So…In Vienna. Today was quite a nice day. I got up and went shoe shopping with Gabi and found (pretty immediately) two pairs of shoes that I felt made me look less American, which was the goal. One pair is for walking, the other is more dressy.

We came back to Gabi’s house to pick up Jonas and went into Vienna, the city part, driving in and then taking the metro from the edge of the city. We walked around the main part of the city, looking at the Cathedral in the middle of the city (St. Steven’s Cathedral) and the Hofburg, which is where the “winter residence” of the Emperors was and the current President’s office is. We also saw the National Library (which was beautiful) and the town hall, which I thought was a castle…There were lots of statues everywhere, and all of the buildings were just gorgeous. The city was more spread out than Prague though.

Jonas and I were hungry, so we stopped by this summer festival in front of the town hall where there was food from all different countries. I got some sweet dumplings—filled with nougat and AMAZING. Very yum. We also had this sparkling wine and fruit drink, one with strawberries, another with raspberries.

After looking around the city, Gabi took me to see the “Great Wheel” (that would be a ferris wheel). There was an amusement park, or at least between a fair and an amusement park. We went on one of the rides, which was fun and frightening because the way the seat or contraption to be in was made, it felt like you were free to just fall. But I didn’t and it was fun.

After the ride, we headed back to Gabi’s car and got some ice cream at this place that she had been talking about…dumpling ice cream. They had a bunch of other stuff too, and I decided to just try Jonas’ dumpling ice cream and get my own different kind of dessert…I got this praline and something sundae type things….basically ice cream with a huge thick layer of truffle chocolate sauce or something. It tasted like pudding and was amazing, especially with the hazelnut ice cream. It was also huge, so I definitely did not eat all of it. But it was delicious.

We went and looked at the summer house of the Empress, which was pretty, but I was exhausted. It was also on land with the oldest zoo in the world and I saw an adorable red squirrel that I was really excited about, and took a picture of.

We went home after the castle/summer house and I took a nice, well-needed nap. I woke up a while ago and ate some soup (broccoli?) and dumplings with mushroom sauce that Gabi’s mom made yesterday. It was really good…I had no idea I liked dumplings, but they’re quite delicious.

It was a good day, an excellent food day. I’ll be sad to say goodbye to Jonas & Gabi, as well as Vienna (and Gabi’s adorable and sweet parents). As in Rome, Prague, and I’m sure everywhere else, I will leave feeling like I’ve only done a small portion of the things I could do, or want to do. Which is just how this trip goes. A whirlwind. Until Stuttgart–!