Crisp apple strudel, door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles.

Day 20: Today we crossed the border to Austria as I slaughtered Jeff at yahtzee and connect four. Tomi said, as we drove over the border, that you could tell when you had got to the Austrian roads because they were smoother then Czech ones. We arrived in Vienna by lunch time and Tomi took us on our routine orientation walk around the city, introducing us to Stephensplatz and cathedral, Staatsoper, the Albertina, Kaisergruft, Museum Quater and the Castle where the Rathaus, Parliament and Spanish riding school are. We ended at a little foodies festival in the Rathaus park. From there I went to Stadtpark, passing Beethovenplatz, then on to Karlskirche to see Mozart's Requiem. Waiting in line, I met two lovely Italians from Trento who invited me to come and visit. The concert was pretty awesome, but the acoustics were pretty lousy because it caused the whole piece to drag. After the concert, the boys and I went out to get some coffee and studel. Yum!Man. This is cool.

Day 21: After breakfast I met up with Frank, David and Jeff, first stop Stephensdom. I went to the mass, which was beautiful in the native language. Next we went to Zentralfriedhof, burial place of some of music's greats: Brahms, Schubert, Strauss, Beethoven... even Falco! Jeff was excited about that one. We bypassed St. Marks because we figured Mozart was buried in a mass grave so no one was even sure where his body was.

We headed back to Karlzplatz for some lunch, where I had the BEST felafal in Europe : ) Next stop was Schloss Schonbrunn, which in a nutshell, is HUGE. The palace makes Buckingham look feeble, and the gardens are something like 2.5km square, all perfectly manicured, complete with a hedge maze, fountains and zoo. I settled under a tree and read for a while before going back into town to get some Schnitzel for dinner with the crew. My my my was there a lot of schnitzel! Dig in!

And it was on that note that I ended the Austrian leg of my trip. I think I got in as much as was humanly possible! I'm getting hungry for Hungary!