Vienna - Getting & Staying There

It took us awhile to get to Vienna; Minneapolis to Boston with a delay for de-icing in Minneapolis, Boston to Amsterdam, with an unexplained delay in Boston, and finally, Amsterdam to Vienna with a delay due to a problem with the plane in Amsterdam. We got into Amsterdam nearly two hours later than expected, so it was dark by the time we got to the apartment, but Odin did well on most of the flights and got enough sleep that he went to bed at a pretty normal time and was mostly on his normal schedule from the first day we got to Vienna. Too bad Chad and I didn't adjust as quickly.

The apartment was even more fabulous than the photos and description, and Ulrika, the owner, did a wonderful job of making us feel at home. She must be psychic, since she had a whole series of children's books on trucks just for Odin, along with a box of toys and many other books. Odin was happy to have lots of trucks to look at and enjoyed having the run of the apartment. Chad enjoyed not having to worry about Odin around stairs, although we did have three flights to go up/down whenever we came home or went out. It was great to have enough space for all of us, and to have a kitchen so we could cook our own meals and keep Odin's food in stock. We even found his favorites, yogurt, crackers and cottage cheese, at the local supermarket down the street.

My friend from when I studied in Vienna met us at the apartment that first night, and we went out for dinner at Cafe Hummel, just up the street from our apartment. I finally got some cevapcici (sausage) again and although Chad was tempted to get the Wienerschnitzel (and turns out he should have gotten it, since we didn't make it out for dinner again), he had the bratwurst. So, a tasty dinner for us, and a perfect outing for our first night in Vienna.

We were lucky to have a streetcar line right outside our apartment. The number 2 took us straight to the Ring Street, the main street that goes around the central district and hits all the major sites, so it was very easy for us to go sightseeing and Odin got lots of train rides and got to see lots of trucks along the way.

Paris is called the city of lights, but Vienna lights up the whole town for the holidays. Even our street had lights strung up for Christmas. So, even though there wasn't any snow on the ground, it still felt like Christmas with all the lights.