Austria

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Hello all!

I'm writing from sunny Vienna, which is possibly my favourite city so far, which is a rather big call! I've wanted to go to Vienna for so long, and it's exactly what I expected, with beautiful buildings, perfect parks, and lots of museums- and heaps of chocolate! Yesterday we went to Schönbrunn Palace (though I must admit that I'm getting over palaces just a little bit!), and we saw a demonstration of apple strudel being made! Then in the afternoon, we took a cruise down the Danube to the Danube Valley region, from a small town called Krems to an even smaller town called Melks. It was very civilised to sit on the sun deck cruising past little wineries on the banks of the Danube (which isn't blue, by the way) and very good for improving tans!

This morning I went on a tour of the Spanish Riding School, which was excellent, though I was a bit sneezy by the end of the hour. I forgot that I'm allergic to horses. Nevertheless, it was really great, and I'm thinking about quitting medicine to become a Spanish Riding School rider. In the afternoon, I went to the Vienna Zoo- they have giant pandas!! I'm quite partial to giant pandas and will do just about anything to get to a zoo that has them!

Between Germany and Vienna, we spent 3 days in Prague, which was one huge shopping-fest. I think we visited every crystal shop in the entire Czech Republic! Needless to say, our bags were a little bit heavier leaving Prague than when we arrived. So far, we've gone through about 15m of bubble wrap between us to pack all our purchases. Apart from crystal shops, we visited Prague Castle (if I have to do one more audio tour, I think I'll jump out a castle window!) and Charles Bridge, which is lined with about 24 statues of saints, and is also conveniently lined with vendors selling jewellery, paintings, crystal etc! The last day we took a day trip to a small town about an hour away that is famous for its Bone Church- it is a church that is decorated with candeliers, pyramids, coats of arms etc, all made out of bones. There are about 40 000 people in the decorations. Apparently it was done by monks in the 16th century cos they had too many bones of plague victims and nothing to do with them. It was really creepy, but kinda cool in a goulish way. It also gave us a chance to practice our anatomy!

The other highlight of Prague was trying Absinth, which is a spirit that is 70% alcohol. I have photographic proof that I tried it! It was AWFUL!!! I thought I was going to die!! Then afterwards we tried one that is distilled from plums; it was only 45% alcohol but it actually tasted worse.

So this evening I leave Vienna for Venice on an overnight train, a few days in Venice then onto Rome, and then Kelly arrives! I'm very much looking forward to that!

I'm getting logged out in 5 minutes! Bye until Rome!

Love Rik

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Comments

[Gay Miller]

Lucky girl
Hi Rikki, how fantastic your holiday sounds lucky girl going to see the Spanish dancing horses, one of my dreams, keep on having a great time,I really look forward to your blogs. cant believe your trying alcohol you go girl very proud of you. xxx love Gay and Bob