We took the train from Switzerland to Vienna so we could do some sightseeing through the Alps, it was a beautiful trip and again it was so surreal….but here’s the funny part. We paid for a first class cabin, yet our cabin happen to be the one without heat, so out of our nine hour trip we spent six of it with our jackets on but we made the best of it, we snuggled up to watch Christmas movies, enjoying snacks of more Swiss chocolates.
The hotel we booked in Vienna, was actually an apartment with a reception area and continental breakfast (Levante Lauden Apartments). Now this breakfast was the complete opposite of the one we enjoyed in Switzerland, but it filled the void and we were able to take advantage of the refrigerator in the room and filled it with juice and yogurts. We have found that we really enjoy not having a hotel room it really adds to the feel of the vacation, it makes the place feel more like “yours” and it gives you the feel like you’re living there or at least could live there. Vienna is a beautiful city with Baroque style architecture and the Christmas ambience really added to the feel of the city. We toured the Belvedere Palace and the Schonbrunn Palace as well as the many cathedrals that were there. We saw the Lippizzaner stallions, Sissy’s residence and visited endless Christmas markets. Of course eating lunch was still difficult, but w
e managed by stopping at every bakery that served apfelstrudel (apple strudel German style!) and one stop at McDonald’s just before the kids were going to revolt (it was very COLD and they needed to warm up). We did stop once at Figlmuller’s for their famous wiener schnitzel and it lived up to its reputation, delicious!! Other than that, the dinners were all over, we had Italian (by real Italians’) to Chinese (yes, by real Chinese), it was really nice to eat foods that are difficult to get in Ukraine. We however, made every effort to eat as much Viannese and Swiss traditional food s as we could….that’s why we bought ten apfelstrudels to take home with us.
The one thing that really struck us, was because this trip occurred so close to our last trip to Egypt we had barely finished the research before we were on the plane. So standing on the Chapel Bridge in Luzern to watching the Lippizzaner stallions felt incredible, it was like living inside an Encyclopedia, we saw a place on the internet and then BAM there we were standing in the very picture we just saw. There was another one of those incredible moments of “I can’t believe I’m here doing this” as we were resting on a bench at an open air ice skating rink looking at the Baroque style buildings around us….just thinking, WOW!
The hotel we booked in Vienna, was actually an apartment with a reception area and continental breakfast (Levante Lauden Apartments). Now this breakfast was the complete opposite of the one we enjoyed in Switzerland, but it filled the void and we were able to take advantage of the refrigerator in the room and filled it with juice and yogurts. We have found that we really enjoy not having a hotel room it really adds to the feel of the vacation, it makes the place feel more like “yours” and it gives you the feel like you’re living there or at least could live there. Vienna is a beautiful city with Baroque style architecture and the Christmas ambience really added to the feel of the city. We toured the Belvedere Palace and the Schonbrunn Palace as well as the many cathedrals that were there. We saw the Lippizzaner stallions, Sissy’s residence and visited endless Christmas markets. Of course eating lunch was still difficult, but w
e managed by stopping at every bakery that served apfelstrudel (apple strudel German style!) and one stop at McDonald’s just before the kids were going to revolt (it was very COLD and they needed to warm up). We did stop once at Figlmuller’s for their famous wiener schnitzel and it lived up to its reputation, delicious!! Other than that, the dinners were all over, we had Italian (by real Italians’) to Chinese (yes, by real Chinese), it was really nice to eat foods that are difficult to get in Ukraine. We however, made every effort to eat as much Viannese and Swiss traditional food s as we could….that’s why we bought ten apfelstrudels to take home with us. 
The one thing that really struck us, was because this trip occurred so close to our last trip to Egypt we had barely finished the research before we were on the plane. So standing on the Chapel Bridge in Luzern to watching the Lippizzaner stallions felt incredible, it was like living inside an Encyclopedia, we saw a place on the internet and then BAM there we were standing in the very picture we just saw. There was another one of those incredible moments of “I can’t believe I’m here doing this” as we were resting on a bench at an open air ice skating rink looking at the Baroque style buildings around us….just thinking, WOW! 
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