Vienna and the Flight Home

Thanks to additional traveling, it has taken me over a month, but here is the last trip post! Dr. Burkhart also had a meeting in Vienna, so we joined Pops and Gramommy in yet another beautiful city! Zack and I have already been to Vienna and so, bringing Bekah here was really nice because we could enjoy a city that we loved, but not feel pressured drag Bekah all over town to see everything, because we pretty much already had : ). As always, our favorite part was walking around the lovely city. It was a change from Edinburgh. Vienna has a greater metropolitan feel and the buildings are  Parisian influenced with their achitecture and coloring. I enjoyed catching up on the latest fashion here as well.

Bekah's favorite part, without a doubt were the horsies, or the "neighs" I don't think I am exaggerating if I said that she probably yelled the word "neigh" about 200 times during those 2 days! Being the home of the Spanish Riding School that features the Lipizzaner Horses,  horsies were everywhere! All we had to do was walk outside our hotel and park the stroller, we were sure to see a "neigh" in a matter of seconds!

Naturally, we wanted to take Bekah to see the Lipizzaner's practice, but when we walked up to the ticket stand, they informed us that due to allergies, children under 3 were not allowed in! I was so disappointed for her, but soon learned that since the city was "trotting" with them, Bekah would not know any better! Pops was very sweet and suggested that we take Bekah on a buggy ride, which really was amazing to Bekah, and filled the void that the Spanish riding school practice session left wide open : ).

The building where the Spanish Riding School is:

And so began the mission to point out horsies everywhere we went!

Not only did Bekah get her "neigh" fix, she surprisingly got her fill of bubbles too, thanks to this street vendor, even I was impressed! She dipped a long rope into some bubble mixture and when she held the "lasso" up in the air, it created the biggest bubbles I have ever seen!

With so much to do and see, she continued to show her itch to get out of her stroller and explore on her own:

We saw the Stephensdome:

A mighty large cathedral in Europe.

Inside the church we did our best to tell Bekah about it and she really perked up when we told her about praying in here. We lit a candle and said prayers for all of our friends and family too, Bekah liked that part!

Hofburg Palace where the Hapsburg family lived. They were rulers of the Holy Roman Empire for a long time.

The town hall peaking up out of the trees. The town hall is called the Rathaus. We we jokingly call it the "Rat-house."

One of the things I love most about Europe is how often you get to eat outside! And as you can see in the background, if horses are trotting about, it adds time for mommy and daddy to eat because of the "dinner theater!"

The next day, we once again ate outside:

So fun to spend so much time with Gramommy and Daddy! Daddy definitely took the opportunity to eat some Wiener Schnitzel- breaded veal or pork escalope that is friend until golden.

Being a bit more experienced on this leg of the trip, we knew to be on the hunt for city parks, Bekah needed some wide open spaces!

When Pops wasn't in a meeting, Bekah lapped up his attention!

We made sure to stop by the famous Hotel Sacher to pick up some of their chocolate cake- the Sacher Torte- that really is known around the world! You can even find it at La Madeline! Personally I would take my mother's chocolate cake over that cake any day, but it is always fun to learn about famous traditions.

And to continue with the undeniable fact that most trips revolve around food : ), it was Bekah's dinner time. In the given area that we were walking in, it was pretty hard to find a place with "Bekah food." Eventually we found a pizza stand that offered fruit as well and we then took ourselves to an outside restaurant, pizza in hand, so Bekah could have her meal and Zack could get his beloved Wiessbier,  the waitress shooed us off! In her very angry German, communicated to us that bringing food to that table for a (sweet and hungry) baby not bought in her pub was out of the question! So, we wandered some more for a bench and let Bekah eat on our laps. She was so hungry she didn't know any better, but my, how difficult it was to feed a toddler that week!

After that, we were told by Pops and Gramommy that Gramommy was to take care of Bekah while we went to a dinner and a ballet with Pops! A little bit of culture during a night on the town, whoo-hoo!

 Sometimes hotel rooms can be a tricky place for a toddler to have fun in, so while mommy was getting ready, the  value of the Ipad was seen once again, for daddy and Bekah enjoyed some more Elmo. I am not the biggest fan of the Iphone really, but when you are traveling, the IPad really has the potential to become your new best friend!

You can imagine how excited I was to be able to see the real Vienna Ballet! It was extra special because they came to us, so that we could eat too, a real dinner theater this time : ). Without Bekah around, guess I forgot to get a pic of Zack and I all dressed up : (.

After two nights in Vienna, it was time to get this girl back to the states. We woke up early, and started our goodbyes.

It was at breakfast that morning where I realized my baby girl had not had a taste of nutella! I  had that yummy goodness when Zack took me to Europe for the first time, naturally, I wanted Bekah to share the same tradition. Despite the awkward look on her face, she approved!

 Excited to get Bekah back home, but understandably dreading the flight home, I said my prayers and we started the first leg, the flight to Frankfort. Here she was in the terminal . . . things were not looking good!

The flight was "trying" but thankfully, during our layover in Frankfort, Daddy rocker her to sleep, we placed her in the stroller and she got about an hour nap. Teehee, we tried our best to tilt the stroller to offer her a "crib like feel."

And what do you know it, the 10-11 hour flight back was AWESOME! It is so true what they say about expecting the worse and always being pleasantly surprised. Given the flight over here and how exhausted she had to be from the trip itself, I  could not help being concerned about how in the world we were going to make  it back, but oh my gosh, it was so much fun! We played happily with all of our items mentioned in the first post, we ate all of our food ( don't forget, have the stewardess bring out your meals in shifts!) and then, once again, we did the bedtime routine and like MAGIC,

she slept until we had to wake her up to get her off the plane, which means that she slept for over 5 hours, straight! Without Benydryl I might add! Daddy studied, mommy watched TWO movies, I FINISHED a novel ( I say novel because it is a treat to not always be reading a parenting book), I had a couple glasses of wine, I went through my calendar to sort of regroup myself for going back to the real world, it was perfect!! Did I sleep? Nah, probably should have, but I was loving all of this independence on a plane, I couldn't help but enjoy myself and live it up! : )

( Thank goodness for  how the seat extended and she could lay flat!)

To sum it up, the trip was a success and one that I would repeat in an INSTANT! The way there was good for us, to know that we can survive a hard plane flight, and the way back was just an added bonus that sometimes, just sometimes, when the stars are aligned, a 10 hour flight with a toddler could be . . . fun! And not to mention the actual time where we were there! It was harder at times, but super meaningful and worth it. I would not have survived that long without her and I would have just kept wishing she was there with us to experience it! I would have been thinking about each situation, wondering how Bekah would react to it : ). Our little Bumblebee makes everything better and this trip was no different!

My favorite parts included all of that uninterrupted family time that we got, the freeing feeling of no true responsibilities, the cool weather and the beauty and history all around us! Bekah definitely came back, more in love with her daddy than ever before; she asks for him now during the day, cries in the morning when he leaves, all of that was not really obvious before the trip. The trip made daddy part of her every day life and now, daddy still is,  as we talk about him throughout the day and she thinks of him on her own. It's been a really special transition in their already blessed father daughter relationship : ).

When we landed, I was in the best mood, I just felt so grateful and encouraged! Grateful that we even went, grateful that it was fun and that the flight back was so positive, and encouraged that God helped us to do something that really was challenging! It only stregnthed my relationship with God as a parent that relies on Him SO much to help me be better mommy, make good decisions for Bekah and protect her.