Austria and Slovenia, here we come!

It was my turn to chose where we're going on vacation, and I've always wanted to visit Slovenia, where three of my grandparents immigrated from. We decided that a good place to start our trip would be Austria. We’ve always wanted to visit Austria and were excited to hike in the Julian Alps while on our way to Ljubljana.

So, we’ll start in Vienna, travel by train to Salzburg, travel by train to Bled, rent a car in Bled and drive to the Julian Alps, take a bus to Lljubana, try to find my Slovenian family, and take a train back to Vienna.

This is the Vienna Opera House, which was less than a block from our hotel. We loved Vienna. It’s beautiful, easy to get around, and has so many interesting things to see.

Aren’t the steps to the art museum beautiful!

The Hofburg Palace. I bet they had a maid.

Ah, it's evening and we just happened to be lucky enough to be in Vienna on a day when the Opera had a free open air screening of the current opera. It attracts a large crowd, and they put chairs out for opera lovers. If no chairs are available, people just sit on the ground.

Yes, we stayed for a while and it was fun!

Oh my, we couldn't visit Vienna without trying their famous Sacher Torte.

The Danube is no longer blue, but it was beautiful to see anyway.

The Austrians welcomed Hitler and his promise of a better life than they had under the Hofsburg rule. He spoke from the balcony of the Hofburg Imperial Palace and the crowd filled the grounds.

Unfortunately, things quickly changed and this statue represents a Jewish man scrubbing the street with his toothbrush during Kristallnacht.

Vienna is also home to the Lipizzaner stallions. They’re so beautiful, and well groomed, and....

this is where they live! Honest! This is their barn, if you want to call it a barn. Stables, I guess, but talk about fancy dancey! The thing in the middle with a rail around it is the manure pit. Huh.

Lunch time was fun! We can’t speak the language so I pointed to what the woman in front of me bought. It was the right decision, it was great! Doesn't Bob look happy!

These sausage stands are run by former military personnel (or so they told us), and the food is great. The woman takes a roll, tears the end off, stuffs the roll onto one of the three spikes in front of her, squirts in a good bit of mustard (or whatever you tell her that you want), and then slides the sausage in. Brilliant!

Saint Stephens Cathedral

Saint Stephens is beautiful inside as well.

This is the Schönbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Habsburgs. Honestly, their summer home! It has more than 300 rooms in the main building alone! We toured the 40 rooms that are open to the public. They must have had more than one maid here. Ha!

We talked to a young woman on the train to Vienna and she told us not to miss eating the Emperor’s favorite dish. We walked, and walked, and walked until we found it. I love to try new foods!

Our opinion: it was ok. The Emperor lived before Cheese Puffy’s were invented, poor guy.

I took many, many photos, but I don’t want to bore you. After spending a few days in Vienna we took the train to Salzburg, so stay tuned!