Vienna was our first stop during our two week holiday. I had visited Vienna briefly on a European tour 12 years ago (feeling so young right now…) but KC had never been. We spent five nights there, staying at an Airbnb near the city center. We ate lots of schnitzel and sausage, drank all sorts of beer, and basically had all the carbs. We also of course made time to stop for ice cream, and at one point we unknowingly ordered poppy seed ice cream, which was a weird discovery. It basically tasted like a poppy seed muffin in ice cream form. I wasn’t sold on it, but the kids didn’t seem to mind the flavor. Vienna also has something called “eiskaffe,” which my sister and I discovered when we visited the city back in 2006. We actually saw someone at another table with it and flagged down our waiter because we had to know — WHAT WAS THAT. It’s ice cream with coffee, topped with whipped cream, so I mean, if there’s anything more vacation-y than that, I don’t know what it is. We walked all over the place with the girls, who decided that sharing our single travel stroller was preferable to the ride on board. At some point when you’re traveling with toddlers you sort of give up on putting your foot down about certain things and just let it happen. We visited the aquarium in Vienna, which is housed in a former Nazi anti-aircraft tower. Apparently they tried to destroy the building after the war, but the dang thing was so sturdy that it was almost impossible to take down, so they filled it with sea life instead. You can go all the way up to the top, which has a pretty incredible view of the city.  I should also note that KC had to turn his phone back into the Dutch office before we left the Netherlands, so we only had my phone during our travels. This meant that KC pretty much always had it, since women’s clothing companies refuse to put usable pockets into their clothing and because KC is always the one navigating when we’re out and about. This means that there are wayyy more pictures of me from these two weeks and I didn’t get any of my usual shots of KC walking with the girls.  We visited one of Vienna’s famous coffee houses (not to be confused with Amsterdam coffeeshops) and attempted to keep the girls from being too wild while taking in the culture. I’d love to say that they were perfect and behaved beautifully, but let’s just say that newly 3 and 15 months are tough ages to travel with. Lots of OPINIONS.

Last time I visited Vienna was with a choir tour. If you haven’t known me for a long time, this probably sounds super weird, but I sang in choirs for most of my life. My sister and I joined a tour that was traveling to Salzburg, Vienna and Prague to sing for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, the summer after I graduated from UCLA. We sang at various churches, so KC and I decided to visit the one I sang at in Vienna — the Votivkirche. Unfortunately we managed to venture over there on the one day a week that it’s closed, which was a bummer. Luckily there’s a park right in front, so the girls got to run around for a bit (even as we got caught in a surprise downpour!)  Onto Prague next! That gothic architecture, the mid-train ride meltdowns… don’t miss it!