Europe 2008Our trip starts with a long drive from Florida to North Carolina (via Atlanta) to drop Drew off at camp. Tom, Erin & I will then fly to Florence, Italy for a week. Tom returns back home and Erin & I will then visit Vienna, Austria for ten days and then go on to London for another ten days.Tower Of London- July 12, 2008 Erin & her Uncle Beefeater!View of the Tower Complex Courtyard Tower of LondonWe had to leave the Hostel at Earls' Court in the am and move to another hostel at Holland Park. It was a short taxi ride over. We found out that this hostel is a "group hostel" which means Erin & I are going to sleeping in a dorm!! Oh well - but we will be moving back to the Earl's Court hostel again on the 13th where we get a private room again. The Youth Hostel is quite an interesting organization and are.http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/tower-of-london.html London at Last!!!- July 9, 2008 Us With The Umbrella We Were GivenRavi Insisted We Take This Picture at Heathrow!! We got to London!! The flight was delayed by about one hour because of a runway change and then after we landed, the door to the walkway was not working so we had to wait for steps to be brought to the plane! We had to walk to the terminal in the rain and we've been doing that since! (Of course we did land at the new Heathrow terminal 5 which had all the problems before!) Fortunately the rain is actually some...http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/london-at-last.html Last Day In Vienna- July 8, 2008 Wagner Apt.(on left) Naschmarkt(from internet) It is our last day here in Vienna - it's hard to believe that we are going to be on our third part of the trip tommorrow - on to London!We visited the Naschmarkt today and it was impressive as usual. It is an open air market with probably every kind of food you can imagine from traditional Austrian to pretty much any other ethnicity! They have a cheese shop with probably a hundred or more varieties of cheese. We had lunch at a crepe place and I...http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/last-day-in-vienna.html Stephansdom in the rain- July 8, 2008 Stephansdom(pic from internet)Erin & I took the subway to Stephansplatz which is described as the heart of Vienna. We wanted to see the Stephansdom (huge cathedral) again and walk around the area which is really nice. We also wanted to take a tour of the Catacombs under the Stephansdom. We walked around a little and had lunch but then it started to rain which was unfortunate. We went into a couple of shops but then decided to go back to the cathedral and wait for the tour.We had toured the.http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/stephansdom-in-rain.html Day Trip to Rust & Lake Neusiedler- July 7, 2008 Kids & us on the paddle boatView of Neuseidler See Acres of SunflowersThe weather continues to be very good so we drove to a little town called Rust ("roost") which is by a huge lake - Neusiedler See - in an area called Burgenland. The Austrains go there to enjoy sailing, wind surfing, swimming etc. The drive there took about an hour from Vienna and we saw some of the most beautiful countryside we have ever seen! There were rolling hills with fields of wheat, corn and even vineyards, but.http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/day-trip-to-rust-lake-neusiedler.html Schnbrunn- July 7, 2008 Palm House at the ZooGloriette at Schnbrunn Palace Front of Schnbrunn PalaceWe have been having really great weather - it is not that hot at all especially compared to Italy. We decided to go to the Zoo at the Schnbrunn Palace. We had seen the interior of the palace at our last visit 2 years ago, so we decided not to do that again. The zoo was founded in 1752 and is the oldest zoo in the world. We saw some neat animals, nice flowers, had a picnic lunch and then took a train ride around the...http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/schnbrunn.html Stelze at the Prater- July 7, 2008 Giant Ferris WheelView of Vienna from the Ferris WheelStelze!!Erin & I walked to the nearby mall in the am to check on the photo situation - success! We will be able to publish some later as I can load them on a CD, so the pictures will be added to the blog later. Our main activity will be later at the Prater!One of Brigitte's friends was having her birthday celebration at a restaurant at the Prater, which is an amusement park with a lot of history behind it like everything else here! We...http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/stelze-at-prater.html On to Vienna- July 5, 2008 I am writing this in Vienna at Mahen's! We got here!Our last full day in Florence was June 29th. We met up with George & Joyce after their busy day and had dinner. They had visited an old cemetary with their group - they are kept very busy during the day. It was good to meet up with them although we had only three days of overlap. We then had to pack and get ready to leave the next day.Tom left earlier than Erin & I on the 30th for his flight to the States. Erin & I had our last...http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/on-to-vienna.html Day 2 in Vienna- July 5, 2008 Maya, Erin & Jeremy with Erin's Birthday Cake 0n July 1 Mahen & Erin walking down the path along the Danube River Taking a break on our long walk Mahen, Maya, Erin & I went for a long walk along the Danube yesterday evening. Mahen's apt. is pretty much next to the Danube. The weather was great and it is green and beautiful along the river. We walked across the bridge to the other side where there were lots of outdoor restaurants along the river with music etc. There were also huge..http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/day-2-in-vienna.html An Underground Sea & A Monastery- July 5, 2008 Courtyard of Monastery Tunnel in Sea GrottoWe had a change of plans and could not go to Salzburg because Jeremy had an ear infection. Mahen opted to stay at home with him so Brigitte, Maya, Erin & I went to see a place called the Sea Grotto in Hinterbrl which is about an half an hour out of Vienna. It's a vast underground area with water filled tunnels. It was a mine back in the 1920's or so that filled up with water. Prisoners were also kept there during WWII. Unfortunately the guide...http://europe2008gayanierin.blogspot.com/2008/07/underground-sea-monastery.html |