Today was the final day of our Central European vacation. We hadnt necessarily planned to spend an extra day in Vienna. I booked our flights for this trip using miles, and I was unable to get the cheaper saver awards for flights on the day the
ABD ended, but they were available the following day. Our savings in airfare more than made up for the cost of one more night at the Ritz. So, bonus: an extra day in Vienna! It actually worked out really well, because we happen to have friends/acquaintances in Vienna. Neighbors of my parents (in the house I grew up in) have a son who went to graduate school in Austria, met and married an Austrian woman and now lives in Vienna. He has a daughter who is about nine months younger than my daughter. They visit California every summer to see their relatives (who are still neighbors of my parents), and the girls usually get together once or twice during their visits. They were kind enough to postpone their trip to California this summer so they would be in Vienna when we were there. Given the down time in Vienna on this ABD, we probably could have squeezed in a visit on one of our free afternoons, but it was much nicer to have the whole day for our get-together without any other commitments or time pressures.
Since we didnt have a flight to catch, we were able to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the Ritz. Since I think something like 28 of the folks on our trip had a 6:30am departure for the airport, including Jennae who was getting a short trip home between ABDs, we didnt see any of our fellow adventurers on that last morning. We did bump into Betti, who had a flight to Berlin later that day. Because she wasnt sure she would see us, Betti said she had sent an envelope up to our room that contained our final-day pins and also our departure information for the next morning (total ouch, but I will get to that later).
We had plans to meet our friends at the Westbahnhof for a day trip by train to Melk. We took the metro to the Westbahnhof from the station near the Ritz, and it wasnt too hard to figure out the ticket machines. We were amused that there was one price applicable to both dogs and children! It was about an hour and twenty minute train ride to Melk, and we enjoyed the scenery from the train and visiting with our friends.
Melk is a quaint town that is famous for its Benedictine abbey, which sits on a hill overlooking the town and the Danube River. The monastic community of Melk is over 900 years old. We had lunch in town when we arrived and then walked up to the abbey and spent some time in the gardens before the start of a guided tour in English. The tour was very informative, and the abbey is impressive. Definitely worthy of a day trip for anyone spending time in Vienna.
We arrived back in Vienna in the late afternoon/early evening and enjoyed one last dinner al fresco in the pedestrian mall area. I havent mentioned it yet, but I love how most of the restaurants in Europe (at least the parts I have visited, and at least during the summer) have outdoor seating and, no matter how crowded the restaurant appears to be, a table can almost always be found. I guess I need to caveat that with the fact that we havent frequented any fine dining spots in Europe to date given the ages of our children, but weve rarely gone too wrong by picking a place to eat based on appearance and menu.
We made it a relatively early night because we had a 4am (!) bag pull ahead of a 4:15am departure for the airport based on our 7am flight from Vienna to Frankfurt. While I wont deny it was painful to get up so early, the positive is that our flight landed in SFO before 1pm, and we were home by mid-afternoon. It was fun to fly through Frankfurt the morning after Germany won the World Cup. We saw a plane draped in German flags, and the pilot was wearing some kind of lei in the colors of the German flag. The Ritz provided a nice box breakfast to take with us to the airport. It included a bottle of juice and water, two croissants, yogurt, an apple and a sandwich. We all drank our juice on the way to the airport, but we had to sacrifice the waters and yogurts at security.
So that wraps up our vacation and this trip report (except for the photos to follow). Thanks to those who have been following along. I know folks have been asking questions along the way, but if there are any other questions I can answer, I am more than happy to do so. All in all, this was a fabulous trip, and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend the Central Europe ABD. It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes ABD makes in year two of this reintroduced itinerary.
Better than our 2010 Baltic Cruise: British Pound, Norwegian Krone, Danish Krone, Swedish Krona, Russian Ruble, and the Euro for Germany. Thankfully Estonia accepted the Euros or $ or something although I'm sure I probably got some Kroon back as change.
