When Flying to Europe with a Kindergartner, and Vienna

So the trip out was certainly memorable.  If not for the child puking five minutes before it was time to leave for the airport, the epic snow storm we drove through to get there, or the delay in the airport and on the Tarmac which forced us to be so late that we thought we might miss our connection.  I also sliced my toe open on the plane, Joel Andrew almost puked on the customs officer, and we sat on the Tarmac for our second flight again for a good 40 minutes too.

Thus, a very tired and overwhelmed boy arrived for his first trip in a foreign country.  He was immediately excited to be here, and was telling the cab driver that this was his first time in another country.  We dressed and he was animated in our hotel room, which was a strange place - the shower is completely visible from the entire hotel room.  This was very interesting to Joel but not so interesting to mommy.

Mommy knows that in order to set the stage for a good time change for the body, you need to keep yourself awake no matter how hard it hurts your first night there.  This is so that you go to bed a reasonable European bedtime hour, and wake up in their time zone ready to go for the rest of the trip (rather than taking a nap at their 2pm, and then at 9 at night being ready to go out...). We tried this, and we tried hard.  Of course it didn't work.

We went out to dinner, zum bettlestudent by recommendation from the hotel.  We were in the right place as when we went In we were surrounded by American and British students.  Just the right amount of touristy - not over the top touristy, but they get english.  I was worried what Joel would do when his meal came, and he was in love.  French fries, and an open faced ham sandwich.  His appetite was back, for 5 minutes, and then flew away again,  sad face.

We then went to the haus du musik - which would have been an awesome museum for the kiddos.  If you go, go.  Lots of interactive stuff to really get the kids thinking about new things.  Music, where sound comes from, etc.  but Joel was clearly done by then.  He enjoyed going up the piano steps, but that was about it.

I went to get my take out sachertorte, Joel husband took the kiddo home and that was almost that.  Joel Andrew is a mess, passed out and here is hoping he sleeps through the night without incident.  We had our chocolate cake and opened a Viennese bottle of wine and although we were in the hotel room, it was a lovely night.  Now for some sleep.  We have quite a lot to do tomorrow!