26 May 2007

Sightseeing in Vienna (the second of 2 days off the bikes)
We enjoyed another nice breakfast. Leni had developed a cold during the night but still insisted on driving us to our sightseeing destination today rather than letting us find it ourselves on the underground.
We arrived at Schloss Schonbrunn (a fairly well-known castle). Again it was very hot out and we did the outdoor tours first. We walked up a big hill to the Gloriette for a nice view down to the castle and the surrounding city. Then we went to the maze/labyrinth area. We walked through the maze fairly quickly because it was small. The labyrinth consisted of a mathematical brainteaser, a glockenspiel that allowed you to create a song by jumping on squares on the ground, and a trick mirror. This whole area is geared toward kids, but it was included in our tour ticket, so we went in and enjoyed it. The playground had a cool play backhoe to operate and move some sand around. Next we viewed the private garden and then went to an apple strudel baking demonstration which included a teaser sample of this sweet treat. Finally we took the headphone guided tour of 40 of the castle rooms. Very extravagant!
From there we found our way back to the old part of the city and wandered through the open-air market. There were many gastronomical temptations there. We wandered a bit more and eventually made our way back to the house in the first try!
Lena had tickets for a concert, so Elisabeth came over and made us dinner. We wanted to do a load of laundry. Elisabeth didn't know which cycle to choose on her mom's machine, so she called Leni's best friend who lives 5 houses away and she came over to try to figure it out. She wasn't sure either, so she took our smelly clothes to her house and washed them for us!
Elizabeth helped us with some route planning, giving us some very helpful maps. We watched some of the Live Ball 2007 on T.V. This was an Aids fundraising fashion show where people dress up just crazy with body painting and all kinds of crazy costumes. We had seen them setting up the stage for it yesterday as we walked in that area.