Vienna

Brian had to be up and out early to the meeting(s) that brought us to Vienna. Originally, we were going to go straight home from Salzburg, but when the meeting in Vienna came up, we changed our plans and drove the few extra hours so Brian didn’t need to fly off to Austria right after coming back from vacation. We got 2 rooms, and because Brian needed to pay for the first one when he left, the maids decided to get an early start on the cleaning thereby waking me up. (That German punctuality…) So I (fairly quickly) got ready and hauled all our stuff to the kids’ room. Julia and Edwin were up – Colin and Aidan not so much. So the younger two were treated to breakfast out while the older two slugs stayed in bed. We found a nice café for breakfast and I got to have (sadly my only of the trip) Weiner Melange – a fantastic drink that rivals my friend the cappuccino in tastiness.
After a long walk to find some croissants for the brothers’ breakfast, I took the pleading younger 3 kids down to the pool for a quick swim. Back up to the room for showers and packing. Aidan bathed Edwin for me – mistake #1. Then Edwin got out of the tub (swan-dived more likely) - mistake #2. The result of these mistakes was another (very large) hole in Edwin’s lip. Which bled. Profusely. I was more than a little pissed off – thinking back to the first hole in the lip experience of having to spoon feed Edwin yogurt for days on end. After picking up some ice from the hotel machine and stealing a washcloth (that I offered at the desk to pay for, so technically, it wasn’t really stealing then was it?) we set off for an hour’s worth of sightseeing in the city center. We found St. Stephen’s church, and I sent the older 3 kids up the 343 spiral staircase stairs on their own while Ed and I enjoyed the shade (and washcloth full of ice) down below. We had a quick lunch – our last German meal… sadly – and then Brian picked us up at the hotel. Off to home we went and arrived 12 long, ugly hours later at 2:15 AM (Since, of course, Brian had *more* meetings back in Rieti on Tuesday morning, getting a hotel and breaking the drive up was not an option.)
Home felt good. Feels good. I’m so glad we decided to be back in Italy for a week before heading back to Santa Clarita.
So ended the EuroTour of 08. It was definitely an adventure.