We have been back from Europe for a couple of weeks, and man have we been busy. I will be doing a couple of blogs to catch you up.

Steven and I had an amazing time in Europe. We started off flying from Los Angeles to Paris, with a layover in London. We had enough time to go through security (again) and get some fish and chips while in Heathrow. We landed at night in Paris and successfully got some Euros and caught the bus to the Paris Opera. We then walked to our hotel which was a couple of blocks from the opera.

Our first full day in Paris we saw the Opera Garnier:

The Arc du Triomphe:

View of the city from the Arc du Triomphe:

We walked down the Champs Elysees to the Tuilieries garden and the Orangerie Museum, home of Monet’s Water lilies. Then we took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower:

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The next day we visited the Loree shop in Paris where I tried oboes, bought some supplies, and was thrilled to see a picture from Dr. Adam’s recital on the wall with famous oboists!

We checked into our second hotel in the Saint Germain district, and then walked across the river to Notre Dame Cathedral:

After Notre Dame we saw another beautiful but very different church, Saint Chapelle:

That night we attended a concert of Gregorian chant at Notre Dame, the perfect place for such lovely music. The next day we took a commuter train out to see the palace of Versailles:

After Versailles we saw the Sewer Museum (not exciting), Napoleon’s tomb (very impressive) and the great impressionism collection at the Orsay Museum. We saw The Thinker at the Rodin Museum:

We loved the Saint Germain/Latin Quarter area of Paris and enjoyed walking by the River Seine at night:

The next day we were at the Louvre Museum as it opened, and loved wandering the palace full of beautiful works of art. The most famous is the Mona Lisa, though we were underwhelmed:

That night we saw the Opera Orchestra of Paris perform at the Salle Playel concert hall. Following the concert we went back to the Eiffel tower to take pictures at night:

The next day we took the DB Bahn high speed train to Salzburg, Austria through Germany. We enjoyed traveling in first class:

The scenery was lovely, with the brightest grass I’ve ever seen in Austria:

The next day we spent touring Salzburg, which is well known for being Mozart’s home town. We saw Mozart Museums, the cathedral, and the Hohensalzburg Fortress, overlooking the city:

We also visited the beautiful Mirabell gardens. This picture shows some of the gardens, the cathedral in the old city, and the fortress perched on top of the cliffs:

That night we saw the Mozart Dinner Concert, with an excellent string quartet and singers performing Mozart’s works in between delicious courses. The next day we caught a commuter train to Vienna, Austria. We went exploring our neighborhood in central city Vienna, and visited the House of Music museum and discovered Sacher Cafe, home of the world famous Sacher-Torte:

They also had excellent tea:

The next day we toured the Hofburg Palace and spent several hours in the afternoon hand washing laundry in our hotel room. That evening we attended a concert by the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, which would have been lovely if 1. We hadn’t been so miserable with the cold we caught in Paris and 2. The audience knew how to behave in an indoor event. We left early, but enjoyed seeing Vienna’s treasures lit up. The Musikverein concert hall and Hofburg Palace:

The next day we went with the International Haydn Festival group to Eisenstadt, the home of the Esterhazy court. We saw the palace, Haydn’s house, and the concert hall where his pieces were performed during the 30 years he worked for the Esterhazys:

That night the group had a big dinner at the Rathauskeller, a restaurant in the cellar of the City Hall that was from the medieval era and looked like a hobbit built it:

The next day rehearsals started in earnest for the Haydn Festival concerts, and from now on it was bloody hot alternating with pouring rain. I took a bus tour of the city and saw the Belvedere palace:

I gave a performance as part of an octet performing Mozart’s Octet in Eb at the Palais Ferstel:

Steven had taken a walking tour of the city that afternoon while I was in rehearsal, and discovered the restaurant that was our favorite culinary experience of the trip, Brezl-Gwolb.

The next day in between rehearsals Steven and I toured a museum of ancient and antique instruments, which was an amazing collection. That night we gave our first concert as part of the festival in the beautiful Konzerthaus:

The next day in between rehearsal we did some shopping and saw the Imperial Treasury collection, which had not only incredible things from the royalty of Austria but also religious artifacts of great significance. That night we were both performing in the Festival concert at the Konzerthaus:

The last Saturday in Europe we were able to take things easy as we didn’t have any more concerts. That afternoon with the group we toured Schönbrunn palace, which was the summer palace of the Hapsburgs. This was by far my favorite palace we saw on the trip – the gardens, fountains, and inside of the palace was everything it should be! Looking out at the grounds from the palace:

Looking at the palace from inside the fountain:

That night we attended the Festival concert, and afterwards went back to Sacher Cafe one more time with Darryl and Jon:

Sunday morning we were at the airport so early that the BA agents hadn’t arrived to check us in yet. The day was full of waiting, but we managed to get back to LA successfully. Sadly, Steven left his hat on the plane in London. On our way back we saw Iceland:

Hope you enjoyed this blog with the highlights from the trip – as you can imagine, we have many many more pictures from our great vacation.