Easter Holiday

Easter is a huge holiday in Austria. The kids get 7 days off of school! That's right, not one, but 7! With all of the time off of school, it was a great time to have a visit from my parents. They got here last Saturday and left yesterday. We got to do some traveling while they were here, which was a lot of fun. We started the trip with a 5 hour car ride to Rijeka, Croatia. Rijeka is on the coast of Croatia and our hotel was right on the water, so it was very beautiful. The kids loved running around the beach of the hotel.

The next day, we went to a castle. Carli pretended that she was a Princess and her brothers were Princes. I guess that makes Josh and I the King and Queen. We enjoyed hot chocolate and coffee in a little shop at the castle, which was much needed on a cold, rainy day.

We then got back in the car and drove another 5 hours to Budapest, Hungary. We were so excited to see a Pizza Hut on every street corner (although we never actually ate any). Budapest was a beautiful city with lots of great shopping! We went to two different malls- one with over 400 stores! We went to an authentic Hungarian restaurant that served some pretty unusual food and my mom and Josh and I actually took a bite of a goose liver! (Only so we wouldn't offend our Hungarian host)! The evening was very fun and it was good to have a taste of another culture.
Then we drove another 3 hours back to Vienna. On Friday, we wanted my parents to meet our Austrian friends, so we met them at Schoenbrunn Palace. We wanted to go to the zoo, but it was a little too cold, so we went to a desert zoo that was much smaller, but very warm. The kids loved seeing the lizards and running around the gardens. We then went to an Easter market that was right in front of the palace. There were tons of beautiful hand-painted eggs and decorations. It was a lot of fun.

We had a great Easter holiday with my parents. We are blessed in so many ways, and so thankful for all that God continues to provide.