Category Archives: Arty Stuff
In Which Naked Men Are Not Actually My Favorite Thing About a Museum
So, we are making up a bucket list of Stuff We Want To Do For The Six Months That The Weather Is Disgusting in Vienna. It includes a bunch of museums because they have art, which my husband likes, and they are indoors and warm, which I like. (Actually, I like art too, but I […]
Krems Cuts the Mustard
Last weekend, I was escorted by my husband and daughter to the Wachau Valley town of Krems an der Donau for a birthday lunch. Krems is famous for three things: wine, apricot brandy and mustard. The wine is pretty good. The apricot brandy (schnapps) is unspeakable. The mustard is excellent. I am not even a big […]
Italy is Still Awesome: Into the Venetian Vortex
So, the day after checking out Padua, we found the train station that time forgot near our hotel and hopped a regional line into Venice. My genius daughter had made online reservations for the Basilica San Marco and Doge’s Palace so we were able to skip the looooong hot line and go right in. Both […]
Italy Is Still Awesome: Pretty Padua
So, last weekend we made a little dash down to the Veneto. Because proximity to Italy is the real reason we bid on this post. Shhh, don’t tell! We stayed four nights in Padua, about half an hour from Venice. The main reason we stayed there is that we could easily dump the car at […]
Yet More Vienna Graffiti
I went walking by the Donaukanal again this morning, and once again, I got distracted by all the interesting graffiti. You might wonder why in Vienna, with all its museums and masterpieces and stuff, I spend so much time looking at street art. I just like it, that’s all. In fact, I prefer it to […]
New Food, Old Attitudes, Some Graffiti, and More Gnomes, Of Course
I am big on walking for exercise. Now that we are living downtown, my walks are even more interesting. I carry my cell phone with me everywhere, and snap photos of anything that strikes my fancy. Here’s the latest batch, accumulated over the past few weeks.
Along the Donaukanal
This was supposed to be a gym day, but I can’t pass up sunshine! Instead, I decided to check out the walking/biking path along the Donaukanal (Danube Canal). Originally a natural tributary of the Danube River, the Donaukanal has been used as a canal and regulated as such for several hundred years. It’s easy to […]
Orgy on the Danube
On Sunday we were having some trouble getting the new GPS to work, so we decided to hike in the one park where it is impossible to get lost: the Donauinsel. We just turned south from the parking lot instead of north this time. We had a good five-mile hike, picnic, and cappucino break (of […]
Scrappy Happy Hippy Dippy
You may have heard that we’ve been having a little cold snap in Europe lately. As in OMIGOD IT’S FREAKIN’ COLD! Not as bad here as some places, of course. (Not that I would crazy enough to live in those places, anyway.) But it’s definitely been a good couple of weeks for lots of online […]
Tuscany Photos: Siena
Siena is a little rough around the edges. ”Pretty” doesn’t describe it accurately. With dozens of dark alleys, and contrade (gang) flags flying everywhere, it’s not hard to imagine a West Side Story scene in progress around any corner at any given time. Then you have the Piazza del Campo, a vast plaza that reminds me of something […]
Tuscany Photos: Florence
So, we spent two of our vacation days in Florence. The compact little city is pretty crowded with tourists even in January. I’m really glad we visited in the off-season, because I can’t imagine what an ordeal it would be on a hot summer day. Both days that we were there, the weather was iffy, […]
Just a Quick Quilty Post
On the way home from Prague the week before last I came down with the Crud from Hell: an especially nasty cold to which my family has little resistance because we all got it. Yep, must be the first six months at a new post! On the positive side, while stuck in the apartment sucking […]
Another Break from Baroque
My son went on an expedition to the Danube Canal with one of his classes at school. The project involved photographing graffiti (how cool is that?) and I liked his photos so much I asked if I could post them here. So, courtesy of the Teenager, here’s another break from Baroque! PS: I can actually […]
A Break From Baroque
After four years in Prague, I’m just not that impressed by the whole Hapsburg Baroque thing anymore. Poofy white statues, tons of gilt, total visual overkill, yadda, yadda, yadda. So, it was a refreshing change to visit Tulln an der Donau. I was lucky enough to be invited to join a mission arts and crafts […]
