Today’s our last day in Vienna. Tomorrow we have breakfast and head to the airport. I was incredibly exhausted today, but we trekked out to a small town outside of Vienna called Hinterbruhl. We took a tram, a train, and a bus to get there. It has a system of underground caves and a large underground lake called Seegrotte. It was incredibly cool, even if I was falling asleep half the time.
Archive: July 2009
We kind of took it easy today, I honestly think all 5 of us are completely exhausted. We all went to Belvedere this morning to look at the gardens and walk through the big gallery at the top of the hill.
We got up bright and early this morning and headed over to the Hofburg Palace Complex. We stopped at the Schmetterling Haus (Butterfly House) and took photos. It was a wonderful place.
We left Budapest by train today at lunchtime. We took the Austrian railway, but before we left I went to a fabric shop that Adam had spotted. Most of the fabrics that I could use were brands I could find in the States, but it was still fun to try out my Magyar and pick up a few things. No idea what the shop’s called, but it was just up the road from our hotel, Sofitel.
Today was our last full day in Budapest, tomorrow we head to Vienna at lunch. I went with my stepmother-in-law (Joyce) to the Szechenyi Baths. It was…an experience. Definitely not a tourist spot, it was full of friendly and hearty locals enjoying the sunshine at the giant outdoor baths, which were basically like 3 large swimming pools. The designation of men’s and women’s areas were a little murky, so Joyce stumbled across at least one naked man while trying to figure out where we were going. She was horrified; I just sort of thought this is Europe, there are naked people everywhere. All shapes and sizes squeezed into Speedos and tiny string bikinis, it was great fun. This photo is the main lobby, I didn’t get any photos of the actual baths. You have to lock all your stuff up once you get inside. We also had massages in a no-frills facility with a sturdily built woman who was kind of charmingly shy.