Vienna

After a train ride through the lovely countryside, we found our apartment in the middle of Vienna, not far from the train station.

We try to stay in apartments when we can. They're more comfortable than hotel rooms, usually more affordable, and we can do our meals in the kitchen. Our apartment in Vienna was located on a walking mall and was very nice. Using the kitchen means one of our first chores after checking in is to make a run to the grocery store. It was a Sunday when we arrived and everything was closed except a small shop run by a Muslim family. That limited our options but there was enough. We had to get a bottle of wine at the restaurant though. Way over paid.

A big part of our stay here was to recover. It had been a demanding couple of weeks and we needed a rest. There was a laundromat in the building and we took care of the dirty clothes, sat on the terrace, and took some much needed naps. We had reached the point of saturation when it came to museums, castles, palaces, and cathedrals. This was a rest stop.

One thing we did do was to go to a chocolate museum and make chocolate bars. Fun, informative, and tasty all at once.

Like I said, we felt pretty saturated with the standard touristy fair and were looking for something different for a few days. We researched it and finally settled on the small Austrian town of Soll as our next destination. It was a great choice.