You know it's hot when the asphalt is melting

Pictures: The summer cottage of the Hapsburgs,

Jenn helps make Apple Strudel,

Looking from the platform in the middle of the Maze towards the fountain,

One of the great things to play with in the playground is based on Archimedes Screw,

View from atop the Gloriette looking towards the backside of the palace,

Giant Panda having a great afternoon.












For those of you who don't know it, Central and Eastern Europe is experiencing a massive heat wave right now with no apparent end in sight. Yup, that's where we are right now. It is currently 39 °C IN THE SHADE which means it is even hotter in the sunshine. The news this afternoon said we should stay inside, but there is a lack of air conditioning here in Vienna so that doesn't really seem like such a great idea. Besides, we have lots of sites to see!

We spent a glorious 6 hours on an air conditioned train yesterday as we traveled from Krakow to Vienna (or Wien). Our passports we stamped a few times as we journeyed through Poland, Czech Republic, and into Austria. We had no idea until we stepped out of the train and a wall of heat almost knocked us over what wew were in for here. It was hot in Krakow too, but this is getting a little ridiculous. And tomorrow we head to Budapest which is even hotter and built on top of massive undergound hot springs to boot. I digress...

We are enjoying our quick stopover in Vienna. Yesterday we toured the Vienna Opera House, ate sacher torte and enjoyed an unexpected concert. The Opera tour was neat, even taking us backstage to see the lifts, etc, that make possible all the quick scene changes. After supper we wandered over to the Music House "Museum" which seems to be like the sound experience thing in Seattle, but we never actually went to the museum part. A girl intercepted us in the foyer to ask, "Are you here for the concert?" and we had to nod dumbly that we had no idea that there was to be a concert. Being that it was free and invloved a couple choirs, we decided that we wouls check it out and leave if it was no good. We stayed the whole 2 hours. The headlining choir was touring here from Holland (University of Utrecht) where they deservingly won some big contest. So we will try to go to the museum tonight; they're open till 10 so we still have time to go to the real Sacher Cafe and eat authentic Sacher Torte. Mmmmm.

Today, we got an early start, might as well when it is too hot to sleep, and headed to the Schönbrunn Palace. I was very disappointed 3 years ago when we came to Vienna and did not have time to go here, but now I am so glad that we waited until we had time to do it properly (8:30am-3pm). The Schönbrunn Palace was established first as a hunting lodge, but soon after as the summer residence of the Hapsburg Royals. Not only did leaving the city bring them to slightly cooler temperatures, but, more importantly, it kept them away from the germy masses during the least sanitary time of the year. Now, the city has grown around the palace grounds, but they are so massive that you still feel separate from the rest of the world. We toured the State Rooms and Living quarters, watched a Strudel making demo (actually, I got to participate and earned a funky little baker's hat and a certificate for it), strolled the Privy Garden, went through the Hedge Maze, played on the coolest playground ever, walked though the sprinklers (did I mention it was hot?), hiked to the Glorietta, took the stairs to the top of the Panoramic Terrace, and went to the zoo all without leaving the property. The zoo is the world's oldest, built by Emperess Maria Theresa & her husband Emperor Franz Joseph in the mid 1700s for the education and entertainment of the court. These two had 16 children (11 who lived into adulthood) so it was probably cheaper to build a zoo than pay admission.