Vienna -> Madrid

Hello everyone!!

Well we finally reached the last week  in Vienna and what a city this was!  We had a busy week with 9 shows in 5 days but Alex and I also had a fun week exploring this city and checking out a few places we still hadn't gotten to.  We really wanted to get to an area called Grinzing (famous for wine) and there's a huge amusement park called the Prater that we finally got to go to because it was warmer.  We also took a trip to the top of Kahlenburg and walked down the mountain.  So let me tell you about it!

Starting with the show and the tear down...

The show has been really good!  We had a good week, performed planche in 4 shows and all went well except one.  Me and Patrick, one of the other planche guys, basically ran into each other while switching places on the board and I ended up with one foot on and one off.  When Olivier landed across from me, I launched sideways and luckily Patrick was there to help guide me back down to earth.  It really didn't look too bad but it was pretty scary for a second!  Other than that the shows were pretty uneventful, and of course they've been fun!

Alex got to come see two shows this week, as our attendance numbers were starting to fall.  A couple shows this week were down to 40% filled.  This is new for me but it was cool to see that no matter how many people were there watching they were still very appreciative and it was still a blast performing to them.  Cirque offered us 2 tickets for Friday and Saturday free just so we could give them to people we knew or might want to see the show.  It was a great and she got to see me actually jump on board which was great.

Tear down happened yesterday and went rather smoothly but like I said last time it is so odd.  The show is so complete on stage and looks great and the audience would never guess that while we aren't out on the stage performing we are literally construction workers in the artistic tent taking apart machines and loading the entire tent into boxes.  By the time the second show finished the only thing left in the entire tent is our own wardrobes so that we can take our costumes and makeup off...  Then they go too.

Grinzing and Kahlenburg

We took the U-bahn (metro) to the outer areas of Vienna and took a bus halfway up the mountain to get to the area called Grinzing.  It is a suburb of Vienna and known worldwide for the wine houses which are considered a tourist attraction.  All the way along one street in this town there are restaurants that serve their own local wine that is grown, and produced on the mountainside.  We stopped a few of these but the season is just beginning, so we only had one glass of wine and a huge slice of pizza at a really nice patio.

The weather was really nice so we decided to keep going up the mountain to the top, which is Kahlenburg.  We stayed for a while taking pictures and enjoying some lemon ice cream, then we walked down. on the same path that I went a few weeks ago.  It was such a nice day and we got to see some new birds too. 

Prater

After the ride....

During the upside-down part...

On our second last day in the city we decided to go to an amusement park, in the heart of Vienna, conveniently right near our place.  It's called the Prater and is famous for it's ferris wheel, the oldest one in the world.  We went on a few rides including one called "Exstasy" (I know they spelled it wrong...) which was basically your average spinning-strawberry-style ride except that it spun on every axis imaginable.   We were completely disoriented and dizzy and even felt a bit noxious.  The best part of the ride was that when we thought we were done...  it turned the entire ride upside-down and did the whole thing over again!!  I still feel sick!!  We also went on the world's tallest carousel swing, over 117m high!!  After the long day at the park we went to our favourite pub one last time, 1516 and had a burger.  The best burger in all of Vienna by far!!

Babysitting

Alex also had a few days of babysitting this week so we thought we'd include some pictures from our day babysitting Lorianna!!  It was a fun way to spend our last day in the city.  We went to Stephanplatz, the city center, and walked about 200m in 45 minutes.  Practical? No, but it tired her out... And Aaron too.

Moving to MADRID!

We are actually writing this Blog post on the airplane, as we transfer to Madrid.  This morning we got on a bus from our hotel and so far so good, we took off on time and 30 minutes have gone by.  Only 2.5 hours to go!! Oh and I just had my 3rd cup of coffee today...  1 McDonalds, 1 Starbucks, 1 airplane blend....  Starbucks wins.

 

We'll let you know how everything looks in Madrid as soon as we can but for now, we can only see clouds and the Alps...

Hope everyone is dong well!  Miss you all!!

'Til Next time!

Aa and Alex