Ich bin Schnapshund

Guten tag! I have just spent the last two days in Vienna, Austria and am now on my way to Salzburg and then onto Munich. We went to a traditional Austrian dinner two nights ago with lots of weiner schnitzel and pork sausages. We were serenaded by two older Austrian gentleman playing the violin and the accordian. After they played many classical pieces, one of the boys requested that they play "a romantic song" for me. They ended up playing "My Way" which was a little ironic as my grandpa used to always sing that song for my grandma. The following day, Vicki and I spent the day together. Vic is a phys ed teacher from Australia and has her own horses...so her and I went to the the morning exercise for the world famous Lippizzan stallions. The Spanische Hofreitscule (Spanish Riding School) is the oldest riding school in the world. The stallions come to the riding school at the age of 4 from the Lipizzaner stud Piber, which is located 250km south of Vienna. It then takes 6 years to train the stallion. The morning exercise allowed us to watch the riders train their Lipizzaners. It was incredible to see the brilliant white beauties "dance" about with their dressage routines. At the end of the exercise, the horse is immediately rewarded with sugar cubes from the the pocket of the riders tailcoat. The riding hall was another thing of beauty. It was built from 1729 to 1735 and is quite often called the worlds most beautiful indoor riding hall. There is seating overlooking the ring and you feel like royalty looking down at the prancing horses while huge chandaliers sparkle from the elevated domed ceiling above. If the floor wasn't covered in dirt you could quite easily hold an elegant ball in there. Afterwards, Vic and I bought coffees and sandwiches and walked over to a park to have a little mini-picnic. That evening, we went to the Schnaps Museum (and it's not a spelling mistake...Schnaps should only have one 'p'). The Schnaps recipes were invented 4 generations ago and is still very much a family business. The best part of this museum though? Taste testing!!! After tasting at least 8 different types of Schnaps (less than half of what was available) we were off to dinner on the outskirts of Vienna in a place where the Glock handgun is produced. I enjoyed a beer that evening called the "Budwai" (pronounced "budvai"). This beer comes from Czechoslavakia and is made from the pure mountain streams. Many years ago, Americans came to Czech, stole the recipe, and created Budweiser. They then put an international patent on the name and the Czech beer has been forced to change the name of their beer in many countries around the world. Austria is not one of those countries, so we were able to enjoy the "Budwai" under its real name. All this talk of beer and schnaps is making me thirsty. Auf Weidersehen! Giff