Traveling: 2024

Sunday, 6 October 2024

Vienna Fall 2024 - Part 1

Vienna

Friday - October 4th 2024

This weekend Claudia and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary and for that occasion we decided to spend the weekend in Vienna to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's famous musical "Phantom of the Opera". Friday after work we hit the road and drove to Vienna. Along the way we stopped at McDonalds for lunch and in the late afternoon we finally arrived in Vienna. We stayed at the Motel One Wien Westbahnhof and after we checked in, we stopped at Café Westend for drinks. For dinner we had a reservation at Vevi, a plant based Vietnamese restaurant. The rest of the evening we spent at the nearby shopping center until we headed back to the hotel.

Motel One Wien Westbahnhof

Café Westend

Dinner

Saturday, 5 October 2024

Vienna Fall 2024 - Part 2

Phantom Of The Opera

Saturday - October 4th 2024

Unfortunately breakfast was not a great experience since there were way too many people and so we left and headed to Starbucks for coffee. For today we planned to do some shopping, but we also did some sightseeing and even got to attend a free beer tasting. For lunch we stopped at Swing Kitchen for plant based burgers. In the afternoon we relaxed a bit until it was time for our highlight of the trip. The theatre was just a couple of minutes from the hotel and we arrived early to get some drinks before the musical started. Phantom of the Opera was amazing, probably the best musical we had seen so far. After the fantastic musical we had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, where we shared nachos and had a couple of drinks before returning to the hotel.

Starbucks

Sightseeing

Beer Tasting

Lunch

Phantom of the Opera

Dinner

Drinks

Friday, 4 October 2024

Vienna Fall 2024 - Part 3

Melk Abbey

Sunday - October 6th 2024

Today it was time to drive back home, but first we had breakfast, which was a much better experience than yesterday. Then we checked out and got a coffee at Starbucks for the journey to Salzburg. On the way we decided to stop in Melk, a small village nearby the Danube River to visit Melk Abbey. We wanted to see it for quite some time now and since the weather was fine and we still had plenty of time, we finally gave it a try. Melk Abbey is probably one of the most beautiful baroque buildings in Europe and definitely worth a visit. We really enjoyed our time there, especially seeing the amazing church and the beautiful garden surrounding the abbey. Later we hit the road again and were on our way to Salzburg.

Breakfast

Melk Abbey

Sunday, 22 September 2024

Mallorca 2024 - Part 1

Flying To Mallorca

Saturday - September 14th 2024

It was finally time for another vacation. This time we flew to the Balearic Island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea. Our flight to Spain departed from Salzburg around noon and so we arrived in the late morning at the airport to have plenty of time for a couple of drinks. Flight time was about two hours and once we were airborne, we ate our snacks and got a beer. In the afternoon our Eurowings flight landed in Palma de Mallorca. At the airport we were picked up by a bus from our tour operator and were transported to our hotel.

Drinks

Departing Salzburg

Drinks

Snacks

Claudia and I stayed at the adults only hotel Inturotel Cala Esmeralda in Cala D'Or on the south east coast of Mallorca. While checking in we were provided with a glass of champagne and then we were brought to our room, which was very nice and beautiful. Once we unpacked our luggage we headed down to the beach club to jump into the water. Since we still had plenty of time until dinner, we spent the rest of the afternoon sun bathing. Later we checked out the rest of the hotel and got ready for dinner. The buffet style dinner was pretty good and we always found enough vegetarian options. Afterwards we walked into the village of Cala D'Or to do some shopping and to get some drinks. We found a wonderful outdoor bar called Atlantis and ordered Sangria to celebrate our vacation time. Back at the hotel we had a glass of beer on our balcony before calling it a day and falling asleep.