Andrew's View

April 28, 2013
On Monday I went to a park. It is called Alte Donau (old Donau). It is fun! There is a cork screw that lifts water, and I got to play in the water.

At the park.

Then, on Tuesday I went to Haus der Musik, Beethoven's house, and Mozart's house.
At Haus der Musik, it tells you all about music. There are acoustic things that tells you about which shapes of buildings are best. And there are scale things that tell you about the three kinds of scales. Beethoven's house is a four-story house on the edge of the old walls. There is even a remnant of the pointy old walls that surrounded the city just below his house. He even has his own mailbox and doorbell. And there is even a museum that's on the original story of his house. And he lived up lots of stairs!!

#18 Beethoven

On Wednesday Daddy came home from Amsterdam and the whole family went to the aquarium Haus des Meers. There are tons of fish, but it also has lots of bugs and birds. On two sides of the tower are birdhouses made of glass. (It's a Nazi tower.) I like the birds best of all. At first you couldn't see them at all, so you had to listen for their call. My other favorites were the jellyfish—they were only 1 cm big—and the scorpion (they showed him under UV light).
Then on Thursday I went to Congress Park with my friends, the Picards. It was really fun. At the second park we dug two holes and made a tunnel between the two; it collapsed on me.
On Friday I went to the General Cemetery. It was big. I got to see Beethoven's burial place, Johann Strauss's burial place, and a few other composers. Then after the General Cemetery, I went to the Wien Museum. It was great! I wish I could have had a helicamera. My favorite part were the huge models of Vienna. They showed Vienna inside the city walls.

At the cemetery.

Model of Wien.

On Saturday I went to the Natural History Museum, had a picnic at Hofburg, went to a museum at Hofburg, and got ice cream. When we went to the museum, we were too late in coming and missed seeing the first four rooms [mineral exhibits]. But I got to see the rest, thank heavens. Then I went to the picnic with the family. Then I went to the museum at Hofburg where I learned about dancing. They had a gong there. Most of it was about SE Asia dancing. I got so much ice cream. I could barely eat all of it, but I managed to eat it.
Today I went to church. And that was my week as usual.

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April 21, 2013
I went shopping at Interspar. Then I had dinner at the Picards's. Then I was going to go to another store but I got on the wrong tram. Then when we got on the right stop we walked in a huge circle and got to see Votivekirche.

Inside the church.

 Then I went to the Military History Museum. It is the best thing! My favorite things were the biggest model ship in Austria and the tanks. The model ship is 2-3 feet tall and 12 feet long. It was a half cut-away model. You could see all the guns and the torpedo launders. The tanks were full-size and real life. They were big.

In front of the uniform Archduke Ferdinand was wearing when he was assassinated (start of WWI).

The model ship.

Exploding cannon balls.

Outside the museum.

Near the cannons. 

Looking at more cannons.

And more cannons.

A construction site.

More cannons.

Tank.

Tank.

Another view of the ship.

A close-up of the ship.

I went to Müller and got some toys. They were Legos, as usual. In the afternoon we went to the Lichtenstein Park and played. At the park we played in the sand. There were a lot of kids there.
On Friday we went to the Art History museum. We got to see the last half of the painting collection. They have very famous paintings, like the "Tower of Babel."

Andrew in front of Vermeer's "The Art of Painting."

"The Tower of Babel."

On Saturday, Daddy was back from his two-day trip. We took the S-bahn to Kloisterneuburg church. In the afternoon we went to the art museum and showed Dad the rest of the art so he could see the pictures.

Back at the art museum (taking photos in the dark).

A view of the church/abbey from the train station.

Sunday we had stake conference. And that was my week.

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April 14, 2013
I went to Schönbrunn palace. It is exactly like Hofburg; besides the fact that it's richer.

At the Schönbrunn.

Then, I went to the Art History museum and got some ice cream afterward. I got four flavors.

At the art museum with two painting I liked.

Ice cream.

Then I got tired of writing and made my mother do it.
Then I went to the Augarten porcelain factory. It is cool. They mix quartz, feldspar, white chalk (clay?) to make it. First they pour it into a mold. The mold is made out of plaster. To make the mold, they make a clay figure. Then they cover the clay figure in plaster and let the plaster dry. Then they would brake the plaster and take out the figure. Then they pour the porcelain mixture and bake it in a very big oven. There are three bakings. I also got to see the porcelain museum.

One of the old kilns.

I'm going to tell you enough to make you cry.
I went to the Prater park. It is a huge park. We went to two playgrounds there. The first one had a pretend sunken ship. There was a sand pulley on it. I lifted myself up in the sand pulley. It was very fun. The second I went to was my favorite. It had the longest slide you have ever seen. It had three or four turns and it was 50 feet long (or so).

The funnest slide in the park.

On the pulley.

Then I got to go to the Tiergarten (zoo). It was the funnest zoo I have ever been to. We went with the Picards. I loved the feeding times. The animals that were about to have their feeding times were always waiting for their food. I can't believe they are so smart. My favorite feeding was the sea lions. When the feeder keeper was feeding the biggest one, the sea lion dove after it and made a big splash.

Sea lion feeding.

Sea lion feeding up close.

At the zoo.

On Saturday I went to Salzburg. I got to see the castle there. It was the funnest thing. I liked everything. There were cannons and everything you would find in a castle. They also had a display of WWI soldiers. The castle is 900 years old.

Playing with the cannons.

In one of the museums.

I also got to see Mozart's birthplace. An no, it is not very splendid. It is only an apartment building and he lived on the second or third floor. There is a Spar grocery store on the ground floor. What a disgrace to a great composer.

The yellow Mozart Birthplace house.

On Sunday I went to church. It was not easy because there was a marathon going on.

Outside the church.

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April 7, 2013
I went to Budapest on the train.

Waiting for the train.

At Budapest I saw Matthias church and the castle. I got to walk up the castle hill in Buda. It was very long and sort of fun. Then we got to walk around and see the ruins of the castle. I also got to go in Matthias's church. It is nice in there, and there is lots of pretty stained glass. Then we went back to the apartment.

Matthias Church

Inside the church.

The outside of the church, as seen from the apartment.

Then we got to go to a park in front of our apartment. It has a big slide and lots of fun things.
I got an earache and found out it was an ear infection, the millionth one that I've had [not true: he has rarely had any ear infections]. I got it because of my runny nose and cold. I got to go to the doctor's office with Dad.

At one of the parks in Buda.

I also got to go to St. Stephan's Basilica. It also has lots of stained glass and his [St. Stephan's] hand.

Some of the stained glass. 

St. Stephan's hand (his real mummified hand, about 1,000 years old). 

Inside the church.

There is a chain bridge. It is a suspension bridge. In place of the ropes there are metal things. Where the suspension ropes would go there are huge chain links made up of 12 or 13 plates of metal. Then there is a bar that goes through the ends of the plates. There are two of these types of chains holding up the entire bridge.

One of the pictures I took of a boat going under the bridge. 

Sitting on the chains of the Chain Bridge. 

On the Chain Bridge.

I also got to go to the Parliament building. It is very cool and has lots of steps. I got to see the grand staircase. (It has lots of steps.) We saw the Hungarian crown jewels. We got to see the guard changing spots. And we got to see the big conference room. There are cigar holders on the outside and on the inside, a very cool voting system that you stick your ID card in a slot and it works.

Some of the 96 steps in the staircase. Yes, there are a lot of steps. 

The crown jewels.

The outside of the Parliament Building.

And that was my week in Budapest.

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March 31, 2013
Easter Sunday
[The Internet wasn't working last week, so this is a bit late.]

Today it is Easter.

Augarten Park, minus the snow.

[This week] I went to Augarten and played there in the snow. Then we went and had a look at the porcelain factory. I went shopping for my [birthday] presents. They were two Legos sets. One was a TIE fighter and the other one was a plane. The cake my Mom made for my birthday was the next-to-best cake that I've ever tasted. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate flakes and chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top. There was also some chocolate mousse in the middle. It was very good. I got cards from my classmates.

Andrew and his cake for his 9th birthday. 

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Andrew.

I also went to Kalvarien kirche and the doctor's office. I am sick with a stuffy, slobbery nose and a cough.

The Calvary Hill Church in Vienna.

For Easter I got to find four eggs and an Easter basket that had lots of candy in it. Then I got to eat it.

Easter baskets for Easter.

One of my Easter candies.

And that is my week.


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March 24, 2013
I went to more parks.

A swing at Kongress Park, Vienna. 

A swing at the Augarten Park.

I went back to the art history museum. I saw the Egyptian collection and some mummies.

Real mummies. Really old. 

At the Egyptian section of the museum. 

More Egyptian stuff.

And the I took a train to Graz [a city about 2.5 hours south of Vienna; the second-largest city in Austria].

On the train.

At Graz I got to see their old armory. The armory was the coolest thing I had ever seen because it has so much armor and guns. It even had some cannons and morters. And to top it off, it's the biggest collection in the world.

Swords and shields. 

Suits of armor. 

Stacks of armor. 

Really big guns (small cannons).

Then I went to the Graz castle. At the castle we got to go up a tram that went up the side of the mountain.

The car up the side of the mountain.

Once we had gone back down a lot of stairs, we went back home on the train. This is the first time I was on a train.

Walking down the castle hill.

This week is my B-day!! P.S. Don't forget my B-day cards!

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March 17, 2013
I went to the Secession Building. It has a gold dome. Then I went to a church. It was built because of one of the plagues [in the 1700s].

Then we went to another church. We got to hear an organ concert. The next day we went shopping for toys. [I might get to show you the Legos I got.]

We happened to walk in at the start of the daily organ concert.

Then I got to go to the Hofburg castle and see the silverware collection and the goldware collection. At Hofburg castle I also got to see the plates, bowls, and centerpieces.

This is part of a very long table with a "centerpiece" covered with gold.

The next day I got to go the the Technical Museum--or in other words, the Robot Museum. At the Robot Museum, there were tons of robots. Now I'm going to tell you my favorite things at the Robot Museum...a programming game. The programming game is where you would make a list by pressing certain keys and then press Load. Then a little robot guy would move around and pick up pieces to make another robot. There was another of these, but you did it with cards and punch holes. This was my favorite. [We accidentally left the camera in the locker with the coats, so we didn't get a photo of this.]

In front of the Natural History Museum.

Then I went to the Natural History Museum near Hofburg. It was tons of natural history.

That is a gold nugget behind the children.

Andrew by a salt crystal.

There also were huge salt crystals, a huge topaz, my birthstone, and a black smoker!!!

In front of the black smoker. Andrew was very impressed.

Andrew's birthstone. He was very excited.

In front of the bald eagle.

Then I went to an Art History museum that had clockwork toys. One of them at the end opened a door showing a picture that looked as if eyes saw you, and then that went, and a statue had his pants down showing his butt! Toot! [No photo of that!]

In front of Joseph Haydn's house, Vienna.

And then I went back to Lichtenstein Park and that is the end of my week.


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March 10, 2013
I got to go to Hofburg Castle. I got to see the Jewel Collection. It was amazing. There were several crowns. Each crown was made out of pure gold, and had 100 to 1,000 diamonds on it. The crowns also had thousands of other jewels and gems. I loved the Jewel Collection [Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg].

The crown jewels at the Hofburg Imperial Treasury. [He wanted the picture extra large.]

This is a coronation robe all covered in gold.
[It was hard to take photos in here because the light was so low
in order to conserve the textiles that are hundreds of years old.]

I got to see the Arms and Armor Collection at the Hofburg Palace.

Andrew with some suits of armor made for princes just his size.

Yesterday I got to go and see the Lichtenstein Palace. The Prince still lives in the palace [we aren't sure] and he lets people come into his front yard. In his yard there is a playground. It is a fun park. There is a zip line and that is what I played on most of the time.

I am holding a milk chocolate carrot.

This is a statue of a lion sticking out his tongue at the Hofburg.

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March 3, 2013
We got to Vienna last Thursday. We had 2 plane rides and customs in the middle. I liked the second plane because it took off and landed fast.

A view of our apartment building in Vienna.

I saw a cathedral, statues, and clock. The clock had puppets and music. The cathedral was funner. I got to climb up the 342 steps to the top.

A view from the top of St. Stephan's Church.

Climbing the steps in the St. Stephan's Church, Vienna.