VALENTINE'S IN VIENNA

FABULOUS, STUPENDOUS are just a couple of the adjectives to describe our trip to Vienna. Many of you know I surprised my beautiful bride with a Valentine's Day trip to Austria, the birthplace of Nana, the grandmother who gave Linda many of the tools and the confidence to make it in life. We left Billings Montana early on the morning of February 12 and made it to Vienna the next morning. Above is an intial sampling of our pictures, with views of parts of the Hofburg Palace complex. Starting at the bottom, Linda stands in front of one the gates, this one leading to the Spanish Riding School, home of the Lipizzaner stallions. We were not allowed to take pictures as we watched them do their morning excercises, but in the background of the 5th picture, you can see a picture of one of the stallions in the cafe where we later had our afternoon coffee and pastry. The second picture shows Linda inside the courtyard of the Palace complex and in the next one she admires the amazing craft of needlepoint in one of the shops in the complex. In the fourth picture I am in one of the many rooms of the Imperial Silver and Porcelain Collection within the Imperial Apartments. In the next picture I am enjoying one of at least 4 apple strudels I tried during our stay in Vienna. Next, Linda admires the jeweled crown and staff of one of the monarchs, displayed in the Schatzkammer, or Imperial Treasury. The last picture shows the architecture viewed from the gate in front of which Linda was standing in the first picture. More to come...JIR

Vienna

I just wanted to start posting a few pictures of our trip to Vienna. It was as wonderful a trip as a trip to Vienna sounds, and some. The city has beautiful architechture, and it is extremely easy to get around with all the public transportation.

Everyone in Vienna speaks English, or enough to get by, but when we went out to the city of Leoben in the area of Stiermark (Styria), there were less people who spoke English, and pointing became our way of communication.

So here are a few pictures, and we'll slowly add more as we have time.

Pictures 1, 5,6,7,8 are at "The Dining Room", a restaurant that has four tables, and was recommended in a New York Times review that Danny sent us. It was our first night, so we were still a little tired, but had the best meal of our trip. Yes, the golden retriever walks around and visits you while you eat.

2 is in front of the Hapsburg Palace, where we went to see the Lipezzaner Stallions and the Vienna Boys Choir at mass. We also toured the apartments, saw the famous silver collection, and much much more in this very large and elaborate place that shows how the ruling class lived, and also why it is good they don't have them anymore!

3 is in front of the famous Demel bakery, a great place to go for coffee and a delicious pastry. They make the candy on sight, and you can watch through glass walls.

4 is a shot of the shopping area that runs in the heart of Vienna, it is not open to cars, and has stores that we probably couldn't even afford to walk in, but did anyway! As here, and all the pictures will show, the architecture in Vienna is stunning, and if you do nothing else in this fun city, it is worth going there just to walk around and see that.

In the beginning...

Just in case anyone does not remember the bathroom when we first moved in. Not only was the wallpaper atrocious, but the linoleum on the floor was black and green! And those lovely black sinks, the shower and toilet were the same maudlin black. We can really walk in this bathroom and say, "You've come a long way baby." I'm sure the bathroom had a long history long before that expression came into being.

BATHROOM TRANSFORMATION-SCROLL DOWN FIRST

Granite vanity tops with undermount sinks and new fixtures installed by Jorge

NICE shower

Getting there. New Kohler toilet with easy drop seat and detail of tile floor

Detail of Jorge's shower valve plumbing job. Thank God for Bob the retired plumber working at Home Depot

Like those black sinks and green formica?NOT!

Yeah!!! The black toilet is gone

This view is after Jorge's shower demolition

Black sinks, toilet and shower. Green formica counter tops, and black and green vinyl floors. Green flowery wallpaper. It's amazing we still ended up buying this house. But we are now almost done transforming the bathroom. Lots of hard work and some paid help from Gabe the tile guy and Moore Glass.