Originally published on 19 October 2015.

Welcome to the final installment of our weekend in Vienna! Our last full day dawned COLDLY! Steve went for a run, but I snuggled up in bed a little longer and took a nice, hot shower instead! By the time Steve got back, I was ready to have another enjoyable breakfast and attack the day!

Did someone say breakfast?

While we ate, we made our plan of attack for the day. Where would we start? A palace of course! To the Belvedere!

So, the Belvedere is actually three palaces! The first one, the Lower Belvedere was built in 1697; the Winter Palace in town was completed in 1708; and the Upper Belvedere was started in 1717. Why would someone need three palaces? Not sure. All three of them are now art galleries with very little explanation of the history of the palaces. That was quite a bummer for me, but they sure were pretty to look at! Prince Eugene of Savoy was the one who saved the Holy Roman Empire (including Austria) from the Ottomans. So, I guess if he wanted to build three palaces for himself and his family, that’s acceptable!

After a leisurely lunch at a a local restaurant off the beaten path (no menus in English!), we stopped in at the Opera House, but we’d missed the English tour for the afternoon. Kind of a bummer, but Mr. Peabody Pembroke met up with some long-lost Viennese relatives in the gift shop:

Then it was back to the hotel for our luggage. We used the Wi-Fi to check on a few things–like an update on our flight the next day. We were sorry to leave such a beautiful and historic hotel, but our flight would be early enough that we’d want to be at the airport hotel for the night. Now for a long, romantic walk to the train!

When we got to the train station, we were able to check in for our flight and print out our boarding passes. Very handy! Since it was Sunday and most shops and grocery stores were closed, we stopped at the only grocery store that was open in the train station. BIG MISTAKE! It was so crowded! There were two cash registers, and the lines for both wrapped around the tiny little shop. We did manage to get something to eat and take with us, but it wasn’t easy! Should have gotten a picture of the crowded store, but I could only think of getting out!

The express train took us straight to the airport in 16 minutes–really nice and way faster and cheaper than other modes of transportation! From there, it was a short walk to the NH Hotel. We only got one key, and we gave the power adapter back to the Hotel Sacher. When Steve wanted to go to the gym, that meant I’d be without light in the room and without power to charge any of our devices (the room key powered the lights)! I was already done for the day and said I’d be fine until he got back, if he didn’t mind picking up a power adapter from the front desk on his way back up. But much to my delight, he returned to our room just moments later with another key card and the power adapter!

When Steve got back from my gym, we did “church” in the room. Thank goodness for recorded sermons! It was also easy to find a cracker and a mini bottle of red wine for communion, too. But next time we do that, I’ll have to have Steve take a picture of me taking the tiniest sip of red wine–what a face!

After that we tried to get some rest. Tomorrow would be a looooooooong Monday!

We’re so glad we stayed at the airport hotel that last night. It was nice to walk over to the airport, have breakfast at the Austrian Airlines Lounge, and be assured that we wouldn’t be late for our flight! It was my first time on Austrian Airlines, a Star Alliance partner with United:

The flight was almost 10 hours, but with Steve by my side, I’d be content for that long and longer! We had heard from one of the flight attendants that most of the people on our flight would be arriving from Tel Aviv, and their flight was late! But they made it. We knew who they were because of the yamakas! Luckily they made it–they made up over half the flight!

Steve watched some movies, I read my book and started a couple of blog posts, and with just under four hors left in the flight, Steve suggested we watch The Sound of Music together! It is always a classic and one of our favorites! We have tickets to see it on stage in a couple of months! I love that Steve suggests things like that. We start a movie or TV show together and it’s like we’re watching it on the couch at home… almost! I love my sensitive man!

And that was our trip! We made sure to stay up as long as we could to prevent jet lag. Join us for our next trip. You never know where we’ll go next!