Day 703: The Sound of Lachlan

28/06/2023

This morning Lachlan was up early and rushed to the Sudoku game, making sure he got in first before Grandpa DAVE. After watching Paddington run through the Natural History Museum like he was last week on came In einem Land vor unserer Zeit which really puzzled him.

It was a heated start to the morning after Lachlan sent Eloise’s new beloved Hello Kitty PEZ flying across the room. Eloise was not happy as she collected the pieces, we will have to fix it at home. On that note, it was time to get a wiggle on as we headed between the creative mega buildings towards the city.

The Hills City Are Was Alive with The Sound of Music Lachlan screaming for a playground on repeat. Not content in the pram, Lachlan wanted his morning run. Yes, we know we are not in Salzburg but close enough. As we passed through Burggarten, it was time to finally release the singing boy. Lachlan was quick off the mark, Eloise was fast after him shouting at him to “put your hat on Lachlan, Lachlan, come back here, hat Lachlan”.

Now that Lachlan was happy he had got his steps up we made our way around Weltmuseum and Hofburg.

The Hofburg in Vienna was the residence of the Habsburgs in Vienna from the 13th century until 1918 (with interruptions). It has been the official residence of the Austrian Federal President since the end of 1946 . It houses the largest part of the Austrian National Library as well as various museums (including the Albertina ) and the Federal Monuments Office. The area, which has grown over the course of around seven centuries, covers an area of ​​around 24 hectares, making it the largest building complex in Europe built for non-religious purposes. The complex also includes two sacred buildings : the Hofburg Chapel and the Augustinian Church . If you add the museums ( KHM and NHM ) to the Hofburg area, including the old court stables – today’s MuseumsQuartier ( Kaiserforum ), you get a total area of ​​around 50 hectares.

We passed the Emperor Franz Monument, all the buildings today were fairly substantial.

We were getting closer to the city centre as we went through Sisi Museum Hofburg Wien. You have got to love a good dome ceiling.

As soon as we were back outside, all the horse-drawn carriages grabbed Eloise’s attention, she enjoyed them and counted how many horses there were at each station. Lachlan was again singing for a playground and had regretted being tricked back into the pram by snacks.

By this stage we were all a bit overwhelmed by the epic buildings and did not really know which direction to look. We were all keen to order coffees and whatever Super Mum had selected.

Recharged, it was finally time to satisfy Lachlan’s playground cravings. He was a happy boy now. We have been lucky with the weather since Nali and Grandpa DAVE arrived, it was another hot day.

We could see the Rathausplaz which featured a series of impressive steeples. However, we could not get too close as they were setting up for the 2023 Film Festival.

Eloise thought she was “very cheeky” nicking Grandpa DAVE’s hat, making him carry her on his shoulders.

We chased Lachlan back through the Rathauspark before heading past the Burgtheater down the busy streets while trying to not get flattened by cyclists travelling at super speed.

Eloise was still entertained with horse spotting as we admired Donnerbrunnen and found Kärntner Straße, the Glaswegian Style Mile or Adelaide Rundle Mall.

Eloise had submitted an early day’s order for a hotdog and was thankful when Nali found a hot dog stall.

Of course, we had to check out the souvenir scene in Australia, no kangaroos here.

We bumped into the majestic St Stephen’s Cathedral which had cool rooves like the Budapest Great Market Hall.

We slowly wandered around the cathedral admiring its detail. Although Eloise was still on the horse spotting game.

The extravagant buildings just did not seem to end and was making Eloise go a bit silly.

We figured we should check out the river flowing through Vienna, which happened to be a large canal off of ol’ mate Danube. Vienna is more expensive than Budapest so no Danube cruise today, instead we made our way up to the rooftop cafe as some clouds quickly passed overhead. Nali and Grandpa DAVE ordered a serious cake that slowed them down.

We were all slowing down by this stage as we swung past Wien Museum Mozart apartment.

The Mozarthaus Vienna was Mozart’s residence from 1784 to 1787. This building in Vienna’s Old Town, not far from St. Stephen’s Cathedral, is his only surviving Viennese residence and is now a museum. The house is located on Domgasse. It was built in the 17th century, originally with two floors, and redeveloped in 1716. Mozart rented rooms here from 1784, at which time it was also known as the Camesina House, after the family which had owned it since 1720. Since the original entrance of the house facing the Schulerstraße (the one Mozart used) was walled up to make room for a shop, the house has to be entered today from its rear in the Domgasse.

Shortly afterwards, Eloise clonked out and Lachlan was fighting sleep. It has been a massive month that is starting to catch up to us and this is the calm bit…

No surprises here, “Scotland – along with the rest of the UK – is on course for its hottest June on record, the Met Office has said”. We can confirm this is correct.

In other obscure hardly relevant news, Liam has turned 30 again! Happy Birthday to me. “South Koreans have become a year or two younger today as new laws that require using only the international method of counting age took effect, replacing the country’s traditional method”. To mark this monumental occasion, turning the big 30 again Sophie refused to get me a present.