“No one grows old by living, only by losing interest in living.” I left this quote along the trail to inspire others this week. Yet as I walked on through the week I realized that this was really the theme of my Camino week 4. I met an American man who was 80 years old [...]

Schoenbrunn Palace and Gardens in Vienna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the most popular tourist attraction in the city.  Easy to access, you are able to take the subway directly to Schoenbrunn and once you step out of the subway, the palace is hard to miss.  In the world of the Habsburgs monarchy, size [...]

I sat in the waiting room fidgeting, trying to smooth out my sweater, making sure I sat up straight, and looked as lady-like as possible in my skinny jeans and worn out travel shoes. The young kids working at the reception wore suits and dresses and they politely offered me a seat. I had tried [...]

I’m never drawn to the proper side of life, I prefer the messy – yet something was drawing me into the sophisticated side of Vienna. The aroma of coffee and music of Mozart being played on the piano in the background must have put a spell on me. Or maybe it was the dour faced [...]

After a lovely break in Carrion de los Condes and getting treated to a scrumptious steak dinner from a retired doctor from Canada, things could only go downhill from there – and they did. Fast forward to me puking in a albergue toilet to begin week 3 of my Camino de Santiago journey . I [...]

Some people drink a Diet Coke a day, or have a daily piece of chocolate, or a daily route they take to work – daily routines can be a good thing.  Even the Vienna State Opera House has a routine – they put on a production every day – yes, every day.  It’s like a [...]

I had never really considered Vienna before, however upon reading an article by Andrew McCarthy in National Geographic last fall, it came onto my radar. He wrote, “I have arrived in Vienna with a simple plan: to live as local a life as possible. Instead of discovering this famously imperial city from the comforts and [...]

  It wasn’t until I got off the train in Vienna that I had realized just how long I had been in Italy. I disembarked the train and followed the breadcrumb trail of “i” signs making my way to an information booth to figure out how to get to Landstraße (District 3). The apartment owner, [...]