July 8, 2015: European Rail Trip: Day 13: Vienna

7/8/2015

At the World-Famous Spanish Riding School at The Hofburg

Tanya's Daily Blog
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: VIENNA

Taking it all in one day at a time

Howdy Howdy Howdy!

Can you believe that today was our last full day in Vienna?
Tomorrow we travel back to Prague (via 5 hr train ride), and then early on Friday Elisa and I part ways...we'll see each other back in NY a week from today!
I'll be leaving Prague on a flight later on Friday evening and I'm so excited that I'll be at the airport in time to pick up Dave and my kiddies when their flight arrives from SoCal early on Saturday morning!!!

Saturday is gonna be filled with activity in NYC for me, Dave, and the kids, and then Cosette gets to do some visiting of her grandpa, and great grandma before Elisa picks her up and then they spend a few girly days together - just a bunch of cousins having fun!

Dominic, Dave and I will continue to Philly on Saturday evening, and by Sunday morning we'll be in Pittsburgh to have a day and night of good times with Gigi Balsamico (TC Guest Blogger) and her parents!
It's gonna be so much fun!

After that it's off to Cincinnati for the MLB All Star Game! Yippie!!!

And can you imagine that all of that takes place in under a week from today???
I'm a rather busy gal!

But that's not it...of course that's not it!

On next Friday - 9 days from now, our gang of Elisa, Tedd, Myself, Dominic, Cosette, Gianna, and Kelsey and all caravanning to Niagara Falls and Toronto!

With a very exciting last day spent at the Ramblewild tree to tree adventure destination!
I am soooo super excited about this visit, as are my 2 kids (since we are already familiar with this type of park), it's gonna be a total BLAST and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Ok OK ok - enough about all that's to come, let's talk about the current SCOOP:

What a day I had yesterday!
It was wonderful and in my opinion the best way to spend a day in Vienna.
If you missed it or if you didn't get to see the rest of my post - please catch it HERE!

It was quite possibly the HOTTEST day yet. But here in Vienna there is a wonderful breeze blowing through the city thanks to the Danube Canal.

And after all of my touring, I went to go get a special treat!!!

It was an all vegan ice cream shoppe that has mostly non-vegan customers - because the ice cream is sooo AMAZING!
I'm definitely going back there today!!!
I think and hope that Elisa will absolutely love it!

But that will be our treat after todays sights and sounds of lovely Vienna!

We are starting the day with going to see a very special Piber meets Vienna at The Spanish Riding School...

While, the original plan was to go see the performing Lippizzaners, they happen to be on their 6 week summer break! How cute is that?!

What that also means is that it's also a very special time (year) to visit, this is when Piber meets Vienna and the foals and mares are brought for introduction to the city!
Another special thing about our visit is that it is the Spanish Riding School's 450 year anniversary!

CLICK HERE to find out about the turbulent history of the Spanish Riding School.

We left the apartment in the direction of the Spanish Riding School and low and behold it started to lightly rain - thank heavens.
While I always love the rain, this rain has broke the incredibly high temps which makes it extra wonderful!

However once we got inside of the SRS arena, boy was it
H-O-T!
Being that this city pretty much has NO air conditioning, it was a stuffy hot mess.
Elisa was so uncomfortable that she had to step outside for some fresh air.
I stayed put, but I could feel the beads of sweat just rolling down my skin. And just so you know - I really don't sweat easily at all. So this was a BIG thing!

Anyhow, I think they eventually opened the doors and allowed for some ventilation, which definitely helped!

The show was enjoyable and the foals were so cute running around with their mommas! It was a joy to watch. Take a peak at the video that Elisa posted!

Next up, the plan was to go to the treasury.
Well, as we were walking in that direction Elisa was a bit hungry and we decided to stop at what else...Starbucks!

The rain had been on and off until this point and we took a table outside to take in the lovely atmosphere.
While enjoying the time there we decided that we'd skip the treasury and just hang out and take it all in for a while, then head to Mariahilfer Strasse, lunch, and the Naschmarkt.
This is when it started to pour - which I just love!

Luckily both my cousin and I are very prepared travelers and we had our slickers and umbrellas ready to go!

By the time we got to Mariahilfer Strasse I was quite hungry and the map was totally confusing me - yup falling asleep at 5am, waking at 7:15a and being hungry had taken it's toll!
But we were headed for FOOD...Yay!

Following lunch we headed to the Naschmarkt - I was totally expecting something much different. I gotta say that I was more than slightly disappointed.
But heck I wasn't shopping for produce today - so maybe I'd feel differently if I was in the market for a Naschmarkt - which roughly translates to: the selling/buying market to have a nibble.
It is a vast market with 16th-century origins, with more than 100 food & vintage stalls plus restaurants.

And next it was ice cream time, poor Elisa was super pooped and ready to head back to the apartment, but she was a trooper and followed along for our treat!

So the two frumpled cousins enjoyed our ice cream and were quite the hilarious scene as we were trying to fix our hair (with our free hand), eat our ice cream and take a selfie!

Now we are back in the apartment typing away to meet our editorial deadline and give you as much SCOOP as possible!

The rain is really coming down and I am enjoying every minute of it. Think we'll get dinner delivered tonight and just kick it!

Catch ya back here for more fun stuff tomorrow,
-T

Elisa's Daily Blog
CURRENTLY TRAVELING IN: VIENNA

Raining, but cool in Vienna

HI THERE!!

DAY 3 here in Vienna.

I just realized that we will be leaving Vienna tomorrow, heading for Prague overnight and then back to the good old US of A on Friday!

At Spanish Riding School at the Hofburg

As this is our last "full day" here in the Imperial City, we focused the day on 3 main visits. In between, we managed to grab a few relaxing "snack breaks," which I'll tell you about.

The Hofburg: The Morning
Piber Meets Vienna at The Spanish Riding School
If you are not familiar with the Spanish Riding School, let me tell you a bit about it.

It is the only one of its kind in the world, with a 450 year history, where the classic equestrian skills of Dressage has been preserved and is still practiced in its original form.

The history of "dressage" or the beautiful ballet dancing of the horses, goes as far back as ancient Greece. Dressage, is considered the highest expression of horse training and the art of equestrian sport.

Originally developed as a technique for battle, the ancient Greeks understood that if rider and horse were to survive in battle, complete cooperation was necessary between the pair and thus, developed Dressage as a way to train the horses for war.

Vital was a horse’s ability to move quickly from side to side, burst into a gallop or change direction immediately for success on the battlefield.

The art of riding slowly became a thing of the past with the disintegration of Ancient Greece, but was revived during the Renaissance period.

Then, in the 18th century, with the creation of the world-famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna, classical Dressage reached its peak and set the standard of the modern discipline.

During the summer months, the performing Lippizzaners are out in "Piber" the Austrian countryside, relaxing and enjoying a much deserved holiday.

Piber is the location, since 1920, of the Lippizzaner stud farm. It is tasked with breeding the Lippizanner stallions, which will subsequently be trained to show at the world-famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

Alternatively, in the Summer, the Lipizzans mares with their adorable foals are the focus, with the Spanish Riding School show, Piber Meets Vienna, which we had tickets for today!

And what a delight it was!! Tanya and I thoroughly enjoyed it!! The arena was very hot considering the weather had actually cooled. Nonetheless, the show was a treat, full of skill, showmanship and adorable moments on the part of the mares and their sweet babies!

Tomorrow, Ill be featuring a Throwback Thursday story from my visit to Vienna in April 2014, when I had the pleasure of seeing the morning exercises of the Lippizzaners!!

After the show, Tanya and I decided to take a quick break at Starbucks, adjacent to the Hofburg. To say we were lovin' the cool weather would be an understatement.

The sky was overcast and there was a refreshing breeze in the air! We sat ouside relaxing, with no agenda, except to just take in the city.

It started to rain, but we didn't have a care in the world during those few hours, as we were safely harbored under an umbrella.

Relaxing outside Starbucks

Sitting outside in the rain

We strolled about, on our way to lunch at Swing Kitchen, which was located right off the main stopping street, Mariahilfer Strasse, which is the longest shopping street in Europe.

It was starting to pour rain and our poor shoes were getting totally wet and gross! Looks like I'll be bleaching my sneaks when I get home!

So excited to see a Zara (got some great deals in this store in Krakow) only to find out it was closed for re-construction

Quick stop in the post office for stamps so we could mail our post cards

Lunch at Swing Kitchen: Afternoon
Another one of Tanya's foodie finds, we ate lunch at Swing Kitchen, a vegan burger spot.

I enjoyed a delicious falafel wrap filled with lettuce and tomatoes and a a creamy dressing. It was very filling and in, fact, I didn't finish it all!

PLEASE DON'T MISS TANYA'S SIDE FOR ALL THE DETAILS OF HER DAY ROAMING AROUND VIENNA YESTERDAY!! SHE FOUND FOUND SOME AWESOME VEGAN TREATS AS WELL!!

The Vienna Naschmarkt: Late Afternoon
This has has around 120 market stands and restaurants for a colorful culinary offering ranging from Viennese to Indian, from Vietnamese to Italian.

Products available include fruit, vegetables and various delicacies from every country from dawn till dusk.

It was tough walking around with the rain seeping through the area above the booths, but we enjoyed our time and I managed to pick up a few yummy snacks for the train ride tomorrow - cashews, dried apricots and other dried fruit.

But, we were a little disappointed in it as we expected it to be more like the Central Market in Budapest.

Naschmarkt

We ended our day, soaked like drowned rats - though I'll take the rain wetness any day to the sweat wetness - with some refreshing vegan ice cream. I had "Cookies"!