We've been letting Helen Grace direct our summer travels while she's in high school to hit some of her bucket list spots. After experiencing the Monaco Formula1 race, she fell in love with watching races in amazing locations, so she set her sights on the Austrian Formula1 race. It's way out in the mountain countryside and hours from any large city (2.5 hrs from Vienna), so it took some convincing/ searching to figure out how to make it happen. Granddaddy and I got to work. Eventually, we decided to stay in Vienna. Graz is closer to the race, but we were trying to limit our suitcase movements and only GD, John, and HG were going to the race. Vienna gave Spiffer, Cressey, and I plenty to do while they raced. We flew Memphis - Detroit - Amsterdam - Vienna on Delta, leaving June 25 and arriving June 26, and had to conquer the new EES system in Amsterdam. In Vienna, we stayed at the Marriott Bonvoy which had connecting rooms for the four of us and a GREAT air conditioner!
Thank you, Marriott!
Flower booths everywhere
The architectural style feels Parisian but a little more spread out like Barcelona which rounded turrets which were all new to us. Lots of graffiti like Rome.
Dinner at Viva la Mamma
June 27. Buildings along the Danube canal that runs through town
Schonbrunn Palace I wasn't ready for how the girls were SO WOWWED by the size of it. It's like the scale of Versailles. Loved watching them soak it in. I insisted on pics as soon as we arrived/ our day started because it was a scalding 98 degrees and the hair was going into a ponytail immediately. We took a tour of the State Rooms. One of those tours where you hold the speaker up to your ear and move at your own pace. (Enter at the door allllll the way to the left on the front of the palace)
Look at the view of the garden behind it! We passed this view during the tour and knew we wanted to go back there to see the gardens.
Thanks to Google pics for taking out the million tourists behind the girls.
Shade meant an opportunity for another family pic
We had to see that fountain, but it's wayyyyy out there.
We initially wanted to see those arches on top of the hill, but once we made it to the fountain, we were too hot and headed to shade.
Looking back at the Palace from the fountain
I asked ChatGPT to find me a restaurant for lunch close by with a great view of town and easy food for kids. It popped out Settimo Cielo on the top floor of Hotel Royal. (There are plenty of cabs/ Ubers waiting to the left when you walk out of the palace) We walked into the restaurant with this beautiful view of old town Vienna, but as we sat down and looked at the menu, I didn't see any of the Italian/ easy kids food. Turns out that the menu I saw on ChatGPT was actually at the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel. The waitress was so nice when we admitted we needed to switch, and she said, "Well come see the view before you go downstairs!" We thought she meant the town view, but as she led us to the bar and turned a corner, St. Stephen's loomed in front of us! We were AGHAST! She even opened the big window so we could get good pics!
BAM!
Moma and Daddy loved the lemon sorbet with vodka at Firenze Enoteca!
St. Stephen's is just breathtaking
We took the tiniest elevator I've ever been in up the south tower (short one; north one is taller but has stairs), and we were right on top of the beautiful tiled roof. I've never seen anything like this! For the record, the elevator could only hold maybe 4-5 people.
The artwork and sculptures were quicky and darker than we've seen. Lots of skulls.
I believe this is or was a clock of some kind??
Sunday, June 28, John, GD, and HG are on their way to the Formula1 race at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.
I was tracking them on Life360, and I thought it was funny that it showed HG as a race car as they were on their way to a race!
While the boys and HG enjoyed the race, Spiffer, Cress, and I explored the Haus des Meeres, Museum der Illusionen, and the Spanish Riding School. Haus des Meeres is a 10+ story aquarium with buildings and floors cobbled together and animals. Other than fish, they had a ton of different kind of monkeys too!
This touch tank might be the highlight of Cressey's entire trip
She was showing me the tiniest starfish ever
Back to the touch tank
There's a beautiful restaurant on top of the building. I had planned on eating lunch there, but when we showed up at 11:30, they said lunch didn't begin until 12. That's ok, we can sit and cool down with a mimosa for a while! And when I asked for ice, they brought me a "cooler" full of ice!
What a view!
I had heard that Vienna changed some of their pedestrian crossing signs to a couple with a heart for a Pride event a few years ago, but it took me a while to find one. Bingo!
Next, we were headed to the Museum of Illusions, and our Uber driver gave us a great tour from the car. This is a huge museum attached/ adjacent to the president's mansion.
President's Residence that you drive through and past
This is a 'courtyard' adjacent to the President's house that you drive through as you pass through town, and the Spanish Riding School is directly to your right
Museum of Illusions. Very similar to other locations we've been to, but there were still some new-to-us parts. It was half air conditioned and half fan-powered. It was so fun to see how much fun Spiffer had!
We sent this to GD at the race ("Help! Spiffer has fallen!") and got him for a split second!
The Spanish Riding School is on the left side of this building.
That courtyard that we had driven through earlier
Spanish Riding School
Tribute to the king that brought the Lipizzan horses to Austria/ king's box
Their 'indoor' practice ring
The courtyard of the building where the stables are
The horses are on vacation during the summer, but there were a few there that we could see. They are all white horses (born black haired) except for one black horse in the barn to bring good luck.
Love all the detail in the tack room. The details on how hard the riders have to work through the years to move through the training were mind blowing.
Spiffer, Cressey, and I had dinner at Champions in the lobby of our hotel that night, and we had room service waiting for the race crowd! What a full and wonderful (and HOT 102 degrees) day!
