Grandparents in Vienna

Grandma and Grandpa Burton spent 10 days with us in Austria. We had a great time touring Vienna, seeing the countryside, eating great food, and celebrating the kids' birthdays.

While Andrew was at work, we spent the weekdays playing in Vienna. Eden and Fox showed Grandma and Grandpa the playgrounds in town, and I took them to some of our favorite museums, churches, palaces, and city streets. Check out this slideshow for just a sampling of what they saw--the Votiv Church, St. Stephen's, Karl's Church, the Soviet war memorial, and the Hofburg...


Schonbrunn

And of course, we went to Schonbrunn a couple of times to enjoy the palace, the Children's museum (our first time there--what a blast dressing up like Habsburgs!), the maze and labrynth, and later, the zoo (see the last post)

Hallstatt
Because they were here over the 4th of July, Andrew had a 3-day weekend. We took full advantage to explore some other areas of Austria. First up was Hallstatt.

A tourist favourite in Austria, this Alpine village is a historic salt mining town built precariously over a lake. It was a stunning setting, despite a little bad weather. The hotel had a great view onto the main square; it almost made up for the unbelievable uncomfortable beds.

We also went hiking above the town and all of us except Fox and Grandma toured the Hallstatt saltmine. The highlight here was the wooden slides linking the mine shafts. Grandpa and Eden hit over 20 km/hour down these very long slides--Grandpa used his feet to slow down because he was a bit nervous for his little girl, but it looks like she wasn't worried at all. Andrew and I each broke 30! They wouldn't let Fox in because of age restrictions, but he had fun collecting rocks with Grandma.

Friesach
After Hallstatt, we headed down to Friesach, Austria's best preserved Medieval town--complete with moat, city wall, castle ruines, and cobblestones. It was the highlight of the weekend! Here we are at the ruines of an old cathedral above town (the rock we set Grandpa's camera on didn't hold it straight).

We stayed in a charming--and comfortable--guesthouse on the town square and spent the whole next day hiking around the ruines.

Hochosterwitz Castle

Just south of Friesach is Hochosterwitz castle, where we rounded out the long weekend. It was the best castle we've seen to date.


We also had a great time driving across through the beautiful Austrian countryside, especially as we crossed the Alps. It was a great weekend, and a great 10 days with Andrew's parents. We were sorry to see them go.