Part 3: Day One - Continued . . .

So we left the Vienna Central Cemetery and were treated to a bus tour of the city of Vienna.

There was a mixture of both very old and very new architecture. Mixing that with the German Language and different street signs as well as different license plates and the unique sounds of the sirens on the police cars racing thru the streets - I actually felt like I was in a movie. It was all very surreal feeling at times.

Jake had to get a photo of Starbucks for Dad. Funny thing, the Austrians and Germans don't like Starbucks. They think the size of the coffee they serve is ridiculous and they like it black - no flavors - no sugars - no creamers (or so our tour guide told us).

We grabbed a Grillwurst Sausage (cross between kielbasa and italian/polish sausage ... they served it cut up on a paper plate with a brown mustard or ketchup and a slice of bread) from a street vendor and made our first purchases with Euros. We then found a nearby park to rest in the shade. We were exhausted.

We had our first experience with Austrian Water Closets in the park. .50 euro to go to the bathroom, but I tell you, it was a pleasure to pay. I don't think there was one restroom that was dirty over there. That was surely a relief! Below was a botanical gardens of sorts. We didn't go inside the building, but it was part of the park we were resting at.

Our meeting point was a fountain and so we took lots of photos there. Can you see how tired I was in this photo?? UGH!

From there we boarded our coaches and headed to our hotel.

We stayed in the Austria Trend Vienna Messe. It was just across the park from the Prater Amusement Park we would spend the evening at.

No stairs at this multifloor hotel, so there was LOTS of waiting at the elevators. Our staff had a nice little routine down to take care of all the details each time we checked into a hotel. We arrived at the hotel. They would go in and get the keys, then come out to the bus and tell us what room numbers we were in, all the while the loading crew was taking our luggage off of the bus. Once we had our room numbers, we grabbed our bags and headed to the lobby to get our key from Mrs. S and they wait in the long line at the elevator. Every hotel, it was the same routine. Near the end of the tour, my roommate and I would get our key and just go sit down and wait while all the kids got to their rooms - and then we would be last to find our room.

Sorry - I didn't think to take the photo until after I had washed my clothes out in the sink and unpacked a bit. LOVED their showers, by the way. The shower head was one of those detachable ones - although - it was always a challenge trying to figure out how to turn it on - every hotel was so very different. Toilets don't have handles either. You have to find and press a button to push in order to flush.

Beds all had a huge down comforter folded in the center and a down pillow. Most hotels we could open the window for fresh air - although - I never saw any screens on any windows. But we also saw very few bugs and insects. That was very curious to me.

On our first day (yes this is STILL the first day in Vienna - and we were going on about 30 hours from the time we got up at ESU on Saturday to head to the airport at JFK) we changed clothes and met out on the hotel lawn, to walk over to Prater Park for the evening.

It was just a short walk from the hotel and was a place full of amusement rides.

Finally it was time for dinner. We ate in an open air restaurant on the grounds - and silly me - forgot to take a photo of my dinner - before I ate it - so I went around the tables looking for someone who hadn't finished yet.

Not sure if it was because I was so hungry (all that walking) but I loved dinner. It was a chicken breast with a light brown spicy sauce, rice and fresh vegetables. They also served a salad that had a sauerkraut type of cabbage on top of it and really big beans.

Finally back to our hotel and lights out for the high school kids was at 11:00pm.

We had been up 36 hours with cat naps here and there.

Our first day in Europe was jammed packed - but it was over -

Only 13 more days (11 more cities, 2 more countries and 9 concerts) to go!