A beautiful Sunday

Another train picture. I love this one. Here, we are headed to our first Sunday service in Vienna. We will normally attend another church, but we were visiting with our new friends, Russ and Roswitha and their daughters.

It was a wonderful experience. We even sang a German song we were familiar with. Everyone was very friendly. Again, they are so kind to the children. I went along with the boys to children's church - I thought I might learn German better listening to children's teachers (as opposed to that man whom I married who actually understood the sermon).

It was really fun watching the boys try to sing the German songs and play the games. Sammy loved his teacher and her puppet. I took him to the bathroom during his class and he whispered/squealed to me, "It's fuuuuuuuun!" And, yes, it was a good decision for me to go to the children's classes. I even learned my German body parts. They also sang a really cute song about what a good job God did when he made us. It begins with joyfully singing the German equivalent of "Bulls-eye!" We left church and I heard Jake holler to the boy he was playing with, "Tschuss, Jan!"

After church, we went to a Chinese restaurant with our friends. By the way, even Chinese food is different here (but good). I always wondered if we were actually eating Chinese food in the U.S. Now I wonder even more. And this is pretty much how Si behaved.


We weren't finished. Since we were already near the city center, we decided to take in some ice cream. And after our friends went on home, we chose an impromptu (meaning, completely unprepared) visit to Stephansdom. St. Stephan's Cathedral is stunning. Built in the 12th century (okay, okay, all my facts were found on the computer this morning while we homeschooled ... remember, this was an impromptu visit?), anyway, built in the 12th century means the steps are really, really old. There is something about walking where so many people of time past have also placed their feet. Sunday was the feast of Mary's birth, so there were worshippers and candles and, yeah, tourists. The boys were duly impressed with the height and beauty. This was their first Gothic cathedral, so they were actually quite interested. Jake shouted (no joke), "Whoa! That looks medieval!" I quietly informed him that it was.

We took in the south tower. 343 steps. Si had to be carried part of the way. But the three oldest had lots of fun pretending they were about to die. Here is an obligatory from-the-top-of-the-tower shot. See the Necco wafer roof? Viennese citizens donated those tiles when that section was rebuilt. I'm so making St. Stephan's for this year's gingerbread house.

If you come visit, we'll try the north tower and see the bell and the pulpit and all the things we missed because we were so, ahm ... impromptu. Oh, and Steve made me find our way back. I had to locate a German speaking citizen and ask them for directions (in German) to our train. Did you know that if you ask 10 people in Stefansplatz for directions ... only three of them will speak German? hee hee ... we even had three people tell us, "I no speak English." What? We were asking in German!