Vienna: Day One

Very sorry this post has been so long in the making.  It's not even as if we have been too busy to post, more like too lazy!  Our vacation has included pretty much nothing but sitting in the living room and watching and re-watching TV episodes.  It's been quite nice really, but not as nice as our mini-vacation to Vienna!  So here are some photos from our first day in Wien...

We arrived in Vienna late in the evening, but thankfully it was super easy to get from the airport to the city center (where our hotel was)...I mean stupidly simple.  If you haven't traveled much and are hesitant about traveling to a foreign country, I highly recommend Austria.  Friendly people, everyone speaks English, safe, clean, beautiful and YUMMY food!!

We were greeted with chilled champagne in our hotel room - well done Bryn!  After our little night caps we hit the sak, after all it was late and we had lots to explore the next day!

Of course you know that this was a surprise trip for me.  I knew we were going somewhere, but Bryn wouldn't tell me where.  He did ask me what "must-do/see" things there were in Europe, and one I said was that if we went to Vienna, I HAD to go to the Spanish Riding School to see the Lipizzaners perform.  Well, here we were in beautiful Vienna.  The first thing Bryn told me was that he looked into it, and it wasn't the season for performances, but we could visit the school.  

Well, the next morning we had a nice breakfast at the hotel, then bundled up to explore (it was COLD!!).  One of the first places we happened to come across was the Spanish Riding School in the Hapsburg Palace.

There was a gift shop, so I had to go in.  That was when we saw the sign that there was a performance that morning - starting in about an hour!  We grabbed tickets and went to chill in the Starbucks across the street until show time.

Unfortunately photographs weren't allowed during the show, but it was really, really cool.  Those are some insanely talented horses.  Even Bryn who isn't a horse-person enjoyed the performance, especially with a horse expert beside him to tell him what he was looking for, haha.

It was raining when the show let out, so we snapped up some umbrellas from a souvenir shop and continued wandering.  The rain wasn't seeming to let up, so we decided it would be a good day to visit the Art History Museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  It was packed, but impressive, filled with Roman and Greek artifacts and loads of paintings by lots of big names. (These pictures are in no particular order...)
   

Museum cafe where we snagged a table for some late lunch...our first sausages in Austria! Not as good as the street vendor ones yet to come, but better than anything we can get here.

We finally decided that we had seen all the art we could handle for one day and headed back out into the cold rain.  Luckily for us there was a Christmas Market right outside of the museum, so we loaded up with some hot gluhwein (mulled wine) to sip on as we wandered through the twinkling streets back to the hotel to thaw out!

Day one was a little damp, but we didn't let it bother us - in fact it was a nice change from the dry heat we have 365 days a year!  It made outdoor photos a bit difficult, but don't worry, there are tons of gorgeous photos yet to come!!

Instagram Update

I know, I know, we are long over due for an update.  Life has been hectic though...between being sick, wanting to pull my hair out at work and getting ready for the holidays we have had little time to do anything exciting at all.

Well, last weekend I decided I was going shopping.  A few weeks ago I finally got my Japanese pension refund (a rather large check that just appeared in my bank account!) so I had money to spend, and darn it, I wanted a Coach bag!  So off to Dubai Mall we went! After a Starbucks breakfast, Bryn went off to wander while I took care of business.

I have had this purchase planned out for weeks, maybe longer, but when it came down to looking at the real bags, the sales girl showed me a different one, and low a behold, it cost less!  It was much more simple than the ones I had been looking at, but it was just right at the same time.  I decided to go with it, and I am glad I did (besides, there will always be another trip to the Coach store!)

So, now I am the proud owner of a brand new leather smelling Coach bag and I LOVE it!!  I also treated myself to a pair of super nice jeans (they are seriously like wearing sweatpants - so comfortable!) and some macarons when Bryn discovered a Pierre Herme kiosk in an upscale department store.  All in all it was an extremely successful shopping day!  I doubt I will get to splurge like that again anytime soon, but it was so much fun to pretend to be rich for a day.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip and of my purchases (some instagram, some iPad, some camera shots).

AND...in 3 days we fly off to Europe!!!  The final destination is still a surprise, if you can believe it!