Vienna 2024
Our yearly Vienna trip divides neatly into two parts: the first, longer part where I'm there on my own with the kids, and then the final two weeks when Mr. joins us. Now we're at the end of the first part, here's a photo dump of lots of things we've been up to. It's been hot - every day, pretty much, has been over 30 degrees and so there's a big theme of water!
The first four weeks
They played through the flights in advance - although what they didn't anticipate was that we'd miss our connection in Amsterdam, so we arrived around midnight! A few pictures of the lovely outside yard in the place where we're staying; we didn't take any indoor pics, but the place is very nice and much larger than any we've ever stayed in: 90 m2, with two bedrooms rather than a pull-out sofa in the lounge!
We were greeted by a very... interesting neighbour. Arriving at midnight on Saturday night we knew to be quiet, and I told the kids we'd walk in and go straight to bed. And so we did - walked into the flat in silence, just put our bags down and cleaned our teeth. 20 minutes later, the kids were in bed already and I was cleaning my teeth, police rang our doorbell! Apparently the downstairs neighbour complained of 'stomping' in our flat. That would be us, walking from room to room getting ready... my goodness. We're walking on tippy toes in that flat now.
The next morning, that neighbour showed up herself to tell me how awful and illegal it was that this flat is being rented out as an Airbnb. I let her rant, and the kids came to see her too, and I think she went away somewhat placated. Still, we'll have to be very careful here.
The kids spent their first week at dance camp, without me so there's no photos of that; I spent my childfree week mostly in bed with a cold. Oh well. Here's two photos of when they got their 'sweets plates' at the end of the dance camp show.
After that week, it was funtime! Lots of swimming, both in the danube and in various pools...
We also had some very interesting outings, from giving out food at a foodbank (my sister works for a charity and managed to organise this for us) to learning about all sorts of things...
My sister A organised for some friends of hers to take the kids out while I worked, and we also did a bit of sightseeing together. All this and many other activities - playgrounds, seeing Bernhard Fibich, walking with my aunt M, lots of ice cream eating - made up our month of summer fun so far. Now we can't wait to see Mr. again!
Reunited
It's the last night in our Airbnb - we're not actually flying home tomorrow, I made an error in the booking which means that we are checking out tomorrow but the flight isn't till Sunday! Luckily, my lovely sister is letting us stay at hers for that extra night.
The past two weeks have been as hot as the first four: very very different to last year, when I quickly realised I hadn't packed nearly enough long trousers and jumpers. This year, I had it all with me and never needed any of it: 30-35 degrees day after day. Which meant we did a lot less indoorsy things like museums, instead opting for slow days by the water.
Let's see what other activities we got up to. We had to do the Prater, of course, and luckily the day we chose for that was overcast and occasionally rainy (though still very warm!) which meant that very few people were there, and no queues. Much fun was had.
They were so happy to have daddy back! And then there was the military open day, which like last year they did enjoy very much.
Then we took a very long train journey - 3 hours - to Gmunden, in the picturesque Salzkammergut, and while the lower temperatures we hoped for didn't materialise, we did very much enjoy the cold lake! My aunt lives there, and invited us to use her flat for the time. It was quite a walk down to the lake, stunning scenery but the heat meant we were rather keen to get the walk over with!
And finally, just some random photos of mostly water related activities we got up to these past two weeks. That's another summer over, and we look forward to re-entering our regular lives - tanned, relaxed, and ready to tackle the next 'school' year. Oh, and we're all desperately looking forward to seeing our beloved dog Cody again!