A few semi-random photos of Vienna

The Sites of Vienna

My Lonely Planet travel book describes Vienna's grandeur, making mention of "grand imperial palaces and bombastic baroque interiors, revered opera houses and magnificent squares."  My experience in Vienna has been quite different.  Besides a couple of hours spent wandering the downtown core I have been to several playgrounds, a swimming facility, and the Vienna Zoo (twice).  At least I can say that I'm not having the typical tourist experience.

Our strategy of taking turns spending quality time with Alex while the other person visited places of interest was a good one.  Unfortunately, it didn't factor in the possibility of Thipp being beset by migraines.  So over the past couple of days the little man and I have set-out on activities orientated towards his enjoyment (especially if it includes icecream).  We then return to the apartment mid-afternoon with his sleeping head resting on my shoulder.  Exploring a new city can be exhausting, after-all.

The Vienna Zoo had some additional intrigue for me.  Besides being the world's oldest zoo, founded in 1752, many years ago I had read a number of John Irving's novels (The World According to Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, Cidar House Rules, and a Prayer for Owen Meany) and recalled that bears made semi-regular appearances, including one from the Vienna Zoo.  I figured that the zoo must have been a hang-out spot for Irving (especially given the economics of buying an annual pass...believe me, I checked it out).  However, while at the zoo I didn't find any reminder of Irving and the black bears were snoozing in the shade.  However, I did see an impressively active polar bear (pictured in the blog) and three pandas (I thought that it was only possible to see these in China or Toronto).  Best of all, we found a playground and, of course, some ice cream.  I'm sure that in Alex's eyes this was grandeur.

Vienna Zoo

Schloss Schonbrunn (summer palace), Vienna, Austria

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral

Czeching out Prague

Prague is an interesting city, with loads of history, great architecture, and tasty and inexpensive beer.  However, what I've learned during the past few days is that Prague has some really good playgrounds, that exploring the old city and the castle district crowded with tourists is pretty tiring when you have a three year-old who wants to be carried (although to his credit, he did climb a lot of steps up to Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral), and that the beer still tastes good even when you have to buy it in a store and drink it in your room, as I'm doing at this very moment.

We've been on the road now for just over three weeks and we're learning what travel strategies work best for us.  Longer stays are preferable as we can still see some of the sites while ensuring that we find sufficient activities for Alex plus fit in his nap.  If Alex is happy then we're all happy.

We've had some "interesting" accommodation experiences so far.  Upon our second visit to Copenhagen we had to bail on a filthy apartment booked via AirBnB and quickly find a hotel (which turned out to be quite nice and located right on historic Nyhavn.  Our current apartment in Prague is really nice, but the battery operated room lock went out of commission forcing one of us to stay in at all times for fear of being permanently locked out.  We are in a new room now and have learned some lessons for screening future accommodation.

Tomorrow we leave for a week in Vienna, Austria.  Apparently, the apartment we are renting is close to a large park with a zoo.  Hopefully it has a playground.   After that we are off to Croatia.  At least that is the current plan.

Middelfart, Denmark

Alex with his new hero Lucas

Alex helping Stine with her horse Selka

Dinner with Christian, Stine and Lucas

Marvelous Middelfart

Not surprisingly,  I didn't have the highest of expectations before visiting my friends Kristian and Stine in their hometown of Middelfart, Denmark.  A name like doesn't conjure up thoughts of a Nordic paradise.  Situated on the island of Funen, Middelfart is connected by two bridges to the Jutland Peninsula to its west.  I figured that this fact would be the most interesting thing about Middelfart, but I have certainly been proven wrong.

What a beautiful spot.  We've been here for about a week and we continue to be pleasantly surprised by the town and it's surrounding area.  With beautiful homes, plenty of greenspace, a quaint town centre, and water seemingly everywhere, we found ourselves checking out the real estate market after a few days here (very different than Vancouver's).

My long-term blog followers will remember Kristian and Stine from my blog update from Hong Kong, written on May 31, 2006.  Kristian and I go back as far as 1982, which when we realized equates to one-third of a century made us feel very old.  I haven't seen Kristian for about six years and Stine for about nine years, but upon arrival it felt more like just a couple of weeks.  They have been wonderful hosts.  Thipp has contributed a couple of meals, resulting in her now having an open invitation to return with the option of bringing me or not.

Back in 1986 I spent about one month working on Kristian's family's farm in Toftlund (we all agreed that I didn't have a future in farming).  Although it was a very small town, I had a great time thanks to Kristian's group of friends.   During our current visit Kristian arranged for a number of them to come over for dinner one evening and we had a great night of catching-up and reminiscing.  I last saw them all eleven years ago at Kristian and Stine's wedding and hopefully it won't be that long before we meet again.

Middlefart reunion with friends from Toftlund, Denmark

The Cooks Kristian and Thipp

Ribe, Denmark

Ribe is the oldest town in Denmark

Legoland at Billund, Denmark

Tivoli, Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

Cruising in Copenhagen

We arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, slightly burned-out from an early start in Reyjavik and a series of line-ups at the airport before finally boarding our flight.  We then faced the additional stress of one of our bags not appearing (no, it was not the one with Thomas the train and his tracks.  Fortunately, our luck turned for the better when coming back from a bank machine I happened upon our bag on the wrong carousel.

We are staying in a nice one bedroom apartment in the Vesterbro neighbourhood, which is only about a 15 minute walk to the central railway station.  This area strikes me as being Copenhagen's version of Kits, as everyone seems to be young, fit and good-looking.  Now I feel like a foreigner for multiple reasons.

Yesterday was a fun day.  In the morning Alex and I visited the zoo.  He was especially excited to see so many animals that the he had only seen before in books.  He yelled excitedly when recognizing many of the animals and his favourites were probably the elephants, the camels and the cows.  He quite enjoyed the father and son outing as he knew that I would more than likely buck-up for ice cream.

In the evening we visited Copenhagen's famed Tivoli amusement park.  Established in 1843 it's sort of like Vancouver's PNE, except without the farm animals, and people are generally much better dressed, and its situated in a lovely park setting with beautiful night lighting, and there are more high-end restaurants than rides...okay, it's not all that much like the PNE.  It was a place for all ages as the children came for the rides, the young adults came for romance or to drink, and the elderly came to remember when they were young.

Today we finally ventured into the central and main touristy part of town.  We took a one-hour boat tour, which gave us a nice look around and then walked along a major pedestrian shopping area. Alex's favourite vantage point for site-seeing is achieved by my carrying him, so we didn't take too many detours.  We returned home early in the evening walking by several happening bars in our neighbourhood packed with young, good looking people and I'm sure we all thought to ourselves how much life has changed.

Second Stop - Denmark

Geysir and Gullfoss Waterfall, Golden Circle, Iceland