Stadtpark in Spring

Beautiful lilac, which is in bloom everywhere here right now.



I love this picture. The weather was so beautiful today, and all the Viennese came out to play. It was hard even to find a seat on a bench in a sunny spot, so as you can see, many just got comfortable on the grass.
Stone tiles in the Stadtpark
The famous Strauss monument. I had to stand there for about 10 minutes until the tourists stepped off the monument long enough to take a picture without some random Japanese man in my shot.


Even though I'd already had a huge ice cream cone, I treated myself to a few LaaKronen, which I have certainly become addicted to. They are so good. They're crisp on the outside, creamy in the middle, and soft in between that. My favorite flavors are the pistachio, chocolate, and red currant.
In France they're known as macarons, but I've never had them there...I tried them for the first time here in Vienna. Excluding this one time I tried to make them at home when I was about 15, and instead of using parchment paper I used wax paper and the macaron shells could not be pried off the paper after baking without shattering into a million pieces. It was a disaster and I was devastated. Once we move into our new kitchen in Canada, maybe I will attempt them again and redeem myself.

Cabbage flowers.

A Sunday afternoon ice cream outing

Georg and I went out for a late Sunday afternoon walk last week, and ended up going downtown and getting ice cream. I got the Maroni (chestnut), walnut, and yogurt flavors, which all pleased me greatly. Afterwards, we meandered around and tried to keep the melting ice cream from running all over the place. It really is a challenge.

Here's my lame pic I took myself of me eating ice cream. The ice cream looked much more magnificent immediately after I got it, those colorful piles of dense creaminess, but I couldn't manage to get my ice cream under control enough to use my camera until it was almost gone.

Not sure what this street was called, but it had a pretty Art Nouveau bridge running across it.


I wasn't going to take a picture of this, but then I thought, why not?


This is from the top of the previously mentioned bridge. I'm guessing the W stands for Wien.

My Birthday

I turned 23 yesterday! I had a very nice birthday that included going out to dinner, cocktails at Skybar, and then a little birthday cake back at home. I am a little worried about getting older, but then again I got carded the other day buying wine in a country where the legal drinking age is 16. Happy Birthday to me!

Just a Little Wedding Planning is All

No, I'm not dead or missing, I'm just planning my wedding, and it takes up a lot of time. My sister is coming to Vienna May 18th, followed by my parents on the 20th, the wedding's on the 23rd, and then Georg and I leave for our honeymoon in Egypt on the 25th. Yes, lots of planning going on. I won't even mention all our plans for after the honeymoon which involve moving back to the United States and then to Canada over a span of about one month. Whew!