After a bit of a lie in, and a breakfast of waffles and Milka spread (in lieu of Nutella), we (despite the children’s protestations) headed out on the self-guided walking tour which I had found online.
Our starting point was the Hofburg Imperial Palace, former home of the Hapsburg family who ruled for hundreds of years (Archduke Franz Ferdinand was one of them for all you GCSE History nerds) and in later years the palace balcony became famous/infamous for Hitler addressing the crowds at Nazi rallies. Very strange taking a pictures of G here, and not sure I’m happy that I did, as I did a search online and you can see the palace clearly displaying all the Nazi flags and the building looking pretty much identical to today. Strange to start to introduce this to the boys, especially as I think this is going to be a recurring theme as we head to Berlin. Later on the walking tour we came across a memorial in the Judenplatz to the Austrian Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Trying to explain the enormity of the Holocaust whilst not wanting to frighten them is always going to be a challenge, but we’ll take questions as they come…
After the walking tour finished (or we ended it!) we of course went to the Lego shop for a quick visit!
We then had a lucky find for a picnic lunch. The Wasserspielplatz on Donauinsel (an island in the Danube) is a free water playground for children, and it was amazing!
After a couple of hours of happy splashing, it finally rained but it was most welcome and it cooled us all down! We made our way back to our hostel for some chill out time, before venturing out for dinner near our accommodation. On the street nearby there was a market which opened out into a lovely square with lots of different bars and eateries. If it had just been the two of us, I’m sure we would have spent a significant amount of time and money sampling various drinks but the children had to be fed, and to their absolute horror, we chose a Turkish restaurant! Us grown ups had delicious things like beef kofta and lamb and aubergine, whilst the children had to be persuaded to try Turkish breads with fillings, which Gideon especially was reluctant to eat…until they arrived. As Josh and I had suspected, they were like Turkish pizza-calzone things, and ended up being a big hit (we are their leftovers!). After that it was back to the hostel to get ready for another day…
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