, so here’s a story for you.

It was really hot everywhere we were, so Aed was going through his shorts and t-shirts really quickly. In looking at the clothes I had packed for him, I noticed there were some lizard overalls that were really cute, so I decided to save them for the zoo. Seems appropriate right? Lizards for the zoo! Perfect! The only thing I was unsure of was if they would really fit him. They seemed a little small to me, but I figured since they were overalls we’d be alright.

I put them on him that morning and, happily, they just fit. I did not consider what would happen when my child’s diaper was filled after a morning of wandering. We met up with our friends and went to find something to eat for lunch. We sat down to eat, pulled Aed out of the stroller and were greeted with this cavernous sight..


A wedgie for the record books for sure! Turns out the lizard shorts just couldn’t make the space for that saturated diaper so they did what was necessary and gave Aed a mammoth wedgie.. not to mention the diaper spiling out the leg! After having a good laugh at our child’s expense, I went and found a changing room to relieve his little cheeks.

ERT Tip #14: Even if you forget to take photos with friends you may never see again, take a picture of your kid’s wedgie. These are the things worth remembering.

Ok, back to the zoo.

This zoo is the oldest zoo in the world! The animals however, are not.



(see the baby?? It was his first day out!)

Aed slept the whole time we were outside, but managed to wake up in time to see the huge catfish in the aquarium.



He loved watching those fish.. wonder where he got that?

So we wrapped up our time in Vienna with an unbelievably expensive tab for our parking while we were at the zoo and headed west with sugarplum dreams of people who spoke our language.

We broke up our trip with a stop in Ulm, Germany to see the world’s tallest steeple. The good news is (let me help you by telling you now that I am being sarcastic here) that the Garmin led us all over Ulm through pedestrian areas and construction zones, but never once to the cathedral. The better news is that I had packed the camera in the trunk.

ERT Tip #15: DO NOT pack your camera in the trunk. It is a dumb idea and not having any pictures of the world's tallest steeple only adds to your disappointment at not being able to climb the world’s tallest steeple.

Needless to say, we had to leave Ulm with no climbing and no pictures. We were planning on staying with some friends in Paris and were already going to be getting there veeeeery late, so we didn’t have time to make amends with the City of Mass Confusion.

We arrived in Paris at something like 3 in the morning and collapsed on the floor for the night. Ian did some sight seeing the next day, but Aed and I just hung out and did nothing much as I have seen most of Paris’s touristy parts and he needed some sleep.

Ian ventured to the lovely Notre Dame



(Rainy and cold! Paris was the only place that was cold!)

Saw the dome on the tomb of Napoleon


And, of course, the Eiffel Tower


As well as the Arc de Triomphe.


The next day we made an attempt at seeing the catacombs of Paris, but to no avail. We arrived too late and they wouldn’t let us in.. the nerve of some people!

But, on the way we found this..


Which made it all worth it.

Since we couldn’t see the catacombs, we decided to stick with our theme of death and head to a giant cemetery.


Along the way our pajama-clad baby (did I mention it was cold? We didn’t have any warm clothes for him in our overnight bag, so he wore his pajamas over his shorts! :) enjoyed a rusk on Daddy’s back (also.. your eyes are not deceiving you.. Ian did not shave for the duration of our trip so he’s looking pretty hairy here).

(I think this picture would be cool in a warm B&W.. if only I had time to edit my photos!)

The cemetery was very interesting and not at all creepy in the light of day. (well, maybe slightly creepy.. I always expect to see bones in cemeteries, but I have some issues with comprehending reality. So..)



And also, it was HUGE!

Our plan was to have dinner with our friends, hang out a while in hopes of traffic dying down, and then head up to Calais to spend the night so we could get the ferry in the morning. Aed decided to use this time to work on his walking skills and took off again and again walking all over the living room! It was so exciting and he had so much fun giggling and collapsing in different peoples’ arms each time he ventured across the room. We maintain that he was sleep drunk, and boy is he entertaining when he’s under the influence!

We decided to go not long after that, bid au revoir to our Parisians, and braced ourselves for what was sure to be a wild ride out of Paris. I thought we were going to die. The minute we left the side streets traffic became an organism. It was a weaving, dodging, bobbing bunch of insanity and it is miraculous that we got out of there without any dents in our car.

We resisted the urge to stop the car so we could get out and kiss the ground when we made it safely out of the city. We were fine coming in late at night, but going out when there are lots of other cars on the road was insane. I can’t imagine the city at rush hour! Nevertheless, we made it to Calais and got some sleep.

We boarded the ferry in the morning in great anticipation of driving in the UK, where we could read the road signs and knew the rules. Aed was excited too..


The ride was great, the weather was balmy, and the beautiful cliffs of Dover welcomed us back.


We made it home in good enough time and put our weary selves to bed.

Would we do it again? Not any time soon! We have had our fill of cross-channel driving for a while. However, we remain convinced that we never could have seen so much if we had done this by plane/public transport and are so grateful for the life adventures we had with our wee guy. It was quite the opportunity and one we are glad we didn’t pass up!

Slideshow!

I finally got our pictures organized into a slideshow! It has way more images and way less words :)

Click on the miniature slideshow in the sidebar on the right to scroll through all the images from our trip!

The Great European Road Trip of 2010: Part Four

To Budapest we went!


We made the drive passed more beautiful countryside and lots of windmills! On one of our drives, and I cannot guarantee it was this one, Aed discovered his first word! He loves balls with his whole heart, and we were playing with one together in the back seat. I asked him if he could say ball, and he said it right back to me! Too cute, and so fun. Since then he has continued to mimic a lot of our sounds, but seems to especially favor those b-words.

Anyway.. We parked in a little parking garage and hustled over to where we were supposed to begin a walking tour of the city. We were only in Budapest for one day, so we had limited time to see the few things we really wanted to see.

Aed made friends with some people on the metro..


And our first stop was yet another St Stephen’s! Apparently Stephen was a popular name in these parts..


A basilica this time, and fully decked out with more bling than I have taste for :) But, it was beautiful.



The thing I was most looking forward to was in a little chapel off of the main room of the building. St Stephen’s mummified hand resides in this little chapel, in its own little palace!


Inside the glass chamber, you can see behind the reflection of the windows that there is a miniature church-looking building. Inside that little building lies the hand of St Stephen. This little relic is one of the most sacred treasures in all of Hungary and we got to see it!

You could pay a Euro to have a little light shine on the hand for 2 minutes, and there were several groups of people waiting around for someone else to do it so they wouldn’t have to pay. No one did it while we were there, but there were plenty of pictures around of the hand.. kind of gross if you ask me! But weird enough that we were excited to see it :) A few google searches and you can get a good idea of what the hand looks like just shy of 1000 years since any life was in it.

ERT Tip #11: Pay the Euro to light up the hand.. I mean really.. How many opportunities are you going to have to see a really old hand?

After a quick tour of the church, we grabbed some lunch and caught up to the walking tour. The first few stops were lost on us as we were busy trying to take care of our hungry, tired baby. We were keeping our distance from the group so his loudness wouldn’t hinder their tour, but he eventually fell asleep so we were able to stay with the group and actually hear what the tour guide was saying.

ERT Tip #12: Another seemingly obvious one when undertaking such an adventure.. Go with the flow. I got really uptight about this tour because Ian really wanted to do it. Timing wasn’t great with Aed’s need to eat and sleep. I was so concerned with Ian getting to hear everything the guide was saying, I made the first few minutes of our tour less than ideal as I kept trying to get Ian to leave us be and let me worry about Aed so he could catch up to the group when he didn’t really want to. Once I took my afternoon chill pill and just let everyone do what they wanted.. things got much better :)

We stopped briefly at this little sculpture. I missed what it was intended for (perhaps its current use is what it was intended for), but the trend is to put a lock on it with you and your lover’s names symbolizing your commitment to one another.. awwww! :)


Notice Mr. Dreadlocks. He was the organizer of the walking tour.. Very nice guy.


Apparently Budapest has a lot of neo-gothic architecture (or it may have been art deco.. like I said, the beginning of the tour is a little spotty), and our guide pointed it out as a part of this building – a four seasons hotel. She said one night at this hotel costs as much as the average person in Budapest earns in a month.. kind of crazy what people will spend money on..


We walked across the Chain Bridge and got an amazing view as we passed from Pest into Buda.



The super spikey building on the right is the parliament building, which was designed by a guy who had been influenced by the design of Parliament in London. According to our guide, its steeple is one meter taller than London’s.. Just to be cheeky, I presume :)

We headed up a hill (Buda is very hilly) and got another beautiful view of the bridge below.



Our guide mentioned that there was a trolley you could take to the top of this big hill, rather than climbing, but we decided we’d save our money and walk. What she failed to mention was that it was endless stairs to the top! So, again we carried our sleeping babe in his throne up and up and up.


This is what we should have done.


And this is what we did. Oh well! We made it all in one piece.


It was worth the climb!


The guides offered to take everyone’s pictures with the cityscape in the background. We were thankful for the opportunity for a family shot that didn’t involved one of us holding the camera at arm’s length!


The guy said ‘say Budapest!’ So Ian did.. Maybe not the best word to say for a picture :)


This picture kills me. Aed is actually just blinking, but it looks like he is giving the guy taking our picture the most judgmental look! We still crack up every time we look at it.

This next building was one we photographed because it was riddled with holes from bullets and shrapnel from the war.


Much of Budapest is still ‘unrenovated’ since those destructive times.

Another plague statue..


There were several of these in the cities we visited, and all were seemingly erected by people of faith as they had symbols of the Trinity atop them.

This next statue has quite a reputation.


You might not notice anything to being with, but if you look closely around the horse’s nether regions, you will see a little shimmer..


This particular horse is very well endowed. It became tradition for students in the area to climb the statue, grab the horse’s testicles, and climb down again with renewed confidence in their love lives. Our guide invited anyone that wanted to give it a try, but there were only a few bold souls that added to the sheen on those testicles!

Our last major sight on the tour was the labyrinth! How cool is that? There’s a labyrinth under the city! It was originally intended to be cellars and bomb shelters, but it is a total maze of passageways and openings. Our guide said that you can come at night as well, and one of the night options is the Lovers’ maze. You start at opposite ends of the maze and have to find each other in the middle in pitch black with only a hand-held lamp. She suggested having some wine first to add to the adventure. Ahh.. if only we didn’t have a baby in tow! :)




After the labyrinth, Aed resumed his usual position..


And we grabbed a bite to eat and headed home to Vienna.

Our last few days in Vienna did not disappoint! It was sunny and perfect for sight seeing and re-sight seeing some of the places that had been less than impressive in the dreary rain of our first day.

The Great European Road Trip of 2010 Roundup is tomorrow!