Nina Comes to Town

Sunday the 6th of June, my cousin trekked a million miles to come visit me; needless to say it was wonderful! Once I got her from the airport to my home, she was ready for bed, jetlagged like crazy. However with too many things to do and not nearly enough time I dragged her all around the city – we had a picnic lunch at Schönbrunn Palace, saw the Rathaus, Parliament, collapsed at Volksgarten on a picnic rug until security kicked us off, saw the national library, visited Hofberg theatre, had iced coffee in Cafe Demel, wandered the 1st district, walked into St Stephan’s Cathedral, found the house Cameron stayed in when he did gap year in Austria and arrived for dinner about 8 hours later. We were joined by some friends and Nin approved of the wiener schnitzel. I tucked her into bed after she nearly passed out of exhaustion at the dinner table while I headed off at the last minute for a final evening with the kids who went to Poland at none other than the trashy, ‘Travel Shak’.

Interesting fails of the day was firstly the following conversation Nin had at Frankfurt airport....
Customs Officer: “So where in Germany are you going?”
Nina: “Vienna”
Customs Officer: Ohhh
Later that day...
Nina: Treen where is Frankfurt?
Me: Germany
Nina: Ohhhh that makes sense
Me: Where did you think it was?
Nina: Austria
FAIL ONE

Walking past a newspaper advertisement, Nina gaining a little more confidence in her German...
Nina: Oh look, it’s the Ostrich magazine
Me: No, no, no, it is Österreich which is Austria in German
Nina: Ohhhhh
FAIL TWO

The next day, we jumped on a train to Innsbruck – some of Austria’s alps. Four and a half hours later, after a few episodes of Gossip Girl on the train, we arrived and walked to our accommodation – Gasthof Innsbrucke – seriously cute and it was pink! The old town was gorgeous and the alps – incredible! We went for lunch – I got a stuffed potato and Nin got dumplings. We wandered around until Nina’s jetlag was back. For dinner, we had schnitty AGAIN and it was delish!
On our second day we tackled the cable car up the mountain. First you jump on the Hungerburg Funicular – a train that goes up VERY steep hills, then the Nordkettenbahn Cable Car and then another cable car. Nina, being petrified of heights did a pretty impressive job of keeping it together. I can’t explain the feeling when we were standing at the top of Nordkette surrounded by snow covered peaks. These mountains are majestic and huge, it is so overwhelming. We had apple strudel and a cuppa before heading back down to the ground. We celebrated another fantastic day in style at Cafe 360⁰, after I had tried the garlic soup (a when in Austria must), on top of the City Hall Gallery with a glass of Almdudler and an incredible view (while Nina complained of my garlic breath). Our day finally closed with watermelon gelato and kids play equipment, could it be any better??

We headed home the following day, had a hit of Zara shopping and had dinner at my fave place, Le Bol. Then in the eve we hit up the ballet – we saw Mayerling, a ballet about the tragic life of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria – a nice coincidence that Nin got such a historical touch on her experience. Our farewell was very bittersweet – my cousin time was way too short but hurrah for my adventures in Spain...