Vienna adventure

Let's start off our tour with Lunch! I'll take care of the salad. That's the hugest cordon bleu I've ever seen.

"One in Pink"! They knew I was coming!
Hmm, pretty big for a rabbit-hole. Not very discreet at all.

Hey, there is somebody down there! And it's not a rabbit.

It's Sunday, and sometimes you have to wait a few minutes for the streetcar to come for you.

My buddy Anton. I like his odd-numbered symphonies the best. 5. 7. 9.

One of those guys pretending to be a statue.

Some on-the-wall companions.I'm being bad! I wriggled through the fence and climbed up onto the big statue in front of one of the metro stations. How can one town have so many statues???

An empty pedestal. I wonder where its statue went.

Who's feet am I standing among?

It's Lions! They've got lions all over the place here. I just hope there are no live ones looking to snack on a tender rabbit.

My friend the Little Elephant in the Museum District.

Here are my buddies The Greek Philosophers, hanging out in the big chairs set out just for them in front of the parliament building. Tourists don't get chairs.

A rabbit! In fact, there are lots and lots of rabbits in the park along the river. I saw 'em. They were hiding in the bushes.

And to finish up, wiener schnitzel at a sidewalk café. I'll have the salad please.

Vienna park fun

We're off to explore the Prater park in Vienna. It's my kind of park - lots of grass you can run around on and playground equipment to have fun on.

Here's a neat one. I'm ready - let 'er rip!

Ha ha ha!!!

Hey, swings! I love playing on the swings.

Oh, losing my balance... it's hard to hang on with my little arms.

OK, Let's try the swings again later.

They's got a great tall slide in the park, too.

It's a long way down...

A very long way down...!

That was fun; I'm going back for more!

Tomorrow we'll go out and see some of the city.

Bye!

Off to Vienna

Yea, this time I get to go. No catsitting for yours-truly this trip. I've got my camera in my rucksack and we're taking off for Vienna tonight at 18:05.
Hey! Laars is wearing my cape!
That's my cape! Get back here!

Oh, sure, hide in the cat tree.
Well alright, you can wear my cape just a little. But don't you dare get it dirty, or chew on its edges.

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Super strength

Another well-known aspect of Superheroism is Astounding Strength.

Britta and Astrid here will help me demonstrate this classic attribute.

I'll just lift it up over my head. Yes...

Oops, I seem to be losing my balance.

Ow.

Hey! I hear that squeaking!

Um, a little help someone?

X-Ray Vision

Everybody knows that Superheros have Superpowers. So naturally, I'll be able to see right through these bricks here with my Nifty X-ray Vision.My trusty assitants have placed an object behind the bricks, and I am now ready to see it. Here we go... I'm seeing something, yes, an image...

Carrots?

No?

I hear that squeaking!

Perhaps if I get closer.

Nope, the bricks are still pretty visually solid. I'm certain they must have a very high lead content. Or maybe there's an 'On' switch for the X-ray vision. I mean, if Superman had it on all the time, he'd have been smacking into things all over the place.

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Super!

Yea! Guess what was in the mailbox last night!

A Special Magic Custom-Made Fabulous Superhero Cape!

!!!

With my sidekicks Astrid and Laars I'm set to try it out. Here I go!

It works!

Thank you, Jerome!

Bye, Ellie!

It's been really fun having you over, Ellie. Too bad you have to go now. I'll just slip you in this envelope and off you go back to Illinois. It'll take a week at least - I hope you don't get lost!
Don't forget to write!

Looking around Royat

On Saturday we went to Royat, where there's a nice things to see. Royat is a suburb of Clermont-Ferrand, on the side of the city toward the mountains where they have a lot of mineral springs and people come to soak in the special water. The different springs have water with different combinations of minerals because of the volcanos nearby. I think that's just a lot of hot water. I like the park there. It has a stream running through it called the Tiretaine. (pronounced "Teer - eh - tane")

In the park is a big collection of rocks, set in piles along the path. There's a note next to every pile telling where the rocks are from and how they were made by the earth. There's gneiss and granite and black lava and lots of others. This one is schist. I like the way it has different colors, and it gets shiny when it's wet. I also like that you're allowed to climb on the rocks instead of just looking at them like they might break or something.

Here we are sitting on the rail of the bridge over the stream. It was kind of windy and Ellie almost fell in and got swept away all the way to the Atlantic ocean.

More fun in the park.

To get up from the park to where the town is you have to take the stairs, but now there's an elevator for handicapped people. A lot of older towns have roads like this you can't take cars on, because they were made long before there were cars.

On the right of the stairway above there's a series of really narrow houses. On the other side of the same houses here's the stream. Don't fall in, Ellie! There used to be a mill here in the stream, using the energy of the rushing water to make flour or drive machinery.

At the top, there's an old church. The oldest part of this church is one thousand years old. This Roman kind of building style is quite unusual, and Saint Leger is one of very few fortified churches left in France. (I think it's funny, because "Leger" means "lightweight", and this church is really really heavy!)

Inside, underneath the sacristy, there's a crypt where they used to bury people. Now there's mostly just a lot of plaques that people put up in memory of their loved ones, or to thank God for something that happened in their life, like a baby or getting over a serious illness. You can't take pictures down there - it's disrespectful. Next door there used to be a monastery full of monks, but now it's a school.

Royat is a very pretty town, and they like to keep it clean. There are some special corners for dogs to use for pooping, and in several places they have free baggies to pick up after your dog. Dog poop even has its own word, "crotte", which is different from the other animals' poop.

Cobblestone streets are still very popular in small towns.

Some views over Royat.

French people like to cut their bushes into fun shapes.

Then we stopped at the train station in Royat-Chamalières. Royat is uphill, Chamalières is downhill. From here you can take a train east to Lyon or west to Bordeaux. There weren't any people around, and the station was closed. The next train was coming at 12:54, but we were too hungry for lunch and didn't wait for it.

This is the going to Lyon side.

All over the place we kept seeing these funny tubes sticking out of the ground. I have no idea what they are for. Nancy thinks they're the guts of the earth poking out.

Maybe I can see what's down there.

What do you mean I'm all dirty?

So that was our fun day in Royat. I hope to be able to blog some more before Flat Ellie has to go home.
Bye!

-Maurice the Pink Rabbit.

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