Random observations in Vienna

We saw accordion players in every city we visited, in fact I think Delaney took photos of all of them, but only in Vienna did we see two horses playing accordions!

 There are lots of confection stores in Vienna, but this particular treat caught my eye.  Marshmellows are not really a thing in Europe, so this was surprising.  I particularly liked that they were shaped like strawberries with a green frosting stem.

Food names are so fun, especially in German!

My favorite word:  Schlagobers = whip cream!

Many signs have only pictograms instead of words.  I liked this 'no soccer' sign in a nearby park. 

The students noticed the much more visible presence of recycling in Europe.  Although I have to say some of the containers are easier to interpret than others.  Not all the pictures made it obvious what items go in which containers, and the words do not always help either. 

The trash can in our apartment kitchen clearly was designed appropriately:  largest container for recycled materials, and smaller container for non-recyclables.  I wish our local trash hauler could figure this reality out!

Love the item at the bottom of this menu (ew!)  The students all remarked how many Europeans smoked and how grossed out they were by this.  No one in our group smoked. 

An accurate labeling for the dessert menu, but perhaps not the best selling point (?)

Every menu we read had a very robust allergy disclosure on it.  One menu had a footnote that this was according to EU regulation.  It was interesting to see what all was included.  I had no idea that "celery" was a problematic allergen...

You can't quite tell from this photo, but the airport worker with the hat has a traditional Austrian hat that is hazmat yellow!

Our "apartments" in Vienna

We've been happy with our apartments in Vienna.  We have three quad rooms with kitchettes and their own bathroom facilities.  There is a long courtyard that runs the length of the building.  I think there are a number of permanent residents that live in the building (and probably just love having the other apartments rented out to tourists - not).  The courtyard is pretty echoey when people are out there, but the 10 quiet hour seems to be respected.  Much easier to sleep than in Madrid!

It's been quite warm in Vienna (nearly 80 each day), but has cooled off to 70 each evening. Without AC, this makes the rooms a little warm at first, but ok once the windows are opened. 

Our group on the third floor noted that one night the room on one side of them (apparently the dormitory room for the hostel) was singing and carrying on, and the neighbor from the other side of their room walked across the balcony and yelled at the people in the dormitory to be quiet.  Our group wanted to cheer.  LOL.   We made a point not to get yelled at.

Train ride through Switzerland

We had a beautifully clear day to travel by train today.  I had a hard time doing anything other than looking out the window and snapping a million photos.  Below are my few selections to share.

The one down side to the trip was that we were on the "local" not the "Express" train.  I lost track at about 15 of how many small towns we stopped at along the way.  It made the journey very very long.  We were worn out from sitting down for 10+ hours by the time we arrived in Vienna.  Too tired to really even go walk in the center city and see the lights.

Above Lac Leman

Not Lac Leman (but not sure what lake it is)

Our reserved seats were in the "Family zone", which I have never seen before.  

The family zone included a small carpeted, stair step area with kid videos playing the whole time.  We made the mistake of putting all our luggage here when we boarded, so we had to move it after we realized that was not what the steps were for.  Several kids boarded later in the morning and spent a lot of time sitting here and wiggling around without bothering their parents or anyone else.  Good idea!

I walked the full length of the train at one point and realized our car was the only one that had a push button to open the sliding door between cars (the rest of the doors were automatic).  I realized afterwards that this was because we were in the Kid zone and you wouldn't want your kid to escape or constantly be activating the door by going in and out of the video viewing area.  Another good idea.

Bike Ride along Lake Leman

After our boat ride, we decided to rent bikes and ride along the bike path by the side of the lake.  At first we struggled through hoardes of pedestrians, then we reached a clear stretch and picked up speed, then we moved beyond the scenic byway and ended up on the working bike lane on the highway.  We eventually reached a park and stopped for a while.  

It was cool that the bikes were free for 4 hours from several different stations around the city.  We got the last 4 ones available at this location.  

It was cleared on this day than any other time I've been in Geneva.  Not only could we see the high peak visible in this picture, if you looked really closely at the clouds to the right, we could see snow covered peaks beyond it.   I could have happily sat here for an hour, but Delaney was eager to get back and swim in the lake with some of the other students, so we headed back to town. The challenge was that the bike lanes were one way on each side of the highway and I had no idea how to cross to the other side, so we carefully rode the wrong way on the path we originally took until we could safely cross at an intersection. 

Boat ride on Lac Leman

It was a beautiful day to go for a ride on the lake in Geneva.  It was so clear that you could see the higher alps above the foothills around the city.

Jet d'eau.  7 tons of water in the air at any given moment.  Comes out at 200 Kph!

We passed right by the swimming beach/pier which was packed!  Several members in the group decided this was their destination after we got off the boat.  

St. Pierre's Cathedral

We've stayed at the same place in Geneva the four times we've visited the city and it is so wonderful.  It's right on the square of St Pierre's cathedral. The bells chime every quarter hour and you can sip your morning coffee while taking in this view from your front porch.

This was a very different church for the group to visit, the first Protestant church to be toured.  The stark difference in decor was very obvious. Some liked the contrast, some did not. We climbed to the top of the two towers and got a wonderful view of the city.

One member of our group came back for an organ concert (final student recital) in evening.

Fondue in Switzerland

After experiencing Flamenco in Spain, I wanted the students to have a similar taste of Switzerland.  Thanks to a friend's recommendation, we found this fondue restaurant that had live entertainment.  There were two accordion players, who also interjected songs with a 'Swiss horn' (??), tuned cow bells, a saw blade, and some kind of rithym instrument I couldn't quite see from my seat.

We had some confusion about just wanting to each dessert fondue (they wanted us to pay for a full meal fondue since we were there at dinner time, not dessert time), but we worked out an arrangement.

The place was charmingly Swiss, with the wooden chalet structure, and a giant stuffed Saint Bernard.

We got fruit and chocolate!

You can see the horn mounted on the stair railing.  It was so long, it would be hard to play without standing on the stairs.

They let guests give it a try after they finished their song.  Two members of our group, including our tuba player gave it a try.  Fun!

Sunsets each night were quite pretty.