Frohe Ostern!

That's "Happy Easter" in German. We get a lot of, "Do they celebrate Easter in Germany?" Haha, yes, they most certainly do. The Catholic Church has a strong presence here in Bavaria (southern Germany, where Munich is located). Matt (and just about everyone else in the city) has a day off from work for pretty much every Catholic holy day, including the small ones. So yes, Easter is about the same as it is in America. Although, probably less commercialization, gifts, etc. Since Matt had both Friday and Monday off from work, we decided to spend the long weekend in Vienna, Austria.

We took a four-hour train ride to Vienna on Friday morning. After arriving in Vienna and checking into our hotel, we decided to do some exploring. Although a bit chilly, the weather was pretty nice and we enjoyed leisurely strolling through the city, admiring the beautiful architecture of Vienna. After exploring for a few hours, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at a "posh" restaurant near the main city square. Although we were a bit under dressed (oops!), we had a lovely dinner. We even interacted with the waitress completely in German! (and understood most of it)The main square was absolutely beautiful at night. I'm not sure what it was (maybe the red wine?), but while strolling through the city after dinner, I just couldn't help but to think how lucky we are to be able to experience beautiful cities such as this one. Unfortunately, we had left the camera back at the hotel, so I don't have any photos of this. Here are a few other ones:













And the view from our hotel window:





Interesting note: Our hotel room's shower had not one, not two, but THREE shower heads. Whoa.


It also had neon light in the bathroom which was kind of weird and not at all conducive to putting on make up. Nevertheless, it was a cool hotel. Here's me outside of the Moet & Chandon bar that is in the lobby (swoon!):


Also...Spotted: Justin Bieber (sort of). So we've been crossing paths with the Biebs over the past few weeks. I guess he is over here in Europe putting on some concerts. I think we missed him by a day or two when we were in Berlin, he's already been to Munich, and now we spotted crowds of screaming girls stalking him outside of his hotel. We passed by this hotel multiple times throughout the weekend, and every single time, there was a group of girls there. I think some of these chicks must have seriously spent their entire weekend hoping to catch a glimpse of him haha.





On Saturday morning, we started our day bright and early with breakfast at Starbucks. Classic Americans. But seriously, we eat croissants pretty much every other weekend, so an English muffin sandwich is a nice change of pace. After breakfast, we headed over to the Hofburg Palace. The Hofburg is a former imperial palace that was once home to the Habsburg Dynasty. It's a huge palace that now is a museum housing many historical artifacts, including royal silver and china, artwork, furniture, etc. It was pretty interesting to see how these rulers lived back in the day. Most of the museum focuses on one particular emperor, Franz Joseph I, and his wife, Elizabeth. In fact, a whole sub-section of the museum is dedicated solely to Elizabeth's life. Apparently, she pretty much despised her life as a royal (she married into it when she was 16) and spent much of her days traveling, away from Vienna. However, after her death, she became this idolized, "princess" figure. And now, I think the city of Vienna is pretty much obsessed with her. There have been multiple plays, films, books, etc. based on this mythical, princess figure. Matt didn't enjoy this section of the museum too much haha. Random fun fact: Marie Antoinette ("Let them eat cake" Marie Antoinette) was born at the Hofburg Palace. Her mother was Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and ruler of the Habsburg territories.







Later in the afternoon, we stopped at a classic cafe to order a slice of plum cake and tea. It was a nice break from the usual touristy hustle and bustle. They had these really cool contraptions that held newspapers for customers to read. We were fascinated.



Re-energized from the sugar, we took to the streets again, exploring more sites and areas that we missed on the first day. For dinner, we enjoyed a low-key dinner at an Italian restaurant. No Wienerschnitzel for us! Truth is, we've found our favorite schnitzel in Munich and we enjoy it occasionally, so trying more schnitzel in Vienna just didn't seem that necessary. For those of you who don't know, "Wien" is the German name for Vienna, so Wienerschnitzel literally translates to "Vienna schnitzel." I literally didn't get this until we started learning German haha.

Sunday was Easter of course, and (after losing one hour of sleep -- Europe turned the clocks forward just last weekend) we started the day with breakfast at a picturesque cafe. Matt had the classic croissant and cappuccino, while I enjoyed yogurt with fruit and granola and a cappuccino, as well. We weren't in a hurry, so we really took our time to enjoy breakfast.



Next, we hopped on the subway (that oddly enough, runs above-ground most of the way) and headed to the Schönbrunn Palace. This palace, located in the outskirts of the city of Vienna, was the royal summer residence. In my opinion, it was much more impressive than the Hofburg Palace. We saw approximately 40 rooms that were decorated to show how the royals lived. Many of the rooms were really very beautiful. We also learned a little bit about the history of Vienna, thanks to the handy audio guides. Outside of the palace, there was a small Easter market. Many of you may recall that Germany (and Austria) are famous for their large Christmas Markets that are open during Advent. The Easter Market was basically the same thing, but on a smaller scale and with decorated eggs and bunnies as opposed to Santas and Nativity scenes. We walked around a little, but the weather was a pretty awful wintry mix, and so we headed back to the hotel after a short while. By this time, it was unfortunately time to head back to Munich.

Scenes from the Ostern Markt, and yes, sadly that is snow on the eggs...










We had a wonderful Easter in Vienna, but we really missed spending time with family. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend, as well!

Here's one more photo of the stunning Opera house at dark.



Bis später (until later),
Kristin and Matt