Tuesday 8/8/06 Vienna (day 1 of ?)

We woke up to interesting news today – it has rained so much in Southern Germany and Austria in the last day that the Danube has been rising 9cm every hour! So – for now, all traffic on the Danube is closed. We’re stuck in Vienna indefinitely Truly, I can think of worse predicaments…

Anyway, we went into town and got a tour of the Mozart 250th birthday museum exhibit. Very cool to see musical scores written in his own hand! Quite interesting political times – learning a lot about the Hapsburgs…I didn’t know that they were in power for 650 years.

At this point my family shunned the tourist fare to find an “authentic” place – which we did…very little English spoken, and no credit cards! We had a lovely lunch of schnitzel, wurst, Viennese coffee (I had a Kleine Mokka – black espresso) and then went to the premier Schokolader (chocolatier) in town to sample some lovely treats.

And then, as expected, my family broke down into tourist mode; they couldn’t decide where to go and started scouring the map. I took my cue and decided to wander the city, which allowed me to get lost on purpose (one of my favorite pastimes) and dig my way out without a map. Found my 2nd internet café so far, which has allowed to make this posting! Pictures coming soon…