So my Dad just turned 75 and what better way to celebrate than bringing the family together for a vacation.

His wish was to go somewhere outside to celebrate and since they travel a bunch, my folks focused on places they hadn't been to before. And this is how we find ourselves on vacation with an itinerary of Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic. Yesterday, we took off together from our various homes and landed in Vienna where the vacation begins. Harneet will only join Prague at the end since its getting harder to leave Phoenix alone for longer periods of time but we do have 6 people together already. Unfortunately, Dada did develop a fever and a cold but he's on the mend. Do not laugh but our first meal was chinese food from Meiwei chinese cuisine right down the street from us (which wasn't bad) so he could have soup!

Today, we began our exploration of this city. Kept it light though. We started the morning at St. Stephen's cathedral followed by a visit to a WWII era cafe called Cafe Hawelka where we got to meet the owner and try some Viennese chocolate and topfenstrudel. Also guys - manner wafers are actually Viennese. How did I not know this!

We ended up getting the Vienna flexi pass for this trip which allowed us to get on the hop on hop off bus. Starting at the Vienna State Opera, we headed past Schronbrunn palace, belvedere palaceand others (yellow line). And then returned back to eat some Viennese wiener and other schnitzel. Good but definitely a one time thing for me. The potato salad was fantastic though. Definitely check out Schnitzel One.

We were now tired (it's hot here) and jetlagged so headed back for a nap and some rest before wrapping the night with some salad, pizza and a lovely concert at St. Peter's church with a string quartet playing classic amazing music for an hour. Highly recommend!!!

Tomorrow we continue the exploration. Hot tips below:

1. Turns out supermarkets are all closed on Sundays - look for interspar pronto if desperate to find one.
2. Same goes for pharmacies and since tomorrow is a holiday here, we were in a bind. This site has emergency pharmacy services which was extremely useful - https://apo24.at/en/