Ever since we got to Austria, Nina has wanted to see where Nick and I got married. Every time we see a church or a building, she'll ask, "Is that where you and papa got married? How about that?? That? THAT??" She must have asked me 50 times in Budapest and I kept telling here "WE DIDN'T GET MARRIED IN THIS COUNTRY!" but that didn't really sink in. So confusing. Granted, Austria and Hungary were at one time united, and Nick still considers it almost part of Austria. I told Nick that just because Austria had it for a decade or so 200 years ago, doesn't mean squat, but maybe it's the Austrian in him, trying to cling to his country's former glory.
I digress.
We finally got the kids to the Belvedere. Actually, first we went to the Hotel Bristol, because that was closer. Big hit. Remember how beautiful the elevator was? It's the exact same. Unfortunately, they're renovating the ballroom we had our reception in, so we couldn't go down there. Disappointment! They said to come back in a month though, it'll be done by then. Good enough.
Next we walked over to the Belvedere. Well, first we stopped at this great fountain
What a huge fountain. The wind blew the mist toward us, which was wonderfully refreshing and lots of fun for the kids.
Eventually, we moved on to the Belvedere. Still as beautiful as ever!
I asked Maggie what she thought of the statues up on the roof there, and she approved. I said maybe we should get some at our house, and she agreed. But full-sized statues would be too big, so I'm thinking maybe sticking some garden gnomes up on the roof would have a similar effect. Ha!
We had to buy tickets to get into the ceremony room and the gold room, but that's ok. The rest of the Lower Belvedere is an art gallery, and it was beautiful. Even the girls enjoyed it a little bit. I can't show you pics because cameras weren't allowed, of course, but it was an art museum. You get the idea.
I tried to get a nice family photo where we took our wedding pictures, maybe try to get a few wedding day recreations, but no one else (COUGH*nick*COUGH) was really on board with that idea, so this is the best we got.
Well, after all these weeks of waiting and waiting to see the Belvedere, you'd think Nina was thrilled, no? Yeah, she got bored pretty quickly. She just wanted to get over to the playground near Stefan's house with the really fast zip line.
Maybe she'll find the Upper Belvedere more impressive. We got tickets for that too (cheaper if you buy both!), and we have two weeks to get there. So I'll let you know how that goes.
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