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Passports Not Hallpasses

Family of Four Traveling the World, Exploring New Countries and Learning a Lot Along the Way

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An adventure in Viennese gastronomy

I had a work meeting in Vienna last week whereas I had to travel out on Wednesday and work until Friday lunch. Because we had never been to Austria, Scott flew out on Thursday and we stayed through the weekend. It was our first “grown-up” holiday since September and we were excited about going. We felt great going since Mary Poppins was staying with the kids for the weekend.

I’ll be honest when I admit that I figured it would be little to no good eating, but lots of hanging out and people watching. Surprisingly, we ended up having some of our best food on this particular trip and in fact ate classic Austrian cuisine the entire time we were there. I can say that safely, now that I know what it means!

Our first night, we ate boiled beef. Now upon presentation of the menu, I looked at Scott as if to say, “Really?!?” He assured me it would be like the roast beef that we cook at home in a crock pot. Reluctantly, I agreed. I’m so happy I agreed!  It was so good and so much better than roast beef! It was served with the broth it was cooked in as a soup, and it got better from there!

On Saturday, we managed to sneak off to the Spanish Riding School. I had heard it was the must see since it is one of only a couple of remaining ancient riding techniques schools. If you look at their website, it looks great and you too would want to attend! The horses were beautiful and the facility was amazing, more like a ballroom of a fancy hotel. That’s about where the interest ended. We made it about 45 minutes of the 1.5 hour show and snuck off to eat lunch.

Lunch of course ended up being fantastic as well. We wanted to go to michellin rated Austrian Restaurant Sterireck but it wasn’t open. Instead, we went to their sister restaurant that shares the same kitchen but is sat behind the main restaurant. Unbelievably good. It was so good that I even ate asparagus. Anyone who can dress up asparagus enough to eat is on to something! Again, Austrian cuisine over-delivered.

The trip as a whole was a ton of fun. We stayed in a very trendy hotel DO & CO that looked right at the main cathedral in old town center. Interesting room designs is probably a sufficient description of the hotel design. We drank beer at a couple of different places and people watched. With Vienna (or properly Wien) being a major tourist destination, there were lots of people to see! It reminded us both of Amsterdam in terms of architecture (minus the canals) and peacefulness, but it was much more open. I think that it ties with Padova, Italy for favorite cities in my book. Breaking one of our rules of returning to the same place, we may go back. That’s how good it was. Next time, maybe, just maybe we’ll take the kids.

Honorable mentions:

There was an animal rights group protesting.  There seemed to be more police than protesters.  We spoke with a protester, but we didn’t have the heart to tell her that I worked for a company with a product made from pig where the animal had to be euthanized to collect the tissue.  I especially didn’t tell her about the many animals that the product had been tested on!

While having a cocktail at a bar in the “Bermuda Triangle” (bar district), we met this nice Austrian man Martin.  As it turns out, he knows more about American geography than we do!  It’s interesting and surprising how much people in Europe know about the USA.   From George Bush to the nastiness of the primaries to the debacle of the birth certificate, the details make it into the lives of Europeans.  I wonder how much an American knows about the politics of any given country in Europe…
Video Highlights:

A little more British everyday….


We had a great weekend. We attended our first rugby match. Let me just say: wow!

It was an absolute blast. Keali was glued to it! She loved watching the players tackle and get so rough with each other. Our aggressive kid on the other hand could not have cared less. Instead, he opted to play iPad throughout most of the game. We attended a league game that is a level or two below a professional, i.e. one level below NFL in rugby talk…

The action was literally feet away from us. The power and the hits of these guys without any padding was amazing. It was so fun and we hope to attend the next match in the fields near our house. Loooooving the sports here. (Cricket season starts next weekend. *****snooooooozzzzzzeeeee****)

A quick video of the highlights…

Let the good times roll…

Scott made it back to London after four solid weeks of being in Philly in trial. We were over the moon that he had a great result for the verdict, but even happier to have him return home. Our first order of business (after he slept off his jet lag and month of no sleep) was a vacation!

Scott had booked the holiday long before he left. He chose the location so that if he ended up being stuck in the USA for trial, I could still go with the kids and it would be fun. The other thing that made this particular trip stand apart from our usual was that HE did the booking. Most of our friends know that I tend to be the miserly one of the two of us. Scott on the other hand booked quite a luxurious trip. I still don’t know the full cost, but it was swanky and relaxing and fabulous! (Best I not know…)

We flew into Faro, Portugal and drove to a small resort town called Vilamoura. We stayed in an unbelievable apartment at The Lake. The kids absolutely loved it. We had never taken them to a place that had a kids’ club, etc. Between the “real” beach, the man made beach pool, the heated outdoor pool (and two other pools we never even made it to), the on-grounds playground and English maze, the kids were in heaven. Being able to sit (man-made) beach side and drink cold beer while the kids play in the sand and water was fantastic for Scott and me.


The kids’ club hosted an Easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. The staff went all over the grounds with the children hunting eggs. Again, heaven. On Monday when Caden and Keali learned the kids’ club would be closed, they were gutted. I thought we would have to pull teeth to get them to go to the club, but that’s all they wanted to do. They had a complete blast. If babies are happy, then momma’s happy! If momma’s happy, then eveyone’s happy! (-:

The kids were so worn out from playing outside all day every day that they fell asleep as soon as they went to bed, and most days slept in until 7:30am or later.

The trip was the first one we have taken as a family where one or both of us were not partly working or extremely stressed out. It was a fantastic five days. I would love to go back. Portugal was beautiful and hasn’t yet become so touristy. This was without question one of our best trips to date.

The video highlights:

Advanced language lessons…

Advanced language lessons have become part of my every day dialogue. Here’s some of the new words and phrases I have learned recently:

plaster – also known as a bandaid in Texanspeak. (When Keali was teaching me how to properly refer to her bandaid, I mean plaster, she tried to explain what plimsolls were compared to trainers. Suffice it to say, both are shoes but no one in this house understands why they are called what they’re called. We only know which ones to grab when the dress code calls for one or the other.)

silencer – the muffler of a car

pants – panties or underwear, some nice Brits say knickers, but it seems to depend on the region they come from.

bollocks – technically meaning testicles, it is used to say something is nonsense. For example, if someone tells you something ludicrous, you may respond with “Bollocks!”

the dog’s bollocks – quite the opposite of what you might think – and it means great. Used to perhaps refer to someone great at work or their job: “They’re the dog’s bollocks!”

rude health – if someone looks well and healthy, they are in “rude health”. I’m still struggling to understand this one!

pissed – extremely drunk. I have seen many people at the pub totally pissed, but they weren’t fighting as they would be in the States…

noughts and crosses – obviously it is very clear what that means. And if you have to ask, then you don’t have google in front of you like I did to find out what it was… tic-tac-toe.

We continue to improve our English skills. We hope to hold on to our TexanSpeak though as well for our eventual return one day…

Waiting, waiting, thinking…

So we are 10 days into Scott being gone. So far, so good. The kids and I had a great Sunday after a not great Saturday. Sunday included beautiful weather, a scooter trip into Kew, a trip to the bookstore for gifts for their friends, and cooking. The most fun part of the day though without question was Extreme Uno. It is by far the most fun kids’ game I have ever played. I was literally begging the kids to play again and again. Uno has long been there favorite card game (insert **snoooooooze** here). But Extreme Uno has only one descriptor: FUN.

The last 10 days or so have included less work for me (back to a pseudo-normal 40-50 hour work week), more time with the kids, and lots of sleep.

The extra sleep has given me time for musings…

I’ve been so proud of the little kids recently. Caden is now reading like a champ, and while he hates doing homework, his levels have so drastically improved that it is amazing. His report card included phrases like “quite a character”, “very talkative”, “always contributing”, and the all-telling “filled with mischievousness”. They have him pegged. No lack of confidence with Caden. We don’t have the normal conversation at home about not talking to strangers. With Caden, we have the conversation about which strangers are safer than others and what to watch out for. No sense in trying to change this leopard’s spots.

Keali is also doing very well. She is in the equivalent of PK4 here and can already read. She’s doing math and loves going to school where she is learning ballet. She is now in swimming class at school as well which serves as a close second for favorites, next only to ballet. For Easter break, the kids are out for 3.5 weeks. Caden’s all boy school has a camp for four days of the break where they take the boys to “boy activities”. Keali went to the camp over Christmas, and (after crying the first day at drop off since she was the only girl) she absolutely loved it. They are both excited about Easter camp week. We absolutely love the schools the kids are in. Regis School in Houston is the only other place we have seen that is as great as their current schools.

I also realized that I have been underestimating my recent adventures. The UK is a beautiful country. It has some fun (and somewhat odd) corners to it. Last week I was in Wales. All the public signs, road signs, parking, etc are written in English as well as in Welsh. It was like being back in Holland with the multiple consonants and too few vowels. The pronunciation is just as difficult too. The country is beautiful, even if the language is impossible. Thankfully, English is widely accepted and all Welsh speak English. Whew.

The kids and I may venture out into England and away from London next weekend to explore. We’ll see what the need is for a pajama day by time Saturday rolls around! In the mean time, we’ll be counting the days for trial in the US to be over. Opening statements are tomorrow, so we’re on the downhill slide.