Vienna & Budapest 2012

We were so blessed to be able to take our annual Christmas trip again this year.   After a lot of deliberation, we decided to go to Vienna & Budapest.  We heard so many amazing things about Budapest, that we felt we had to give it a shot, and we originally wanted to go to Prague as well.  However, we realized that with a relatively short trip, a 7.5 hour train ride was just too much.  So we settled on Vienna instead.  It was supposed to be beautiful, and a place we hadn't been to before - plus it was only a 2.5 train ride.  Much more reasonable.

We planned this trip to be just like every other European adventure we've been on: non-stop. :) This was our first "city" trip with the Whitworths, so we did try to tone it down just a bit.  We are fully aware that most people do not do trips the same way we do.  I should also take a minute to differentiate between a trip and a vacation.  A trip is going to Europe and trying to see every last thing you can before you leave b/c you know you'll probably not come back as there are too many other European cities to visit.  A vacation is going to the beach and sitting on your butt for a few days.  Two VERY different things!  This was definitely a trip.  The Whitworths were troopers for keeping up with us as we are fully aware that waking up early, going non-stop all day long, and going to bed late only to get up and do it all over again isn't normally their cup of tea.  But boy was it worth it!  In 5 days we got to see two AMAZING Eastern European cities.  Let's go on a little trip, shall we?

We flew into Vienna and went exploring the first night!  This was the Hapsburg's palace.  Quite impressive, huh?  The next day we returned here to tour the royal apartments.  

That night we also found this beauty.  We had absolutely no idea what it was despite trying to find a sign or find it on the map.  We assumed it was someone's castle.  Wrong.  It's city hall.  Yep - that amazing building is city hall.  Crazy.

The next morning we had breakfast in a really cute cafe that Franklin found.  It had great history and architecture, and of course, amazing food! 

Vienna is known for a more than a few great dessert places.  Demel and Hotel Sacher have a long standing argument over who has the best sacher torte.  We tried the one from Demel - quite rich!! 

We toured the Vienna Opera House before going to see the ballet that night. It was very impressive.  I didn't know that it had been almost completely destroyed during WWII and has since been rebuilt.  I loved all the history in both cities! 

Babywagon's first ballet! 

Proof that Bryan was on the trip too! :)  Thanks hubby for always taking such great pictures of our trips. 

We saw The Nutcracker and it was really amazing.  The Nutcracker in the Vienna State Opera House with the Vienna Philharmonic playing?  Pretty much a childhood dream - truly impressive! 

The next morning Bryan and I got up and went to the Shonbrunner Palace.  We heard great things about it, but weren't able to fit it in to the previous day's sightseeing.  We weren't able to go in, but it was beautiful from the outside!

Then we all hopped a train to Budapest!

First stop: food tour.  We didn't quite anticipate just how useful doing a food tour would be.  Let's just say that Hungarians have a much more "adventurous" palate than we do.  It was very helpful to know going forward that just because a restaurant had a lot of things on the menu that we might not recognize (or ever want to eat) it didn't mean it was just an unusual restaurant.  That was actually just the norm.  Thankfully we were always able to find something on the menu that we all liked.  Though we did avoid a few restaurants that were just a little too "fancy" for our likings. :) 

I certainly didn't complain about their love of pickling everything though!  Bring it on! 

The Danube's waterfront at night was completely stunning.   It was very cold, but totally worth the views! 

Our hotel - loved it! 

Exploring the next day at St. Stephen's Cathedral.  This was right after I lost one of my gloves and my amazing hubby went back to retrace our steps and try to find it.  He didn't have any luck, but thankfully Elizabeth had an extra pair that I borrowed for the remainder of the trip.  Darn pregnancy brain. 

We did a self guided tour of the Buda side of the city.  Bryan and I took turns reading about all the sites.  

The holes in the walls of this building were all made from bullet holes.  Crazy to see that.

The whole crew.  We are so thankful for friends to travel with!

Bryan got this amazing picture of the city as the sun was setting.  Budapest was truly one of the most beautiful cities we've seen! 

The last night we took a boat ride down the Danube.  The waterfront was just breathtaking.  That's Parliament (we toured it the day before).  Only 1/8 of this building is currently used - overbuild much?  :) 

 So that's a taste of our trip.  We had so much fun! I'm very thankful we were able to take this super adventurous version of a babymoon. :)