Day 9: We leave Vienna and begin the rest of the journey with The Animals

Hi Mom, in case you were wondering what we did today, well, not much. Well, one of us did a lot, a lot of driving, and the rest of us just watched the scenery go by. 

We got a late start in the morning (surprise!) and drove from Vienna to Kamp Uvala Borova Podaca in Croatia. Here are some blurry photos of Croatia the driver requested (ahem) be taken.

After arriving all of us who had done nothing but sit all day were exhausted. We set up the tent, which took all of 3 minutes; then went for a swim and to explore some Croatian beer.

Day 8: We worship with the Weindls; and eat an Austrian feast

Hi Mom, since you are the only one reading this blog we thought we would address you directly from now on. All of our moms out there, we love you.

Sunday we went to church to hear Waffle sing in German. Before the service however, the non-German speakers went and tried to order coffee from a non-English speaker. Successful overall, but Pictionary did have to be resorted to.

After church we were invited by the Weindls' to an Austrian meal in a true beer garden. We drank fluffy beer and found out there is an original Budweiser that is so much better than the copy it's not worth comparing.

Discovered a true piggy-bank.

Saw an Austrian Carnival.

Found a whole store full of Austrian cookies, candy and more...

Went to a beautiful cathedral...

...and climbed the 343 steps.

Climbed, and climbed, and climbed 343 steps.

Fortunately the view was worth it.

As for what we did the rest of the day, well, it was so amazing I can't remember. No, just kidding, we had pizza delivered. Imagine that. Now you might think that's lame, Mom, but not to us since that is one thing you can't do on a ship in Africa.

Day 7: We learn Waffle's new name, visit some palaces, learn more about Austrian's love of animals, find, play with and destroy some animals of our own, and see beautiful Vienna. Whew!

Mirm decided Waffle's new name was Wiffzack, which means, smartypants. Hmmmm, appropriate... 

We didn't see any animals at the Vienna Zoo because it wasn't in our price range, but we did see plenty of tourists. 

Visited the king and queen's summer and winter palaces. 

Tried to take some jumping photos. 

Practiced the royal wave.

Saw Jess's suspected ancestors. 

Did not walk on the grass.

Learned that Austrian's love their animals so much they build ramps into the fountains for them.

Found more things to thank Austria for.

Ate cheap Kebabs and drooled over beautiful fruit at the market.

Started our own zoo.

Found turtle love, may it never die.

Our love goes out to "the ring" as well.

R.I.P Mr. Bee, I'm so sorry, I wish I could take that jump back.













Found out our zoo was slightly bigger than our little lion.

After it was cooler outside we went back into the city. Once there we ate the "right" ice cream and discovered there is a whole country of Austrian's proud of their water. Yes, there is water in that water. We walked around more and saw Vienna at sunset, beautiful.

We then worked hard on our photo taking.

With somewhat good results.

The evening had us eating meters of Viennese food. It is surprisingly hard to determine how much food you will actually get when you have to measure it! Lets just say our stomachs were smaller than our rulers.

And to end it all, we saw a summer concert series in the city, had some drinks and declared it a successful day. 

Day 6: We try to become The Von Trapp Family

The only thing anyone in America knows about Austria is Arnold and The Sound of Music. Interestingly no one in Austria has seen The Sound of Music, they don't go around singing Edelweiss and there are not so many goats running around. Regardless, we went to see the city of Salzburg where parts of the movie were filmed. Even though it was raining at first, Salzburg is beautiful and we managed to buy some cheap umbrellas and the four of us managed to finally agree on what colors to get. Christoph's sisters, Melanie and Bettina joined us to tour around Salzburg as well.

We found some marionettes, just like in the movie.

Visited the beautiful Salzburg castle.

Played with the cannon.

Some of us listened to the audio tour.

Some of did not listen to the audio tour. 

Saw some beautiful views of the Alps and Salzburg from the top of the castle.

And got so thirsty we drank out of the toilet.

Walked some steep streets.

We saw the outside of the RedBull museum and a special party going on, but we were underdressed and uninvited.

Lesson learned, being the Von Trapp family is exhausting.