Vienna & Gmunden

Another weekend in Ausrtria! We are in the middle of a heat wave here - each day about 100 degrees. We don't have air conditioning so at night we leave our windows open to let in the cooler air. 

Saturday we traveled to Vienna, about 1.5 hours away, and met up with one of Brian's friends and his family. After lunch near the UN building, we metroed (aka, rode the train which is a huge thrill for Ellie) to Naschmarkt. It's a huge outdoor market with bread, cheeses, candy, and lots of spicy peppers! Thankfully they also have free water stations every block or so - because it was hot!!

We saw a few more of the sights, including the Opera House and St. Stephen's Cathedral, mainly just in passing because we know we will be back in month with the students and do full tours then. We had gelato, picked up some wine, and headed home!

Sunday we went to mass at the Kartause with Fr. Timothy, TOR, who just arrived as chaplain of the program. Right now it's mainly just us, two other University families, the two RDs, and the four TOR sisters who are here. The RAs will arrive next weekend, and the students the following weekend. 

After a quick lunch at home we packed up the University VW Caddy again. We and our neighbors (with three young boys, one Ellie's age) and the 2 RDs were off to Gmunden. It was 1 hr & 45 mins away, near Salzburg.  It's a gorgeous place right on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. Perfect for another sweltering day!

After our afternoon swimming in the lake at a little place we found to access the water at no cost, we visited the church in the neighboring town Traunkirchen. It is known for the ambo, Fischerkanzel (Fisherman's Pulpit). The pulpit looks like St. Peter's boat and fishing net described in the John 21, where the Resurrected Jesus directs Peter's fishing and his boat becomes overflowing with fish!

The church was beautiful and it happened to have a great park outside!!

After dinner at a roadside fish stand (which also served sausages like every other place!!) we headed back home. The kids were great travelers the whole weekend...almost...as I'm typing a draft of this blog we are almost home and the baby has been crying for over 40 minutes. We stopped once so I could feed him but as soon as we put him back in the car seat he started up again :(. Hopefully everyone is tired out after the fun weekend and will be sleeping well tonight! At least one can hope :)