Grindelwald

It was a quick weekend getaway planned at the very last minute as I was not at my fittest. And we had three brilliant sunny days nestled in the foothills of the majestic Alps.
During our first year in Germany, we used to visit Switzerland almost every other weekend. We were so enchanted by its beauty. It is for sure one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Despite several visits, we have never once taken the ever popular train to Jungfraujoch, top of Europe. This time, we decided to drive to Grindelwald although we have been there several times and Papa and Mummy have been there last year as well. Grindelwald is full of beautiful chalet hotels and holiday apartments and it is difficult to make a bad choice. Although we have been booking only apartments for all our recent vacations, this time we went for a hotel.
We reached there on Friday afternoon and went for a stroll in Grindelwald. Three Apline mountains - Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are visible from Grindelwald. The views are beyond decription and can only be experienced. It is so heavenly to wake up in the morning and look at the majestic peaks - one can only marvel at nature's glory. Another amazing thing is, how sunny and bright it is - in all my visits, I cannot remember a single cloudy day in Grindelwald.

On Saturday, we saw an Indian movie being shot in Grindelwald. The hero was old enough to claim the senior citizen benefits and the heroine was probably a teenager. They were doing some ridiculous dance steps on the road and quite a few people were watching and having a laugh. We drove to Strechelbach to take the cable car to Mürren via Gimmelwald. It is quite cheap at just 21 CHF per person and totally worth the money. There are many farms at Gimmelwald and several hiking tracks for the fit and athletic. We just had a lazy stroll in the almost car free village. I say almost car free because we saw a few agricultural vehicles and a couple of beat up all terrain vehicles on the roads. One can sit down on the old benches on the hiking trails and soak in the spectacular views of the mountains. There are a couple of restaurants offering very cheap fare as well.
It is possible to hike to Mürren and to several other villages from Gimmelwald, but we took it easy and took the cable car. Mürren is another quaint little alpine village and there are more hiking trails there, some going all the way up to Schilthorn. But that is for someone looking for adventure and with Sunshine, his pram, Papa, Mummy and our own tired feet, we wanted nothing more adventerous than a stroll in the village. We had our picnic lunch and Sunshine drifted off to sleep after all the 'hiking' that he had to do. The rest of us continued our walk around the village and then sat down for coffee on the terrace of a cafe from where we could watch paragliders. In summer, the region is full of sport enthusiasts - cyclists, hikers, paragliders and I felt like a couch potato even though I was outdoors all the time.
On Sunday, we decided to take an easy hiking trail in Grindelwald and enjoy the mountain air before driving back.

Sweet tooth

We had to drive back on Sunday, but there was just enough time to once again indulge our sweet teeth at one of the Viennese cafes. We went to a cafe chain called Oberlaa and had brunch there; and ofcourse our coffees and hot chocolates and most importantly, our cakes. We bought some Sachertorte for later as well. The funny part is, it didnt really survive until much later. We ate it up all during the drive back.

Rainy day

Saturday was a wet wet day after a night of thunderstorms. So we decided to spend it indoors in museums. We visited the Hofsburg Palace which was the winter residence of the Habsburg dynasty. It was a huge palace and part of it is currently the sear of the President of Austria.

Hofburg Palace

The first of the museums that we visited was the silver collection which housed the very grand and very vast cutlery, crockery and other tableware, kitchenware and household utensils that belonged to the Habsburg dynasty. The collection was magnificent and many pieces were extremely beautiful as well. Mummy, Papa and I took the tour and left DH and sunshine behind partly because DH is not interested in any kind of museums and partly because Sunshine would get bored.

An exhibit in the silver collection

The next museum was the Sisi museum, also housed in the Habsburg Palace. It depicts the story of empress Elisabeth who was a renowned beauty, but led a very tragic, reclusive life. There were several personal items on display - things right from her infancy to her death. The displays and the intelligent lighting in the museum captures the enigma of all accepts of her personality - an extremely beautiful empress who was a restless soul, a misfit in the imperial society, a rebel, a poet, a slave to her own beauty and finally a depressed, melancholic woman who withdrew from public and her own family. While I was fascinated by the museum I was happy to get out because it was a bit depressing.

The next museum that we visited were the imperial apartments, which were the actual rooms that were occupied by emperor Franz Joseph and empress Elisabeth. This felt like any ordinary museum especially after the Sisi museum which captured my imagination. The emperor lived in a quite spartan surrounnding as he was apparently not very interested in luxuries. The empress' rooms were slightly more luxurious and she even had a personal gym, but they were also not out of the world.

By the time we finished the tour of the three museums, the weather had cleared slightly and Sunshine had his nap on DH's lap. We drove to the Wiener Riesenrad which of one of the earliest Ferris wheels. By the time we reached there, it started drizzling again. So we couldn't do nothing much except some souvenir shopping. Sunshine got to take a ride on the banging cars with DH and it was time to retire for the day.

Outdoors

On Friday, we woke up very late, since Sunshine also slept in, to a brilliant morning. After a quick breakfast at home, we packed enough snacks for Sunshine and drove to the Schönbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the Austrian monarchy.
It was such a glorious day and we didnt want to spend it indoors. So, we skipped the palace tour and went straight to the vast palace gardens. It is so huge and divided into several sections with each section featuring a different style of landscaping. It was too vast to be covered in one day, atleast at our pace, so we did not rush ourselves. We just wandered around aimlessly soaking in the beautiful day outdoors, lazing around on park benches. Sunshine chased countless ducks and pigeons, screamed 'hosh' every time he saw a horse drawn carriage with tourists and threw stones into the fountains. He is an outdoor boy and is happy anywhere in the world as long as it is sunny and he gets to run around.

Gloriette

After spending most of the hot afternoon in the garden, we decided to walk to the monument Gloriette which is on a small hill across the palace. On the way, we stopped at a cafe and indulged ourselves again with some local delicacies both sweet and savoury. At the top of the hill, one gets a beautiful view of the Schönbrunn palace set against the backdrop of the city. We spent some time there enjoying the view and letting Sunshine explore around.

Schönbrunn Palace

We called it a day rather early as all of us were tired after all the walking around.

Gruess Gott Vienna

It was yet another long weekend in a series of long weekends here in Germany. Thursday was a holiday and we took Friday off and drove to Vienna for four days. It was about 7 hours drive with a couple of breaks. We had booked a small apartment very close to the Ringstrasse, where all the cafes and most tourists can be found.
After checking in, we headed to Stephansdom, the ancient cathedral and probably the most important landmark in Vienna. The square next to the cathedral, Stephansplatz, is lined with many cafes and all of them were brimming with patrons both local and visitors. We took a table on the terrace of one of the cafes and it was so close to the church that it was like sitting in the churchyard. The square was full of street artists and small crowds around them. Sunshine ran after the pigeons on the square while we drank our coffees and had our cakes. Vienna is a cake lovers paradise with an amazing variety of delicious cakes and pastries available in numerous cafes dotted all over the city. So much so that Mummy who is a vegetarian decided to eat cakes as long as she is in Vienna. ;) Papa, Mummy and I stuck to the most famous fare, sachertorte  while DH had a cardinalschnitte.

Stephansdom

We had a lazy walk back to the apartment through the cobbled streets and past many old and historic buildings and had frozen yoghurt on the way. That is right, we eat a lot while on vacation (and otherwise as well;)) although one would never guess that by looking at DH. After visiting so many European cities with well preserved historic buildings, we seem to take them for granted. I remember in the initial days, when we had just moved here, we would click so many snaps in front of every building and take the trouble to find out what it was. Now, we just walk past them although we still enjoy the flavour that they bring to the city.

Tick tock Triberg

My parents in law are here for visit and our initial plan for the long weekend was to go to East Switzerland. However, we decided against it as it would be too much for them right after the long flight. So, on Sunday, we headed to Triberg, the highest waterfall in Germany set in the scenic Schwarzwald aka Black Forest.

Part of the drive was through the Black Forest and therefore very scenic. It is so green and full of live on a sunny day that one can almost forget the dark, grey, dull days that one has to constantly face in Germany. I think when it comes to bad weather, Germany should be right up there with England although England seems to be more notorious.

There is a small entry fee to the waterfall - 3.50 € per person. It is a good place to take a not so difficult hike and get some good views of the fall. The fall itself is broken into several levels and is not a single big fall. There is an easy route and a difficult route available for the hike. The routes are lined with beeches, pines and other trees which I cannot name due to my extremely limited knowledge in botony. :) There are plenty of very friendly squirrels all over the place and one can buy a bag of peanuts to feed them at the ticket counter.

We took the easy route as Sunshine was there with us and had a small picnic of bulgur and gigantes plaki that we had packed. Sunshine was so happy to be outdoors on a fine day - he ran all over the place - up and down the slopes looking for squirrels. We didnt go all the way up but had a good time nonetheless.

Once we came back into the town, we bought a cuckoo clock at a shop called Elbe. The largest cuckoo clock in the world is situated right next to the shop, but it was already closed by the time we reached. We had been inside the clock a couple of times before, but it would have been interesting for Papa and Mummy.We then had a very late 'Kaffee and Kuchen' pause at a local cafe. Mummy and I had some delicious eggless sachertorte, DH had Apfelstrudel and Papa had a piece of Schwarzwaldkirschtorte which was a bit too full of liquer for his taste.

Black Forest is so nice when the weather is good. Since we travel far so often, we havent spent much time exploring Germany. Need to do this more often.