The Hapsburg Dynasty

austria uses teh euro currency.

$100=.77 euro

Here..take a godie bag and enjoy the conference

things are very expensive in austrian and any coutnry that uses the eur0

when I woke up, i packed my bags and took the u-bahn across town to friedenbrucke stop. from there, it was a 5 mintue walk to the hotel. i found out m y roommate had already checked in so i could leave my luggage in the room. i went to schonnburg palace. this was the summer home of the hapsburg dynasty, mainly Emperor Franz Joseph and his lovely wife, sissi.

what an amazing place. i loved how the roms were decorated. so ornate. the tour was very informative. always wandered the garderns, got lost in the maze and climbd up the tower to get an nice overview of the palace and gardens. i really enjoyed my time at the palace. it's something not to be missed if anyone visits vienna. in 1990, i visited vieanna (as part of my 18 countires in 3 months visit) but i dont' recall a whole lot. from there, i headed to the danube tower. it took me forever to find it. took the elevtor up to the top. it's 152 meters tall..i thnk that's about 450 feet. they have a bungee jump that you can do from the top. don't worry...been there, done that. anayways, an incredible view of vienna.

back to hotel mozert to meet my tour guide and tour participatns. ashely, tour guide, is from canada, but she' s been working with intrepid for  2 years.she' s a cool cat. frieda is retired and from australia and she will be with me for one month. stephen is late 30's and an attorney from canada. no...he's not my type at all...but a nice guy. anyways, the 3 of us ate dinner together. i had some wonderful pork (austria's speciality). back to the hotel where we all had a beeer and then called it a night.

on jne 1, we had a 2 hour tour aroudn vienna. ashley gave us a great overview of where things are located as well as some background info. we visited st. roche chruch, st. stephens cathedral (beautiful), saw the plaque column (to ward off black plaque from returing), hofburg palace, teh burg theatre, rathaus (city hall), musuem quarter, parliament bldg and the opera house.

after our tour, ashley and i went to a fancy coffee shop and drank hot chocolate and i tried a sarcher tarte. it was so good. it's some austrian speciality.

then, we had free time.i went back to the parliament buliding. what an amazing place, the outside is gorgeous but the inside...amazing. i loved the tour. we sat where the different parties sit. each of the 3 main chambers were lined with marble and statues. the most gorgeous chamber is only used once every 6 years, when a new president is elected. the parliament bldg was my favorite thing that i visited in vienna.

after the parliament,i wandered back to teh rathaus (city hall). some k ind of militiary ceremoy was taking place. stayed for 30 minutes and obsered, toko photos of all in military outfits and listened to military band. then wandered to find the inside of the city hall. some kind of conference going on so i thought someone would stop me from entering.nope..insterad, here, take a goodie bag and enjoy the conference. never did figure out what kind of confernce. i coul have easliy had some wine and eat a meal and i really dont' think anyone would have paid me any attention. i just wanted to see the inside..which wa beautiful. i liked my new pen and candy that was in the goody bag.

after rathaus, i went to hofburg palace. this was the winter home of FJ and Sissi. toured the imperial apts and saw the sliver and china. everytime someone came over for dinner, new silver and china were purchased. wehn people come to my house i do the same. i get out new paperplates, plastic cups and plasticware. geting the tour really pulled the whole story together about Franz Jopesh and Sissi. FJ was 19 and Sissi was 15 and his cousin. He was engaged to marry Sissi's sister, Helen, but when he saw Sissi, he fell in love, She really didn't want to marry him but she didn. She never really liked teh royalty life (sounds like Princess di). They had 4  children, 1 who died young and 1 who committed suicide. Sissi never really like FJ so she oftern traveled and stayed in Hungar. she was a key role in the Hapsburg dynasty establishing ruling in Hungary during theAustrain-Hungarian empire. Sissi, like Princess di, suffere3d from eating disorder, had derpession, wanted to live a simple life,e tc. She was asssisnated in Geneva, Switzerland and buried in Vienna.

There's much more to the story.but you'll have to google to find out the rest. anyways, I had noidea they made some movies about sissi, one starring our own Ava Gardner. Sissi's real name was Elizabeth by the way. The Hofburg Palace has 240,600 meters of living space, 18 wings, 19 courtyards, 2,600 rooms and emplys 5,000 people today. What a huge place.

That night, I met Ashley for dinner. Stephen and Freda went to a Bach concert. Since Dad and I just paid big bucks in March and went to a Mozart concert, I dint' want to spend the $. Ashley swore this restaurant had the best hamburgers. I was reluctant and for a good reasno. I was right. no one can beat Andy's cheeseburgers. Patti o, eat one for me every now and then and dont' forget l,t, k , m and pickles with my kl0 fries.

back to the hotel at 10:30 to pack and hit the sack as we ahe an early monring tomorrow. we will take a 6:24 a.m. train to czech republic.

stay tuned for another travel entry to find out about my visit to cesky krumlov, a wonderful village about 3 hours from prague, czech republic.

we'll be in prague for 3 days so that will give me time to catch you up on my visits to cesky krumlov and prague.

adventure on and keep those emails coming. by the way, my friend VIDAL is wining big time. She has sent me 10 emails already. June, you're losing this battle.

hey....keep warm thoughts in your prayers. it's chilly willy over here. i'm wearing fleece every day. where is the nice hot summer weather? i'm sure you guys are sweating in NC but I'm not.

adventure on,\

julie