Nine Playgrounds in Three Days: Parks in Vienna

Kirk was in Budapest last week, so I took the children to visit lots of playgrounds and parks. In one day we walked to six playgrounds, each of which was within about 10-15 minutes' walk of the apartment. Another day we got to the other park close to the house. Just imagine: Seven parks within a few minutes of your house. We also visited another park with two playgrounds and the children played with some friends from the ward.

The park at Spittelauer Plaz, outside our apartment.

The children love the parks here because they have such fun playground equipment. Each park has a sandbox and, during the summer, water to play in and pour in the sand. The sand stains clothes brown, and there isn't much that will get the stains out.

The park by the Rossaeur Lände U-bahn station.

A park on the east side of the Danau Canal, near the Augarten.

A fun twirly thing at the same park. 

The same twirly thing, with Andrew and Edward spinning on it. 

The larger park at the Augarten (there is also a smaller playground). 

Lucy at the same Augarten playground. 

The Augarten Park was first started in the mid-1600s, and was opened to the public in 1775. Mozart played and conducted concerts in this park.  There are two extremely large anti-aircraft towers built by the Nazis in the park from WWII. They are very ugly.

A park near a church near our apartment. 

A fun running thing from the same park. 

A climbing thing from the same park. 

A fun walking-climbing thing. 

One day it was warm and the children could play without their coats on in Kongress Park.

A very large swing that can go very high on its side. 

The same park, with a train-slide. 

A second playground in that park. Henry likes slides.  

Back to the fun swing, with small people getting rides. 

Lichtenstein Park, part of the Lichtenstein Palace Gardens,
near the apartment.

A climbing thing at the same park. 

This park has a zip line in it.

One of Kirk's colleagues at another university said his children still talk about parks in Europe two years later. We can now see why.
All the playgrounds are fenced. Dogs and other animals are not allowed in. There is no smoking in the children's playgrounds, though some parents stand outside the fence and smoke. It is very nice to have fenced playgrounds, because the children stay in one area. They know they can't leave that area without asking permission.

A train ride and lots of armor

This past week we went to see a few more things around Vienna and we also took a train to Graz, the second-largest city in Austria. There we visited the Landeszeughause, a medieval armory that has been there since the 1500s.

The Landeszeughause.

It has about 32,000 pieces of arms and armor mounted on the walls, ceilings, and shelves. They could outfit an army of 5,000 with what they have right now; when the armory was in use, they could outfit 10,000 soldiers. They have been oiling all this armor and arms since the 1500s to keep it intact and prevent the rust. They oil the stuff Monday through Friday, all day every day. After a year, they have finished going through the museum once, and then they start all over again.

One of the rooms.

A shield that was really used. 

More of a room. Think about a huge storage room, but
instead of food or something like that, you have piles of weapons.

The children mentioned that we visited the Egyptian and Greek/Roman wing of the Art History Museum. The year-long pass is definitely worth it, since we can go for an hour or so and then leave.

The camera focused on both the faces in this photo. 

Aristotle. Kirk took this photo in honor of Aristotle being
the first political scientist.

At the Easter Market, the children chose to get some marshmallow-filled ice cream cones as their treats.

We still have one sitting in the fridge, so they must be disgustingly sweet.

Lucy's week

I went on a train.

The children's first train ride.

I went to go see a museum [in Graz]. It was armor.

In front of some very long double-handed swords. 

Walking through one of the floors of the museum. 

The more valuable pieces were in glass cases.

I went to go see a castle.

On top of castle hill in Graz.

I watched a movie on the train [they have a "children's cinema corner" with bits of animated movies playing--all in German of course].

This isn't the train; it is the children sittin on the U-bahn (metro).

I went to the Easter Market [at the Schönnbrunn Palace].

The Easter Market. 

One of the stalls at the Easter Market, where they sell decorated eggs.
You hang the eggs on some pussy willow or forsythia branches
as an Easter Decoration. We will take a photo of ours soon.

Andrew's quote

Edward's page is now updated. We are working on the others.
***
Andrew was looking at a paper on the desk. Then he turned to me and said, "Mom, you know those people we meet here--the ones who can't speak English very well? I can read what they write because they just sound spell, and I can read sound spelling."
[For those who are distanced from Utah kindergartens, "sound spelling" is a not-very-helpful thing they teach them to do. They make them write and just spell it "like it sounds."]
So I went over to the desk and looked at the paper. "That's all in German, Andrew!" I said.
"Oh," he replied.

A bit late...

Lucy and I came down with colds/sore throats/etc., so the blog posts from the children might not happen by Monday morning. It might take an extra day or two.

Sightseeing in Vienna

This week we tried to get out quite a bit, even though the weather was frigid.

Looking towards the Natural History Museum.
It was very cold, though the sun was out.

Here is the door to our apartment.

On our way out.

And here is the lift we take when we have the stroller, which is pretty much always, or when we have the shopping trolley filled with groceries.

They love operating the lift (it says "lift" on the door).

We saw something new just about every day this week: The Imperial Apartments, the Natural History Museum, the Art History Museum, the Technical Museum (aka Robot Museum), and a department store where the children each chose a toy (Legos, Duplos, things for dolls).

In the Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg, we saw the Sissi Museum (Empress Elizabeth) and saw what a tragic figure she was. She suffered from all sorts of problems, including anorexia and depression. She had a 20-inch waist, which was expanded to 21" at the end of her life, and was 5'9". They don't allow photos in that museum, but we took a number of photos in the Porcelain Collection.

These are some of the cake dishes and other things, like an asparagus cooker.

This was a nice collection. Old, but pretty.

Henry liked these green dishes.

A table setting. If you can figure out how to fold these napkins,
you will join the other two people in the world that know this secret.

These are folded napkins.

After we left the palace, we saw a man blowing huge bubbles. It was perfect weather: 100% humidity with a breeze. The children had more fun here than looking at dishes and pretty rooms.

So we gave the man 2 Euros.

I took the children to the Natural History Museum. It has one of just about everything, including this small mineral from Wah Wah Mountain in Utah.

The Natural History Museum also has the world's largest collection of meteorites.

Lucy and Henry with a few meteorites.

The children with more meteorites.

We found a piece of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest in Arizona.

Lucy and petrified wood.

Since Kirk wasn't there, I took a picture of a Chiguire (Capybara) for him 

We finally left the museum, but the children found some things they enjoyed seeing.

We also visited part of the Art History Museum (Kunst Historisches Museum Wien), specifically the Kunstkammer, which is about 1/4 of the museum. It has the famous Bellini Salt Cellar.

Famous Bellini Salt Cellar: gaudy, but artistic.

Most of the other works were just gaudy. A few were pretty. Kirk took photos for a while, but then quit.

Lapis Lazuli bowl

Close up of lapis lazuli bowl.

When I was in Vienna in 1990, I remembered seeing this medallion,
so I took a picture this time when I found it again.

They have redesigned this part of the museum, and it is quite nice. They have lots of tablets (iPads) in each room, and you can get on them and look at the pieces in the room. For the things that work (like clocks and automated toys and such), they show movies of them. The children loved this. They would race to the tablets, find things they liked, and then run around the room to find the object.

If you want more interesting views of the week, read Lucy's comments. Andrew and Edward update their pages with new information each week. Just click on the tab at the top that has their name on it.