Our luggage finally arrived on Monday morning. With clean and warm clothes, we were off to Schonbrunn Palace. We spent the next two days exploring the Palace, the beautiful grounds and oldest zoo in Europe behind the Palace, and the many sights of Vienna. We even had the opportunity for a couple 5:00a strolls as Liesl struggled to adjust to the new time zone.
We finally arrived at our hotel in Vienna around 7:00p on Saturday evening, in time for a short walk through Stephansplatz and a quick dinner. The hotel was well located near the central walking district in Vienna, which was beautifully decorated for the season.
Having arrived in Vienna without our luggage, the first order of business was finding diapers as we’d only carried a limited supply on-board with us. Although most shops in Vienna are closed on Sunday, the hotel kindly pointed us in the direction of a small grocery store five subway stops away that would be open. Sure enough, it was, but they didn’t carry diapers. Not to worry, they directed us to another shop near the Christkindlmarkt to which we were headed where we could locate diapers.
No diapers there either, but the Christkindlmarkt was fun. The market was a bluster of activity on the final shopping weekend before Christmas. Lots of beautiful crafts and goodies to eat–we enjoyed a little punsch and glühwein.
As Amy headed off to the hotel with the girls, Becca and I went on to the next grocery shop where we were assured they would have diapers. And, indeed, we found diapers… but a very strange law in Austria had the diapers physically locked inside a wire cage, unavailable for sale on Sunday! Seriously, we inquired, what could possibly be the purpose of such a law? With another two subway stops, and a short rail train ride into the suburbs, we finally found diapers which were available for sale on Sunday. The hour was late, so we cabbed back to the hotel with diapers in hand to everyone’s relief.
The good news is we arrived on time into Toronto airport. The bad news is Lufthansa/AustrianAir bumped us (with the 3 year old and 3 month old in tow) from an oversold flight.
The good news is there was another flight later that evening. The bad news is it would require an additional connection through Dusseldorf, Germany and was six hours later.
The good news is we were upgraded to first class on the Dusseldorf flight. The bad news is it arrived too late for our connection to Vienna.
The good news is there was another flight later in the evening (direct to Vienna). The bad news is we’d have to wait another four hours.
The good news is we finally arrived, safely in Vienna. The bad news is our luggage didn’t arrive with us.
It’s all part of the journey, I guess. The girls have been great, and it’s wonderful to see Becca. We’re off to Schonbrunn Palace today, with hopes that our luggage arrives while we’re out.