Jim subscribes to some website named “Scott's Cheap Flights”, or something like that. I don't really know much about it other than that we pay some small fee every quarter and Jim gets emails regularly with fare sales. This helps us to not only find good fares to places we want to visit, but also, helps us let friends and family know when there is a good fare sale to somewhere we are going to be. Yay for visitors!

So, when we saw fare sales from a bunch of US cities to Vienna for $300-400, we put the word out to a few people. My mom jumped at the chance to come visit for a week 😀 This is one of the benefits of staying in one city for 7 weeks in an airbnb. We have an extra bedroom and plenty of space and an opportunity to scope out the fun stuff!

We spent the week doing touristy things (day trip to Salzburg) and not so touristy things (grocery shopping and morning runs). Here's a run down of our adventures 🏃

Churches (if you have traveled in Europe, you know how AMAZING the churches are here):

WienerWiesn Fest (aka Vienna's version of Oktoberfest) started on Thursday- so we had to check it out obviously. It lasts about 2 weeks and each day, a different region of Austria is represented with their music, culture, etc. We headed over on the first afternoon thinking it would be pretty dead- you know, because it’s a Thursday afternoon. No…it was crazy. The singing, the dancing, the eating, the drinking. I had no idea there were so many German/Austrian folk songs. It was really cool though. I’m sure Jim and I will venture over a few more times in the next few weeks!

Next up on our adventure was a trip to the Vienna Opera House to get a little culture! None of us are particularly passionate about the opera, but well, you’re in Vienna, and their opera house is like one of the best in the world- and when you can get standing room tickets for 10 Euro, how can you not go check it out at least for an hour or so? We met a really nice Italian guy that retired to Vienna - and he gave us the inside scoop- we can get a BundestheaterCard (free) and get standing room tickets for only 3 euro. We may do that and check out a few more operas while we are in town!

And…for those of you that know me well…you know Sound of Music is one of my most favorite movies of all time. My mom is a fan too…and since Jim was outnumbered, we took a day trip to Salzburg where we hit up some Sound of Music filming locations. Then hiked up to Festung Hohensalzburg (the Fortress). It was even MORE fun than I imagined it would be. You can’t watch the Sound of Music every single day after school for a year and not be excited when you see the filming locations!

Oh, and we did head over to Schönbrunn Palace to explore the grounds as well. Wow, just wow! Just think, everything I own fits in a 5x5 storage unit…and this palace was just the “summer” palace with “just” 1,441 rooms and about 460,000 acres.

Last, but not least, we ate pretzels, ice cream, sausages, and delicious home cooked meals…oh…and brought my mom to her first ever art musuem (Upper Belvedere where many of Gustav Klimt's art is displayed, including “The Kiss”)!

We sent my mom off this morning. It was a wonderful week and I’m so glad she came and hung out. She’s joining us in Cape Town and I’m hoping to convince her to meet up with us in Barcelona :)