A Good Bye And Our Final Viennese Waltz

Buddie’s parents headed off to their next country on Friday afternoon.

They had time for one last game with Yessa.

Time to talk about their transportation plans with Buds.

And one last picture.

Lots of memories we all made this week in Vienna.

Buds and I walked with them to the metro where they headed off to catch a train and we headed off to spend time at Buddie’s favorite art museum when he lived in Vienna.

We took a meandering path through a park and enjoyed seeing some of the older trams he remembers.

We were headed to Kunst Historisches.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed wandering at art museums with Buddie.

One of our very first dates was to the St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park. Buddie spoke of architecture, and still life, and his favorite artists.

Yesterday was the same but even better.

Walking into the main entrance hall made me gasp.

The millions of fingers that have brushed these hands.

Buddie is partial to the Roman sculptures:

We’re hoping to inspire Buster with these mutton chops:

All things Egyptian fascinate me, plus I thought Monkey would also appreciate this exhibit thanks to our shared love of an archeological book series.

There were many mummies and sarcophagi, and it was a delight to stroll through them.

The Klimt exhibit was also wonderful.

Then Buds and I got hungry and a little cross because when you don’t have the children with you you don’t have to be your strongest best selves.

So after a brief foray at the gift shop:

We walked to Cafe Klimt to watch the horse-drawn carriages, have a coffee, eat some apfel strudel and a Sacher torte.

We decided to walk home without using our phones and ended up meandering and deciding to take a tram.

It was the old-school trams Buddie would have known.

Manual doors on these bad boys.

I almost fell asleep on Buddie’s shoulder on the tram ride, but today I was the one who kept my shoes once we got home on because we wanted to get everyone out for one last tramp around Vienna.

It had turned to a cool and gray evening with sprinkles of intermittent rain. Shockingly, jackets would have felt great.

We headed around to the back of St Stephen’s to show the family the “hidden” treasures we saw back there in our walking tour with Anna.

It was so cool the horse-drawn carriages were now covered.

The soft sandstone of St. Stephen’s requires a continuous cleaning process.

You can see how white the top is post-cleaning compared to the base.

Then we walked over to see the Lipizzaner Stallions, taking time to be sure everyone got to see the plague statue as well.

One last workout on our way home after we exited the metro.

We were laughing at the addition someone made to the sign that said you weren’t supposed to play soccer in the workout area:

Now that’s a header!

Then home for our final sleep in Vienna.