Travelog for: Archibald

Let me introduce you my friends... Today we had a tea party on the grass, it was absolutly delicious.

This is the day I met King Babar and his wife. They were so kind to me... In fact they are people like you and me (well... maybe more like me !)

During last holidays, I had a few days in Brittany. It is very peaceful  there, that's why I love to refresh my ideas and medidate facing the sea...

At laaaast I am leaving !!!
My luggage is ready for weeks and I was about to desperate... But here is The "Postexport" enveloppe... hihihi :-) It looks like a kind of bed ! I'll try to have a nice trip with many pink dreams.... See you in Austria !

Today I savely arrived in Vienna! I'm staying with a funny family with 3 boys here and I'm sure we'll have alot of fun. Since I just arrived we haven't done any sightseeing so far but my host promised to show me some wonderful places soon!

I spent a great day in Vienna today. My hosts had some visitors from Upper Austria and we went to see Schönbrunn Palace together. How beautiful! And the park is soooo large - we almost got lost. We went up a hill to see the point of view called "Gloriette" (Empress Maria Theresia loved this place!!!), then we saw the Palm house which has a really interesting architecture and afterwards we visited the zoo. How nice to meet all these different animals! I had my photo taken with a friendly rhinozeros and a pelican but when we finally met all my relatives the camera had a breakdown, so unfortunately there are no pictures of me together with other donkeys. But believe me - I had a funny time there!

I'm having a great time here in Austria. My hosts are very active people and there is always something to do here. On Sunday - since the weather was very hot - we went to their grandparents' garden. They have a swimming pool there and I enjoyed to play in the water alot.

Did you know that Vienna has a BIG artificial island? It is called "Donauinsel" and was built in the river Danube to prevent the city from high water. It is about 20 km long an divides the river into "Danube" and "New Danube". Danube is still used for ships and transport and New Danube "belongs" to the people so they can swim there, waterski etc. The island itself is very green with trees and bushes. Cars are forbidden there so people enjoy to walk, rollerskate or drive their bikes there. There are some bars at the longside of the river and many playground for the kids everywhere around.

We went there yesterday and had a really great time. On our way there we also passed by the building of the UNO, Danube tower and a nice (but almost unknown) church. We had a beautiful view to the very modern part of the city just at the oposite side of Donauinsel.

Today we really did alot of sightseeing and I had a great time with my hosts and my new friends here. We went to the city center of Vienna and had a looooong walk around. The weather was great, so it was a perfect day to take photos!

First we got off the metro at the big Museum for historical arts. Just opposite is the museum for nature and the building looks exactly the same. There were tons of ball-shaped bushes in front of the museum and the cats and I had great fun to play hide and seek there.

We went on to the Parliament then and arrived at the City hall afterwards. In front of it an open-air opera festival takes place at the moment and there were several little huts with delicious things to eat. I discovered a kind of "clock" there counting the days until the European Soccer Championship will start next year. It will take place in Austria and Switzerland and the people here are already very excited about that.

Just opposite the City Hall we saw the Old imperial theatre and next to it we found the rosarium where we had a little rest (you can see the museum in the background again). Hmmm, what a nice smell everywhere around there!

Then we went on to Hofburg which was the emperor's residence in former days. Now it hosts the National Library, some museums, the Spanish riding school and the President's office.

Have a look what we saw everywhere in the City Center! These horses with their carbages are called "Fiaker" in Vienna.

After we had some ice-cream we reached the real centre of the city: Stephansplatz with St. Stephen's cathedral! I was very impressed by the roof - it was almost as colourful as I am!!

We walked along Kärntnerstraße (which is one of the most expensive streets here in Vienna I was told...) and had a look at the opera which is really a beautiful building I must admit! I would love to go inside, too, but my host told me that I am too noisy to watch a play there!

Then we saw Karlskirche which is very special, too. But to be honest - I also liked the playground in front of it alot!!!

The "highlight" today was the visit of "Sand in the City", a sculpture park made of sand. It's the first time that something like that is shown in Vienna and only for a short periode as I was told. It was very beautiful - have a look!

I've been in Vienna for quite some time now and imagine, I even learnt how to cook here! My friends Mila, Mini, Bestik and I helped to make these ball-shaped things called "Knödel". You know, Austrian always eat Knödel and there are many different kinds of them: Knödel filled with Apricots, Plumbs, Strawberries, with Meat, Saussages, Chocolate, Knödel made of Potatoes, Curd Chees, Rolls, whatever. We made Knödel filled with Peaches since there are sooo many in my host's garden at the moment - and they were really, really delicious!

One day our host took us to the big amusement park here in Vienna called "Prater". There we did a ride on the famous old "Giant Wheel" and tried some other, more modern but really scary rollercoasters. Unfortunately it was raining so we didn't stay too long (but otherwise I would maybe have got sick!!)

We also visited the house created by Hundertwasser. Isn't it beautiful? I'd love to live there! And that's not even sooo impossible because I was told that there is nothing special inside, just normal flats. And everybody who lives there has the right to great the "surrounding" of his/her window just as he likes - but only as far as he/she can reach with the arms. Interesting, isn't it?

Hello!

I left Austria and I'm on the way to Moscow now. I hope my journey won't last too long.

Tschüß, Vienna, es war sehr schön!

Archibald