Austria Archives - asthejoeflies

Aug 22 2014

Bavarian Summer: A Seat, a Bed, and a Toddler – and The End!

The Lufthansa 747-400 features a full bed in first class

Ahhh…the best part of writing trip reports is the last entry. Originally we were scheduled to take a similar flight to our outbound so I wasn’t going to write about it. However, we ended up taking Lufthansa’s 747-400 first class product – aka a seat AND a bed. I figured anyone who was thinking of taking an infant or toddler in LH F might want to see how that impacted things. So let’s finish this!

A view I don't get very often — A view I don’t get very often

After our time in the First Class Terminal, we were driven in a minivan to our plane. People get driven in all sorts of cool cars from the FCT to their plane – Porsches, Benzes, and GRAND CARAVANS. I found it pretty amusing, hopefully the dude who shared the car with us did too (he was really nice). We were dropped off at the bottom of the plane which was pretty cool – 747s are big mamma jammas.

This could be a long flight... — This could be a long flight…

I think Jess’ exclamation, “We’re flying upstairs!?” summed it up. While being in the nose of the plane would have been cool, it was pretty neat to walk up the stairs to the first class cabin in the “hump” of the plane – I’m not sure I’ve ever been up there myself. The first class cabin consists of four rows of two seats each, we chose the last two seats in an effort to minimize bothering others. The cabin ended up being full due to some weather issues in Frankfurt the day before, so I was a bit nervous as we got ready to take off.

For once M was cool with taking off with me instead of mom

It turns out it was silly for me to be nervous, for a couple of reasons. First of all – the cabin had SO much stuff for Little M to play with that she just had a great time for the majority of the flight. Opening drawers, closing drawers, putting stickers on the armrests, putting headphones on, putting headphones on me, and best of all – playing on the separate bed.

Nothing like a pretzel and some first class butter

Having a separate bed with a lap/infant is pretty clutch. What that meant was she could lay out all her toys on the bed and just PLAY. Yes, she’d run back and forth between Jess and my seat, but for the most part she didn’t have to be sitting on us, climbing on us, or any of that.

When she fell asleep, we just lay her down there and could still sit next to her and keep an eye out. The seat itself doesn’t recline to fully flat so parent and child can’t both sleep fully flat at once, but it was a daytime flight anyway. The biggest issue was that there was way too much for her to play with – she was completely overstimulated throughout the whole flight. That meant it was pretty tough to get her down for a nap.

Being able to sit on the bed together opens up a lot of options in terms of space for the toddler

Eventually, after Jess tried in vain for over an hour to get her to sleep, I just took M into the lavatory until she passed out. There was about 5 minutes of intense crying there, but thankfully all the other passengers in the first class cabin were awake (and the noise cancelling headphones + bathroom door did a lot, Jess said M was tough to hear with all of those barriers).

We once again survived the first class flight by dividing and conquering. Jess would watch M while I ate, then we’d switch, and the same if anyone wanted to watch a movie. We both managed to get through one movie on the seven hour flight, haha. We also used up almost every single “present” we had wrapped in “the bag” – the nice thing about the return journey is you don’t have to save any of your tricks!

Nothing like a little overstimulation on a 7 hour flight

All in all, I’d say having a seat and a bed is pretty awesome – especially if you have a lap child in tow. I realize that this isn’t something that people have the chance to do often, but if you are considering Lufthansa First Class with a lap infant, I definitely think the 747-400 product is better than the other new first class products. You just can’t beat that kind of space.

Final Thoughts

We had an amazing trip to Germany and Austria this summer. We climbed mountains, sang the Sound of Music, and ate some amazing food. In terms of summer trips, this one ranks high up on the list. If you’re thinking of visiting Germany, I say do it. For some reason it doesn’t get the press of Italy or France, but it’s a lovely country and we had an amazing time. Thanks for following along! Until the next trip…

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Aug 15 2014

Bavarian Summer: Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

I wasn’t planning on reviewing the hotels we stayed in on our trip, but I got to thinking I would have loved to see a parent’s view on the toddler friendliness of these hotels before we got here. So instead of a “review”, I just wanted to give a few thoughts on how each of the hotels we stayed at were equipped to deal with toddlers. As always, bear in mind we were in a unique situation having only one child and grandparents in a nearby room.

Crowne Plaza Salzburg

I booked two rooms at this hotel for 30,000 IHG points per night – the going rate was about 190 Euros/night so it was a pretty good deal. In terms of location, the Crowne Plaza worked out well for us. It was far enough away from downtown that we didn’t have to deal with parking issues (the garage was less than 20 Euros/day), and the hotel was right Mirabelle Gardens which was great for walks.

The scenic walk along the river to Old Town

The 15 minute walk to downtown might be a deterrent for some, and it definitely prevented us from just hopping out of the hotel to eat in the city. There are a lot of food options just one street over though that we found to be perfectly decent. Personally I didn’t mind the location because the walk to town was a scenic stroll along the river.

I’d say my biggest concern about the Crowne Plaza was the temperature of the fridge, it was only slightly cooler than the room, so we were a little worried about the milk. We had them clear out the minibar so that we could keep our food and baby supplies in there. The crib was older but seemed safe and it was on wheels which made it really useful to move around the room. Little M was also given her own blanket and towel which was cute.

There was enough space to picnic in the room

Bathtime was a cinch due to the bathtub and removable showerhead. If you’re fine with walking, Salzburg is a great city for kids and the Crowne Plaza will suit you just fine. It should be noted they are still finishing up some renovations – so some sections looked much more updated than others.

Intercontinental Berchtesgaden

To sum it up in a sentence, the Intercontinental Berchtesgaden was the hotel that worked the hardest to accommodate our toddler but was also the hotel where M was the most out of place, so to speak. It cost us 35,000 IHG points per night. We’ll start with the negative.

Bad weather made Berchtesgaden tough to entertain Little M

Like I wrote before, we were hit by a spat of terrible weather in Berchtesgaden. That really hurt because we weren’t able to walk any hiking trails with M – a real shame because the Intercontinental has a free BOB Revolution that you can borrow for free! There was a playground but it was kind of on the bottom of a hill with no stairs so M had to be carried down there – kind of weird.

Taking shelter in the playground structure

But what the weather really meant was that we were confined to the inside of the hotel the whole time – and the Intercontinental was a quiet, peaceful place so we kind of didn’t want her running around screaming. The only restaurant in the hotel is also pretty fancy. To their credit, they had a kids menu and crayons and things like that, but it just wasn’t the ideal environment to be eating dinner with a toddler (especially because we had to eat inside). In terms of location, it’s a 15-20 minute drive down or up the mountain to get to any civilization, which is definitely much less convenient than being able to walk into town.

"Why couldn't the weather have been like this for longer than two hours!?" — “Why couldn’t the weather have been like this for longer than two hours!?”

Now, to the good stuff. I was really impressed with the amenities the Intercontinental Berchtesgaden provided M with. First, she was given her own bath soap and lotion. Next, she was given a nice pack and play, Euro style, complete with a blanket and pillow. But perhaps the cutest amenity I have seen ever were the little bathrobe and little slippers! We didn’t keep the bathrobe (not sure if that was even an option) but we did take the slippers home!

Still a little too big... — Still a little too big…

Probably the best activity at the hotel for a toddler is the pool. There are two pools, an indoor and an outdoor pool. The outdoor pool is actually warmer, think they have the heat up more on that one. Anyway, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves – the outdoor pool is pretty nice.

Anyway, I give the Intercontinental Berchestgaden credit for trying to cater to families with young children. I think if the weather had been better our experience might have been different, but you definitely don’t want to be marooned there with a toddler in bad weather. Though I guess when would you want that situation ever?

Hilton Vienna Plaza

In terms of location, the Hilton Vienna Plaza is on the outskirts of town (on the ring), but still just a fifteen minute walk to where all the action is. It’s in a nice, quiet location that’s busier during the week since it’s more towards the business-y area (as far as I could tell).

The hotel is still under renovation so there are only two floors of rooms open. Our room was spacious and gave M enough room to run around. Probably the best part was having executive lounge access as a HHonors Gold member – there were snacks at happy hour which were useful for tiding M and ourselves over before dinner. There was no bathtub so that made things tough – if your child can’t take showers yet that’s something to bear in mind.

If you give your kids candy, the executive lounge is pretty useful

Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything too special to write about the Hilton Vienna Plaza toddler wise – it was perfectly passable though not spectacular. Hilton definitely had the most attentive staff – the staff at the executive lounge knew me by name (from e-mail correspondence before we arrived) and was the most friendly and welcoming.

Final Thoughts

I realize this isn’t the most thrilling post, but hopefully it’s been useful to anyone who will be traveling to Vienna, Salzburg, or Berchtesgaden with young children. We had a blast and so did Little M!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Aug 07 2014

Bavarian Summer: Food in Germany and Austria

It has now come time for me to write the “food post.” I was considering not writing one, but some loyal readers (read: 2) requested it and who am I to turn them down!? Here are some of the types of foods we ate – and I’ve made note to highlight some of our most memorable culinary experiences as well.

Pretzels, Beer, and Wine

Let’s start out with some of the lighter stuff. Germany is home to many, many pretzels. You can find them on every street corner, every pub, even in some restaurants. I would not say that the pretzels are amazing – but they are solid and I averaged one per day during our time in Germany (they weren’t as readily available in Austria).

Obviously Germany is pretty famous for their beer. While we weren’t visiting during Oktoberfest or anything like that, beer was everywhere and was a staple of almost every meal. Unfortunately, I don’t know too much about beer, my buddy over at A Pint Half Full would be able to do a much better analysis of what I drank. I stuck mostly to the hefeweizens or “weissbiers” – wheat based stuff.

I also bought a few bottles of monk beer – I guess back in the day there was a lot of monastery brewing. I wasn’t too impressed with those.

Besides pretzels there are lots of other baked goods to be had

In Austria we had a lot more wine than beer. Austria is a major produce of Gruner Veltliner, a type of white grape – we drank that almost exclusively. It’s nothing super complicated or refined, but a great wine to drink with a meal. I wish I could describe it but I’m not wired like that – but from Wikipedia: “Master of Wine Jancis Robinson notes that Grüner Veltliner is usually produced dry with spicy, peppery notes. It is often full-bodied and with age can take on aromas and flavors similar to white Burgundies.” So there you have it!

Main Courses

There were some pretty staple dishes that we had over and over again, so I just thought I’d talk about them here.

I, um, ate a significant number of these

Sausages and Wursts

These are ubiquitous. M loved them after we peeled off the skin so we ate some type of sausage almost every single day. There are small wursts, thick wursts, wursts filled with cheese, spicy ones – if you can think of it – it probably exists. In Germany the bratwursts were often served with a dollop of mustard on the side and french fries, so you know I liked it. My recommendation – if you eat meat just try them all until you get sick of them – and just don’t think too much about how the sausage is made.

Kasekrainer, Vienna's version of a cheese dog — Kasekrainer, Vienna’s version of a cheese dog

A special shout out to the Kasekrainer, a special type of sausage cooked with cubes of cheese inside of it. So it’s like a cheese dog, except the cheese is INSIDE. Crazy.

Hearty Food

A lot of Bavarian food consisted of hearty meats – stewed beef, roasted duck, etc. It was like people just hunted wild animals and cooked them for dinner. Well, it felt like that it least. A lot of the dishes came with thick brown gravies and large potato balls. I thought I’d like the potato balls more but they were a bit too sticky and chewy for my liking.

Roast duck with the standard potato dumplings

Another big thing in Bavaria is the Schweinshaxe, or pork knuckle. This thing looks crazy and generally comes with a gigantic knife stabbed into it. I’m not sure if we ordered it at the wrong places, but I found that it generally looked better than it tastes (often too salty and I am an American when it comes to how salty I like my food). The fried skin was also too tough for my liking (I’m more used to fried duck or pork skin). Still, I think if you’re in Bavaria you have to try this.

The pork knuckle is not for the faint of heart

Vegetables, as always in Europe, seemed a bit hard to come by – though the salads in Germany and Austria seemed more like “American” salads. It feels like whenever we order salad in Italy we get like pasta salad with only a tiny bit of vegetables or something. We finally started ordering roasted vegetables with like every meal because we were getting sick of potato based starches.

Bavaria also featured a lot of great soups – mainly beef broths and consommes with large dumplings inside of them. In Austria, a lot of these times these soups would come with “pancakes”, strips of egg that are kind of like thick crepes. Apparently back in the day they’d take leftover dessert crepes and throw them in the soup the next day. Here’s a recipe if you’re interested – that stuff was GOOD.

Schnitzel

Schnitzels deserve their own category – as I understand it, schnitzel basically means any meat that you pound thin and deep fry. Again, if you’re not vegetarian – how could you go wrong with this? There were tons of versions of this.

Wienerschnitzel, the classic, is veal that has been pounded thin and deep fried. I find that it tastes tougher than veal normally does, which makes me question why they even need to use veal in the first place (I generally don’t eat veal).

Deep fried meat and potatoes - Bavaria in a picture — Deep fried meat and potatoes – Bavaria in a picture

Schweineschnitzel is pork – think chicken fried chicken but with pork instead. I generally preferred that.

The best wienerschnitzel we had was in Vienna in a place called Plachutta’s. In fact, that was one of the best meals we had period along with Gastof zum Neuhaus in Berchtesgaden.

You can get this stuff anywhere and everywhere

Tafelspitz

The most unique thing we had to eat was Tafelspitz which is considered to be the national dish of Austria which we also had Plachutta’s. It was a pretty cool production and worth going into detail.

Tafelspitz is essentially boiled beef – but it’s boiled for a long time along with the bone marrow. The soup absorbs a lot of the flavors. You start your meal by drinking the soup. You can ask for a bowl with nothing in it, with pancake, or with Austrian dumplings.

The beef is presented on your plate after you finish the soup

After you finish drinking the soup, you put the bowl aside indicating to your server that you are ready for the next course. They then come and take the meat and bone marrow out of the bowl and plate it for you so that you can eat it. There are plenty of vegetables in the broth as well.

An up close look at the potatoes, my favorite part (are you surprised?)

Overall, Tafelspitz is a huge meal and we all pitched in to help Jess finish it. It looked amazing though and I wish we had gotten to order it more than once on our trip. I only seem to recall seeing it on the menu in Vienna, though.

Dessert

Vienna is pretty serious about their coffee

Obviously, we ate a lot of gelato. I was surprised out how good the gelato was out there, there are a lot of stalls run by Italian immigrants and their stuff is legit. I’ve already shown tons of gelato pictures throughout the rest of this trip report so I’ll hold off on too many here.

Jess - "Best strudel ever" — Jess – “Best strudel ever”

Jess is the dessert expert, and she was constantly saying that she hadn’t realized how seriously Germans and Austrians take their desserts. We had a ton of cake and apple strudel in Bavaria – though we did not once have a Black Forest cake. Guess we’ll have to hit up western Germany for that someday. Vienna took desserts to the next level – it almost felt like Paris with the number of cafes lining the streets serving dessert.

Iced Chocolate at Cafe Tomaselli (where Mozart supposedly bought chocolate)

Of particular note was Cafe Tomaselli in Salzburg and Demel in Vienna. We had some great ice cream at the former and an amazing chocolate torte at the latter.

Ritter Sport — 59 cents for each Ritter. Still can’t get over it!

Finally, you can’t leave Germany without having some chocolate. From the Lufthansa first class cabin to the supermarket, chocolate is everywhere. We bought 12+ Ritter Sports. That’s probably all I should say about that.

Vienna Film Festival

My favorite eating experience was at Vienna’s Film Festival. Apparently they just set up a giant screen in front of the Rathaus (city hall) where people can watch movies at night for like a month in the summer. Around it is what I would describe as a giant outdoor food court. It’s like you’re at the mall, but outside. Restaurants from all over Vienna set up booths – there’s a ton of variety and even a Magnum Ice Cream store! What!?

The atmosphere around the film festival is live

There were a ton of people there every night – tourists, locals, everybody basically. The food was great, the atmosphere was great, it just was pretty difficult to find a seat. You can however move to the benches in the nearby park. There are people coming around to grab your plates when you are done and things like that so you don’t even need to bus your own trays. If you are good at babysitting tables and don’t mind people hovering around you, I highly recommend checking out the Film Festival if you’re in Vienna in the summer. Even if you don’t like that – go anyway – there’s always takeout.

No idea what kind of fish these were but they were great

Final Thoughts

To be honest, I wasn’t really all that excited about the food options in Germany. I much prefer Italian pasta and pizza, or so I thought (that stuff is readily available all over Bavaria if you’re interested). I was actually impressed with what Germany had to offer food wise – there were some unique dishes that I really enjoyed eating. I wouldn’t say it’s a culinary wonderland or anything, but if you like hearty, wholesome food – Germany and Austria have your number.

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Aug 04 2014

Tips for Surviving Europe with a Toddler

I thought life with Baby M in Italy was easier, but life with Toddler M was more fun

Since getting back from Germany, I’ve been thinking about what might have made our travels with our toddler a little bit easier. This definitely was a tougher trip than when we went to Italy with M as a six month old baby. I recognize we will never be traveling to Europe with an 18 month old ever again, but hopefully some of these thoughts might help some of the other parents out there!

A couple notes – all my thoughts are as a parent of ONE child, I’m sure some other bloggers at Saverocity know a lot more about traveling with multiple kids. Secondly, as Tip 1 will quite clearly illustrate, we traveled in a unique situation that made life a LOT easier.

Tip 1: Bring backup

If you’ve been paying attention to our travels in Germany, you’ll no doubt know that my parents came along with us. In fact, we had the entire Lufthansa first class cabin to ourselves on the outbound. I recognize the blessing it is to have a wife who gets along well with her in-laws AND grandparents who are willing to travel with us AND grandparents who have healthy mileage balances so they could pay their own way.

Having my parents around made a huge difference (obviously)

But I’m sure I don’t have to tell the parents out there that having backup makes a huge difference. My parents watched M on two different occasions, giving Jess and me the opportunity to bike and hike. They also watched M once when she was asleep so we could run down to the bar to grab a drink.

Parents are also useful as distractions during gelato procurement

Any hour, or even minute, you get as a parent to mentally take a break from the stress of parenting is invaluable. Not to mention the fact that there are two more pairs of hands around when navigating transportation, dining, etc. So if you have a nanny, or good friends/a group willing to travel with you, or in-laws wanting to spend more time with their grandkids, why not use them if it makes sense?

My parents babysitting also made our Sound of Music tour possible!

I bet this even could apply to families who travel domestically together, say, to Disney World or something. At least that’s my best guess!

Tip 2: Take it easy and build in lots of R&R

One of the reasons I love Europe is there is so much to do – museusm to see, castles to visit, food to eat, etc. I once made Jess get a 2-day Museum Pass in Paris (not to be confused with the overpriced Paris Pass btw) and we hit up six or seven sites in less than 48 hours (she still hasn’t forgiven me). Those days are long gone.

It is, of course, easier to eat at a cafe when your kid is like this

Instead, toddlers force you to embrace the slower paced cafe culture that Europe offers. Sit at a cafe, let your kid run around in a park or one of the many city squares, take a long after dinner stroll. We rarely planned to do more than one big attraction per day and that generally worked out pretty well. We went to Germany knowing we would miss some great sights and thus weren’t disappointed about missing anything.

We weren't as successful keeping things relaxed for M on the flight home - but hey at least I got to lie down — We weren’t as successful keeping things relaxed for M on the flight home – but hey at least I got to lie down

We kind of worked around nap times – either we would use them to rest ourselves, or if M fell asleep in the stroller we’d take advantage and visit some place where we needed her to be quiet. I’d just recommend relax-y schedule works for you and going with it. You’re gonna be tempted to push it every once in awhile – just pick and choose your spots.

Tip 3: Split time at “grownup” museums or just stick to the kid-friendly ones

Jess and I are big fans of art, but the reality is art museums aren’t very conducive to screaming toddlers (including happy screams). Neither are museums about heavy material like World War II. While we were in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and greater Bavaria, it wasn’t really a big deal because museums were either small or pretty low key. Salzburg and Vienna were a different story though.

I mostly chilled at the museum cafes — I mostly chilled with M at the museum cafes

Here’s what I’d recommend. I generally ended up missing most of my time at the museum anyway because M would need stimulation. She was pretty bored (or antsy) at most of the bigger museums we went to so I usually took her to the cafe for a snack or played with her in the open areas. Jess was able to visit the museum during these times, and then we’d switch. Not ideal, but we both at least got to see something. I think with one kid, divide and conquer can work pretty well for the more reserved museums.

Or else we went to the ones with fun exhibits

The alternative, of course, is to skip those kinds of museums altogether and stick to kid friendly ones. M was a huge fan of the Naturhistoriches, the natural history museum in Vienna. Both Vienna and Salzburg had children’s museums, and some of the music museums are pretty fun for a toddler because there are a lot of interactive exhibits (either media or even stuff you can bang on). I think Haus der Musik would be great for toddlers and when we went (after 8 PM) it wasn’t very crowded at all.

In front of the Natural History Museum (a big hit)

Ultimately, don’t expect to spend an entire day at the Louvre and you will set yourself up for success (though the Louvre is so crowded I bet nobody would notice a tantrum here or there anyway).

Tip 4: Always carry distractions and snacks

This one is pretty obvious but I write it here because it’s so easy to forget your “bag” and then you’re suddenly in the Prado with nothing! There is a LOT of awesome stuff you can get at the dollar store that can distract toddlers for extended periods of time, but for my money nothing is better than the one dollar sticker rolls you can get. Yes, we left stickers in random places like Lufthansa First Class but it kept M occupied.

I also think it’s important to leave the hotel every day with water and snacks because you never know what’s going to happen. Having food options for the toddler is a must. We bought some Manchego which we cut into “string” cheese (M doesn’t peel it yet so she doesn’t know the difference), grabbed an apple from the hotel, etc. etc. Crackers and biscuits you can get in Europe are great, hit up the local grocery store and stock up. Oh, and ask the hotel to clear out the minibar so a) your toddler doesn’t get you charged by those electronic ones and b) so you can store your food and milk.

Tip 5: Bring your favorite child carrier

I am sure some kids don’t like being in a carrier (Beco, Ergo, Bjorn, or whatever), but ours doesn’t mind and it proved invaluable on this trip. There are times when a stroller won’t cut it, or you need compression and calm to help force a nap, or simply times where you are tired of rolling over cobblestone. We didn’t use our Beco everyday, but we used it many times – it’s also useful in those art museums – if you can get the toddler to sleep you can explore relatively unencumbered. As an added benefit you get a ton of exercise.

Tip 6: Picnic or takeout to make meals easier

If you’re going to Europe I think buying your own bread, meat, and cheese for a picnic is a great way to eat whether you have kids or not. With kids there’s the added benefit of simplicity and control that comes from making a picnic. Go to Spar, Tenglemann, or any local grocer and grab some supplies. You can people watch in a park where there is tons of space for your kid to run around. The best benefit? You save a bunch of money too.

Tip 7: When you’re presented with difficult situations, just go with it

This is kind of a catch all and of course parents do this whether they are at home or abroad. But you’re gonna run into situations you weren’t prepared for – lack of changing table, tantrums, places where strollers aren’t allowed, flash storms – it’s important just to stay calm and to go with it. One of the examples that stood out to me on this trip happened at a museum – I took M to change only to find there was no changing table in the men’s room (this after walking up and down a flight of stairs trying to follow some poor signage). I then walked in circles with M looking for Jess until we gave up. Ultimately, M got her diaper changed on the bathroom floor. Am I proud of it? No. Did it get the job done? Yes. Just do what you gotta do to survive.

It's not always easy but it's worth it! — It’s not always easy but it’s worth it!

Final Thoughts

These were seven things that stood out to me from our time in Europe with M. I think some of these points can be applied generally if you have multiple kids, but those of you who have them probably know better than me already. So far we haven’t been to a country that didn’t seem to love kids, so that’s a definite positive for visiting Europe. It seems Italy, Germany, and Austria all seem to love babies so that really helped us in our travels. Feel free to sound off in the comments if you’ve found any tips or tricks that are useful for toddlers (or kids of any age) in Europe!

Jul 30 2014

Bavarian Summer: Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

M lounging on our chaise in the Hilton Vienna Plaza

We had a three and a half hour drive from Berchtesgaden to Vienna – managing to get through with only one toddler meltdown (too hot in the car seat). After we got to Vienna, I dropped everyone off at the Hilton Vienna Plaza and then drove to drop the car off at the other Hilton in town. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hilton, but we ultimately really enjoyed the city and it was a great way to end our trip.

Dinner our first night was at the food stalls set up for the film festival at City Hall (the Rathaus)

We spent the first day visiting two museums – the Kunst Historiches and the Haus der Musik. The Kunst Historiches is one of Vienna’s premier art museums – it has an excellent collection the majority of which I did not see because toddlers just have a hard time staying quiet! M was bored so we mostly just played with her stroller and sat in the cafe.

Jess, M, and some random lady outside the Museums Quartier

The Haus der Musik was much more kid friendly – there are a lot of interactive exhibits and plenty of things you can touch and mess around with. We actually went to this museum at 8 PM (after dinner), when it becomes half price. We only saw a little over half the museum in our hour and a half there – I actually think it could take up an entire afternoon if you are into classical music.

The second floor of the museum is…kind of weird. First of all, it’s all kind of dark like a haunted house. I think the idea of the floor is to break music down scientifically – there is a lot of stuff on harmonics, sound generation, etc. The problem is, it feels like a haunted house! The first room, I kid you not, is designed to simulate the sounds you once heard when you were in the womb. Completely with weird projections of babies onto some half orb thing. Despite the exhibit being kind of new age-y and even a little scary, it actually is quite a bit of fun. You can tap on a gigantic drum, there are various buttons to press to play different sounds, and quite a few interactive stations (mostly computers with headphones).

"In the womb" Okayyyy.... — “In the womb” Okayyyy….

The third floor of the museum is the real star of the show as far as I’m concerned. It has ten rooms dedicated to nine composers who are related to Vienna. Each room has its own specific feel and flavor, with some items related to the composers (including big boys like Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn), and again plenty of interactive exhibits to pass the time by. We were actually rushing at this point but M was really enjoying the music in the different rooms. Apparently the proper way to dance to a Mozart Sonata is by waving your arms around like you just don’t care.

The most fun part of the third floor is this exhibit where you get to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. Since they were at the Salzburg Music Festival, this was our only chance to see them. You use this plastic wand and can choose from one of six pieces to conduct. It’s a lot of fun though a bit janky at times. Here’s M finishing up her set.

By the end our daughter was pretty delirious so we headed home. The next day was my parents’ last of the trip, so they took M to another children’s museum while Jess and I got a morning off. We took advantage by renting a couple bikes from Vienna’s bike share program.

It only cost us 1 Euro total for the morning since we kept all our rides under an hour (it was 1 Euro to sign up). Simple and painless and we did it with our credit cards (you don’t even need a chip). Much cheaper than Boston where 24 hours costs $6 and 72 costs $12.

Yes that's a treble clef in front of the Mozart statue — Yes that’s a treble clef in front of the Mozart statue

The city is super easy to bike around – we took a tour around the city ring using Rick Steve’s guide, stopping at a few places along the way. It was flat and smooth ride. Eventually we ended up at the Belvedere, one of the palace museums in Vienna. Unlike most palaces, it’s not just looking from room to room, it’s been converted to an art museum. I appreciated that since frankly I’m kind of sick of looking at palaces at this current point in my life. Seen one seen them all!

Cafe at the Belvedere - I guess we ate dessert twice that day — Cafe at the Belvedere – I guess we ate dessert twice that day

Jess and I capped off our date with lunch at Cafe Landtmann which boasted a serious coffee and dessert selection, of which we did partake.

On our last full day in Europe, my parents were off to the airport and the three of us took a trip to the Naturhistoriches Museum (Natural History). M slept through the first hour, and then woke up to the sight of more ducks, elephants, and dinosaurs than she had ever seen in her life.

It’s funny seeing a toddler light up when they see their favorite animals. There’s a song we sing to her in Chinese about how big an elephant’s “nose” is; if she didn’t understand the reference before I am sure she does now!

We finished our time in Bavaria and Austria with a lot of walking around Vienna and some good food. After we put M down for bed, it was time to pack and get ready for our flight home. Seventeen days is a long time to be away from home and I personally was ready to get back.

Final Thoughts

Vienna definitely exceeded my expectations as a city. It’s very walkable (or bikeable), which is a major plus for visitors especially if you don’t have kids. I think there are enough kid friendly museums and activities to spend your time with, and if you let your kids eat dessert they will not go wanting in the least. After the rainout in Berchtesgaden, Vienna was the perfect coda to our trip.