Europa Park, Rust, Germany

We got up at the crack of dawn (literally) on Wednesday morning to head to the roller coaster capital of Germany... Europa Park!  We purchased a two day pass so that we could spend most of Wednesday and ALL of Thursday there, before heading into the Alsace region for the rest of the weekend.  I didn't bring my good camera to Europa Park, so pardon the crappy iPhone photos.  But we really had a blast!

Who's ready to go to the largest theme park in Germany!?

The drive to Rust was fairly uneventful.  Parking was no trouble and we even saved about 50 Euro by using our VAT form to get in and buy two-day tickets.  And what do we see almost immediately as we step inside Europa Park?  A freaking creepy baby doll head MECCA!!!!  Seriously. A museum FULL of creepy baby doll heads.  I can't even.

Since Grant is the newest member of the fearless Bailey's club, he got to pick the first ride.  He chose Eurosat, an indoor, dark roller coaster.  Europa Park is HILARIOUS.  It is trying so, so, so hard to be Disney World.  Eurosat was built in 1989, and definitely looks like Epcot on the outside and mimics Space Mountain on the inside.

Europa Park also has themed country areas, much like Epcot.  Notice across the bridge in the picture above, the fake children in Switzerland on the see saw. (I really resisted writing teeter totter right there!)

We visited Europa Park on two of the hottest days of the year.  So we definitely enjoyed the water rides, like Poseidon, above.  It was a cool mix of a roller coaster and a water ride.

And that drop was INSANE!  These are all our real faces ha ha!  Normally we make funny faces for the camera, but we couldn't even....  (Please notice my daughter.  She's fearless!)

One of my favorite rides at Europa Park was Pegasus.  They have a Coastiality feature which allows you to wear 4D goggles and enjoy the ride VERY differently from when you don't have them on.  The 4D follows this family from the movie "Happy Family" as they turn from regular people to monsters! The Alpine Express was another one that featured the 4D Coastiality.  I think I liked the Pegasus coaster better, so I liked this one better. 

It was hot so we let the kids stand in the path of the spray from Poseidon.  Awesome!

Playing outside of the Silver Star coaster (which we didn't go on until day 2).  The kids thought the monorail was fun!

She's a winner in my book too, folks.

I was taking a selfie of me and Natalie and Todd had an awkward face in the background so he made me take another.  We are so sweaty!  And no, Natalie isn't taller than me.  I know that will happen some day, but for now, she was just standing on the railing as we waited for the Swiss Bob Run.

My kids in the Switzerland portion of Europa Park.

Natalie and I took off for EuroMir, a roller coaster that neither Grant nor Todd could ride due to height restrictions on both ends.  (We figured out later that Todd COULD indeed ride EuroMir, but we didn't know this at the time.  He rode it on Thursday).  Grant and Daddy went to drive some cars around! 

Ed Euromaus, the theme park mascot.  ("Hey, I've got an idea!  Let's have our mascot be a mouse!  Nope!  That's never been done before!")

Natalie and I found a BEN AND JERRY'S stand and got some ice cream cookie sandwiches while Todd and Grant rode yet another car ride.  Fill 'er up!

Our last ride of the day on Wednesday was the Wodan timber coaster.  It had great drops!  Grant loved this one.

I mean really.  Just look at his face!  (I also like that Todd has a hand on Grant!)

We stayed about a half hour away in Offenburg at the PRETTIEST AirBnB place with a fantastic yard.  The apartment was clean and huge and look at this lovely little pond in the backyard!

But alas, the apartment was just for sleeping.  Because on day two, we were back at it!  This time, armed with bathing suits!

The kids (read: Natalie) were already complaining that it was "SO HOT" so we rode the Atlantica Super Splash first.  This was awesome.  You went up, rode part of the ride backwards, then they turned you around and went down a double hill.  Super Splash was Super Fun.

We also rode the Vindjammer, which is a lot like the Phoenix at Busch Gardens, only the Vindjammer doesn't go upside down.  HOLY COW.  I wish we had gotten pictures of the kids on this.  Todd tried to take a video but it didn't come out.  They were laughing SO HARD.  I wish we had gone on it again!  But there were so many rides to ride... so we headed next door to the Fjord Rafting (much like Congo River Rapids at Busch Gardens).  This was located in Scandinavia so all of the little displays had a Scandinavian feel to them.  Here, this man fishes while his house is on fire.  Wait, what?  Grant says, "Daddy, do you think he knows his house is on fire?"  And Daddy responded with, "No, Grant.  He's too drunk to notice."

Natalie wanted to spray the riders on the Whale Adventures ride, so I stayed with her while Todd took Grant to drive the boats, which he had been begging to do.

On our way to find Todd and Grant, we caught a few minutes of the high diving show.  It was awesome!

But now it's afternoon and it's really warming up.  So we stopped at the water playground so the kids could cool off.

And this is how Mommy and Daddy cool off.  Beer in the shade, overlooking the water playground.  It doesn't get much better than that! Smart thinking, Europa Park!

I didn't have any clear pictures of the swings because the iPhone 5c doesn't TAKE a clear action shot.  But Natalie, Grant and I rode first... as they miscounted and Todd didn't get a seat.  I love love love swings!

Then Natalie and Todd ran off to ride EuroMir again, and Grant and I went to Ireland to play on the slides, the Tower Tow (tow:  meaning you need to pull yourself to the top of the tower.  Thank goodness for CrossFit because that was exhausting) and as you can see above, the Old MacDonald's Tractor Fun. 

  Natalie spotted a parade on her way to EuroMir!

I don't have any pictures of it (although to quote Todd, "I wish I had gotten a picture of that!") but we used the Baby Swap card and rode the Silver Star without the kids.  I waited with the kids in the lobby where they had a bunch of cool Mercedes race cars and some interactive PS4 racing games that were free.  So the kids waited. And waited.  And waited so patiently.  Grant got a turn for a bit, but as Natalie sat down to take her turn, some jerk guy (must have been about 18 or so) and his mom told Natalie to get out (even though she already had her foot in the ride and her hand on the wheel) and waved her off.  So she immediately started crying.  I had been waiting with them for most of the time we were standing there and I knew these people hadn't been waiting as long as us.  So I yelled at these people (ineffectively using my worst German, "Dreissig minuten!  Meine tochter!" Translated to:  30 minutes, my daughter!"  because that's all I know!)  The guy was being a total jerk (as was his mom) so I went and got someone from Europa Park.  They were SO nice and helpful.  The guy tried to tell the woman working there that my daughter had been SO MEAN and even gave them the middle finger (LAUGHABLE!!!!).  Natalie was really embarrassed and upset by the whole situation. Don't you mess with this mama bear!  I'm definitely one for having the kids solve their own problems, especially among their peers.  But when an adult (who knows better) makes my kid cry... you'd better watch out!

  

At the end of the day, each kid wanted to ride their favorite ride ONE LAST TIME.  So Natalie picked Blue Fire, which was far and away the best roller coaster there.  Even better than Silver Star.  I would have loved to ride this one again.  Instead, Grant and I rode Eurosat TWO more times and the Universe of Energy Dinosaur Ride!  The lines were much shorter for us.

Finally it was time to go. But not before a SWEET Elvis performance.

Until next time, Europa Park!

Vienna, Austria

We had a nice day in Bratislava and it was over way too soon... but we had to board our train to Vienna, the last stop on our vacation!

Once again, the Bailey's are on a train.  This was a short trip, though!

First stop after checking into our apartment was DINNER.  We were staying in the Leopoldstadt area of Vienna, so it was just a couple of stops on the "red line" (as my kids called it) to get to St. Stephen's Square, and the heart of everything.  If you ever go to Vienna, DO NOT rent a car.  There is just no need.  Their public transportation is cheap, efficient and clean.  It's top notch, especially when compared to Boston or New York!  

We stopped at the famous Figlmüller for some schnitzel.  It was opened in 1905 and it's easy to see how they are still in business.  YUM!

This building right next to the Figlmüller was turned into a work of art, covered in foil and barbed wire.  So fun!  This is titled, "Hey you, it's us!" and it's by Borjana Ventzislavova.  "It's not the others, but ourselves that we are afraid of."

On our way back to the apartment in the evening, we stopped by St. Stephen's church in the middle of Vienna.  Yes, named for the same St. Stephen that was all over Budapest!  Much like everywhere else, there had been a church here as early as the 1100s, but this church was built in the 1300s.  Interestingly, it was built so that it's oriented toward the sunrise on December 26th, St. Stephen's feast day.

Mozart was married here and Vivaldi had his funeral here.

There's more beautiful glazed tile work on this cathedral too!  SWOON!

The interior of St.Stephen's in Vienna.  Looks kiiiiinda like a lot of other churches we see here in Europe.  It was evening, and getting dark outside, so without any sunlight the church was very dark.  There was also a woman getting into a HEATED argument with a priest, who was clearly very fired up.  Several people (including me) were trying to shush her.  You do not raise your voice in the house of the Lord like that!  So disrespectful.  I don't care who you are or what religion you are. I wouldn't go to a temple or a mosque and start hollering, and she shouldn't either.  Rant over!

When churches start to run together, I try to find the most unique thing about the church.  Anton Pilgram is peeping out over the church. He is thought to carve the pulpit at St. Stephen's.  More likely, he probably just carved this self portrait!

The alter area of St. Stephen's in Vienna.

That roof, although not as cool as St. Matthias in Budapest, is pretty sweet. I wish there hadn't been so much construction so I could enjoy it more!

The southwest side of the Stephansplatz featured THIS building!  The paintings (which are somewhat obscured by the lighting) were beautiful and the lights made it look like it was lit up with candles.

Here we are at McDonalds ordering ice cream sundae's because everwhere we went for ice cream sold some sort of peanut butter flavor (which we can't risk because Grant is deathly allergic and there is certainly a language barrier!).  We compromised with McDonald's hot fudge sundaes.  You got to order from a touch screen!  SO modern!  (Meanwhile, some guy yelled at me for taking this picture!)

The love I give is the love I receive.  Thank you water bottle. I love you too.

Sorry for the poor quality of this but it was sneakily (is that a word? Autocorrect tells me it is!) taken from my cell phone. Natalie and Grant decided in Bratislava that so many people were making money on the streets that they wanted to dance for some money.  This idea continued into Vienna, and they did for a while before this sweet lady in the blue umbrella gave them some money!  (Like, a Euro!)  I swear we aren't trying to swindle people... the kids were so excited!

The first stop on our first full day was Schönbrunn Palace.  Let me tell you what an AWESOME photographer I am.  Look how well centered and amazing this picture is!  (Truth be told, there were some people standing to the left so I was trying to cut them out).  Still....

This UNESCO World Heritage Site was the summer residence of the royalty of Austria.  Although there has been a residence (and hunting ground) here since the 1500s, it was Maria Theresa who had this palace built in the mid 1700s to it's present glory.

We took the tour of the Imperial Apartments at the palace which was nice because although it was an audio guide tour, it flowed very nicely.  You are not allowed to take pictures in the palace so the ones I've taken here are from the world wide intergoogles. First, to appreciate the palace, you must know the history.

Maria Theresa in 1759, by Martin van Meytens (from Wikipedia).

Early on in the history of the palace, you have the very famous Maria Theresa (1717-1780), the daughter of Emperor Charles IV, and the only female ruler of the Hapsburgs (ever!)  She married Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor, and together they had 16 (!!!) children. Perhaps one of the reasons she was so smart and ruled so well was that her parents and grandparents weren't closely related to each other.  (Y'all know they like to inbreed!)  She only actually liked one of her children (Maria Christina) and allowed her to marry for love while the rest were married off for political reasons.  In fact, one of her daughters was the very famous Marie Antoinette ("Let them eat cake!") who married Louis XVI of France. She was very progressive for her time (convincing people to get vaccinations and allowing non-Catholics to attend university), yet was heavily anti Semitic.  Her longtime foe, Frederick II of Prussia (who invaded Saxony in 1756, starting the Seven Years War which ravaged Europe) said of her upon her death, "That woman's achievements are those of a great man."

In the 1800s, Empress Elisabeth, known as Sisi became a bit of a legend, much like Princess Diana did in the 1980s.  Her life was somewhat tragic.  After enjoying a somewhat normal (yet royal) upbringing in Bavaria, she was married to (her first cousin) Franz Joseph when she was 16.  It seemed as if she liked FJ ok... but despised being a member of the royal court.  She was prone to bouts of depression, enjoyed poetry and smoking, and was obsessed with nutrition and exercise to keep her slender figure (she was 5'8" and 110#!)  Her mother-in-law was overbearing and took Sissy's children to raise as her own.  She often fled to Hungary or Spain for long periods of time.  In 1889, her only son Rudolph was involved in a murder-suicide involving his young lover. In 1898, when she was 60-years-old, she was murdered in Geneva by an Italian anarchist.

There were a lot of beautiful rooms in the palace that told many great stories, but the room above is known as the "Hall of Mirrors" and it was my favorite.  When Mozart was 6 years old, he gave his first ever concert in this room for the Empress Maria Theresa.  Rumor has it, when he was done, he ran straight up to the Empress, jumped into her lap and gave her a bunch of kisses!

Panorama of the Schönbrunn Palace gardens, with the Gloriette well in the distance.

These guys are so stinking cute.

There was SO MUCH TO SEE here at the palace that we just didn't get to see.  We didn't get all the way up to the Georgette, and we didn't get to the zoo or the Roman Ruins.  One could easily spend an entire day here, but we only had a couple of hours.

The gardens are very simple but very pretty, even on a very windy day!  The Gloriette is up on the hill in the background.

Flowers make me happy.

We found out there was a hedge maze and went immediately there after the tour of the palace.  You KNOW how much Grant loves hedge mazes!  So Grant and I split from Todd and Natalie to see who could find the exit first.

Grant and I made it to the tree house overlook waaaay before Todd and Natalie (as you can see above).  We SO beat them!

If we find a playground, we almost always stop.  This one was jumping up and down and trying to hide from me!

Also in the playground area, they had funny mirrors that Grant and I were getting a big kick out of. Can my legs be this long please?  Wall balls and rowing would be much easier!

They have neat little finger mazes too.

In addition to the large maze and the finger mazes, they have a smaller hedge maze (made for Grant sized kids).  You can see Todd is about a foot too tall for this one!

In order to get out of the hedge maze, you had to run across these concrete blocks and try not to get sprayed by the water coming at you from your left.  Here is Natalie pausing because she's nervous about getting wet.

Schönbrunn Palace from the "backyard."

 

The Neptune Fountain (with the Gloriette behind it). 

While Todd and Natalie worked on their guardsman skills in Bratislava, Grant was thinking about applying for a job as the Schönbrunn Palace guard!

Sadly, this was IT for creepy baby doll heads in Vienna.  The cold stare from the one on the right is terrifying!

Our next stop took us to St. Peter's Catholic church.  When we arrived, there were a bunch of people sitting in the pews, and we found out they were having an organ concert a few minutes after we arrived, so we sat down and listened.

The organ! Baroque, much?

Here's what the kids thought of this cultural activity.  I didn't get a picture, but Natalie actually fell asleep!

St. Peter's church from the front.  It was built in the 1700s but a church has been in this location since the early Middle Ages.

The Baroque Plague Column was commissioned by Leopold I after he promised to put up a "mercy column" if the plague epidemic would end.  It must have, because the statue was finished in 1693.

As you know, sometimes we have to stop and let the kids burn off some energy.  So we went down to the crowded Stadtpark to find some playgrounds.  We could NOT believe the number of people playing Pokémon Go! EVERYONE was playing it except for us.  I suppose it's good that they were outside getting fresh air, but everyone's faces were buried in their phones.  It was incredible.

I thought my husband looked handsome here laying on the grass. :-)

As the day wound down, we decided to head over to the Prater amusement park, which wasn't far from our apartment.  It's the second oldest amusement park in the world, behind the Bakken in Denmark (MUST. GO. THERE). The Prater was opened in 1766 when Emperor Joseph II declared his hunting grounds open to the public.

We rode the (very expensive) Riesenrad and naturally purchased the cheesy picture that came with it!  It was the worlds tallest extant Ferris wheel from 1920-1985.  It's 212 feet high and has only been surpassed by the Japanese Technostar (at 279 feet).



A section of the Prater as seen from the Riesenrad.  It's appropriate to have a big rollercoaster in the shape of the Olympic rings for the ongoing 2016 Olympics in Rio!

I still can't believe Grant rode these swings. Look at his face!!!



The Riesenrad at dusk.

Before you even ask, yes.  This is a Ted claw machine.

There are actually two Ferris wheels at the Prater.  They looked so pretty lit up at night.

WHAT.  Grant rode the mini Tower of Terror, too!?  He loved it and begged to go on again.  His screams could be heard from miles away.

The swings at dusk.  The Prater was so pretty lit up in the evening!

Our last day in Vienna (or on the trip for that matter) took us to the Hofburg Palace.  (Dammit, I'm determined to get some culture into these children!)  Hofburg Palace was the winter residence of the Hapsburgs (whereas we saw the summer residence at Schönbrunn Palace).  The Mastery of the Land fountain by Hellmer was built in the late 1800s as a symbol of the Austrian Army.  It's pretty lifelike with those eyes!

Ramsey Bolton, is that you!?  This was creeping me out!

The front of the Hofburg Palace.

I really just wanted to see the Imperial Apartments, but you can't get to them without first going through the Silver Collection and the Sisi Museum. I liked these cups and saucers.

 The Milan Centerpiece, can be extended to 30 meters!  Now that's a table I don't want to set!

Sisi, is that you???

I don't have a ton of pictures from the Silver Collection (because quite frankly, it wasn't that interesting), and photos weren't allowed in the Sisi Museum (which I actually enjoyed) or the Imperial Apartments. The Imperial Apartment tour was really interesting but the audio guide was too long for each room and you often found yourself getting bottlenecked in certain parts of the tour.

Borrowed from the internet, you can see the bathroom at the Imperial Palace.  The audio guide mentioned that when it was installed, there was this newfangled flooring they put in, called Linoleum. I thought this was hilarious!

The other interesting room in the palace was Sisi's exercise room.  It's like a little CrossFit gym from the 1800s!  She even had a pull up bar and a set of rings.  I'm just imagining this Empress with her floor length hair attempting muscle ups on the rings!

Because Mommy likes sparkly things, I made everyone go to the Treasury with me to see the Austrian Crown Jewels.  FORCED FAMILY FUN!  The kids hated every second of it.  The crown above was made in Prague in 1602 for Rudolph II.  It contains gold, diamonds, rubies, sapphirs and pearls.  LOTS of pearls.

The scepter was made in 1615 to match the crown, above.

The baby cradle of Napoleon Bonaparte's son, Napoleon II.  It's here in Vienna because his mother was forced to flee with the child when Napoleon abdicated (so she came home, since she was from Vienna).

STUNNING bouquets of flowers, possibly made in Florence around the late 1600s.  My favorite part of this is that the description mentions it contains gold (partly enameled), silver and "precious stones."  Apparently things like opal, garnet and amethyst don't warrant being mentioned!

I'll take two of each, please. The upper set (necklace and earrings) belonged to the Empress Sophie (1805-1872) and contain diamonds, emeralds and topaz.  The lower set were hair pieces that belonged to the Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) and contain diamonds and pearls.

Now this fancy and large bowl has a really interesting story.  It's the Agate Bowl, made in Constantinople around 300-400 AD.  It's the largest carved stone bowl in the world.  Some say that the word, "XRISTO" (or Christ) formed in the bowl within the grain of the stone. (Personally, I couldn't really see it!).  SOME say (but I doubt this) that this is the Holy Grail.

The Imperial Crown was made (and added on to) in the mid 900s to the mid 1000s. Imagine putting THAT thing on your head!

I like how we go from crazy Holy Grail and Imperial crowns riiiiight back to the silliness that is the Prater.  Time to get some lunch and ride some coasters!

Grant laughing his patooty off.  He LOVED this ride.

Natalie and I braved the Olympic roller coaster. I laughed the ENTIRE time.  It was one of the best coasters ever!

The kids also loved the water balance ball.  I am not sure either of them stood up for more than one second!

Todd and the kids got lost (and seriously, everyone actually ran into walls) in the Hall of Mirrors.

The Prater Turm is the highest flying swing in the world.  WHAT.  Of course I hate this and of COURSE I still want to go on it because I'm a superlative junkie.  It takes you up 117 meters in the air.  (Because of this, the kids weren't allowed on it so they took pictures and video below).

Love this picture that Natalie took of Todd and me.

Grant was in charge of taking video on my phone and all of his videos were about 2-4 seconds long.

Our picture is of me waving at the kids below ha ha.

Grant raced two other kids and came from behind to beat them both! That's my boy!

For the Toboggan slide, we had to get in burlap sacks and slide down.

Natalie clearly enjoyed this!

Mommy doesn't DO spinny rides, so Todd went with Natalie on this (Elvis?) ride.  You are supposed to be able to stand up and balance as it spins, leaning in and out as the ride tilts.  But neither of them could do it!  (You can see the girls in the foreground were awesome at this and leaning at almost a 90 degree angle).

Todd had already been on this one, and someone had to hold the backpack with the camera in it, so I went with the kids.  It was cool- they put you in this thing, and then rode you to the top in an elevator and released you onto the water slide.  Pretty cool!

Our last meal on vacation was at the Roller Coaster restaurant.  All of your food arrives on a roller coaster.  The kids were CRAZY for this.

Animal Welfare Burger, ha ha.  Or.... just a veggie burger.

Food roller coaster system.  The numbers on your table light up when your food is coming down the coaster.

Random techno light show.

Riding (or not) with potato and tomato!

Ok ok. ONE MORE RIDE.  Let's end the day and the trip with a family ride on the swings!  (Still probably my favorite ride there!)

Until next time, Vienna!