Did you ever have a meal you didn’t want to end? I find myself cutting my schnitzel in smaller and smaller pieces, chewing slower, savoring every bite. It isn’t just the food I am trying to slow down – it is the atmosphere. After all, it is as if time stood still in Cafe Pruckel. […]
Postcard from Sarria Spain
“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 Vienna
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 […]
Waltzing in Vienna
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 […]
Culture in a Cup
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 […]
Postcard from Astorga Spain
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 […]
Vienna Opera House in Photos
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 […]
Vienna Travel Tips
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 […]
Deciphering a New Culture – Vienna
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, […]
Postcard from Carrion de los Condes Spain
Most of this week I felt like a cartoon character – the one with the big cloud over my head with rain pouring down just on me. However, instead of one cloud following me wherever I went along the Camino, there were multiple clouds all lined up and circling like planes at O’Hare airport trying […]