8. bis 10. April: Birthday

Travel

This week includes even more travel and there's even more to come after this one! I closed the last entry by talking about the fact that things in Europe are "small," in the sense that you can be in multiple countries on a single day-long trip. We're having a fun time living that reality and getting to see some beautiful country-side along the way.

Dienstag 8. April

Italian country-side by train

We returned from our Rome trip on Tuesday morning, pulling into the train station at Wien Meidling around 08:30. I had a better sleep on the return than I did going there, for sure. We navigated the U-bahn and arrived back at our station in Hietzing and then walked home. We took some time to unpack and get going on some laundry and spent much of the afternoon just catching up on things and relaxing. I hadn't done my running workout yet, obviously, and had a nice hard interval set in store. I did that run in the evening, while Rebecca and the kids ate dinner. It had been threatening rain all afternoon and finally let loose near the end of my run, but it felt great and helped cool me down. 

Mittwoch 9. April

Happy Birthday to me! Rebecca let me sleep-in and took Aaron to school. Anson had a slow morning, but we managed to get through much of his schooling and then he, Rebecca, and I went to an appointment. When we got home, we had an easy afternoon. It was gray and threatening rain, and did so off and on, but Rebecca and I braved it and walked into Schönbrunn for their Ostermarkt (Easter market). There were many vendors selling a wide variety of wares, from glass, to knit items, to sausages, to soaps, to toys, and more. The market is known to be one of the most "romantic," though I have to admit that I'm not sure how that manifests itself. We were some of the only people there in the cold and gray of the afternoon. On the way back home we wandered among some of the several restaurants in our neighborhood looking for a place to have my birthday dinner. I compromised, to keep the kids happy, and we wound up at a new Chinese place and had the buffet. It was OK, but nothing too special.

Once back home, the kids wanted to give me their presents. I received a nice homemade card and a hand-made plaque made out of clay. Both were special. Rebecca got me a nice card and a coffee mug that describes my birth sign (Ares), both printed in German, so I have some translation work to do! After presents we went to dinner and then walked home and had some birthday cake that Rebecca made (chocolate!). It was a great day!

Donnerstag 10. April

Wednesday was a normal day. The kids and I did the school thing, but then in the afternoon, we started cleaning the apartment and packing up for our next trip: Germany!