I'm back!

So, we're back from vacation!  Actually, to be perfectly honest, we've been back for about two weeks.  It's been awfully hard to get back to "real life," so please forgive my delayed post.

It's funny how a single trip overseas can change your life.  I'm not trying to be dramatic.  I swear.  It's just the truth.  In fact, I'm a firm believer that any, and every, experience can change your life, from the mundane to the exotic.  So, if I want to think that living out of a suitcase for two and a half weeks, dragging along a toddler, and putting a bunch of check marks on my bucket list, can change my life...Whoop!  We survived, had a blast, want to open a B&B in Slovenia, and realized we have too much "stuff" in our house.  Time to clean out under the bathroom sinks (done, by the way) and start researching real estate regulations overseas.  

All right, I digress, yet again.  This is a blog about museums and babies, and I promise you that I won't make this a travelogue.  (Okay, it will probably read like a travelogue of the museums we visited.)  I'm only posting pictures of museums and historic sites, and a few select other images to provide context.  I'll refrain from describing the excellent food, triumphs and failures of train travel, rental cars, and taxis, and the mostly good (but sometimes bad) of our accommodations.  Also, I won't bore you with too many details about where the changing tables are, etc., etc.  You don't care about that so much.  And, suffice it to say, that the changing tables were generally non-existent, but where they did exist, the set up was awesome.  Go figure.  Also, the "locals" were generally super duper baby friendly.  One generous inn keeper kept Diggory entertained in an adjoining room so Nathan and I could enjoy breakfast "alone," and one very cute waitress "stole" him away to the kitchen to show him how "the pizzas make."  I had a moment of hesitation, but then I realized we were on an island and he wasn't going anywhere, she seemed genuinely nice, and I really wanted to drink that glass of wine (or two) alone with my husband.  

Also, this is going to be more of a photo essay in format.  I'll list the museums and sites we visited below, and then you can peruse the photos at your leisure.  I'm tempted to say, "I've more than made up for my 'one museum a week goal,'" but I won't.  In fact, the main impetus for getting this post done tonight is that I'm going to the National Gallery of Art tomorrow, and I hate not being "caught up."

So, here we go.  The following are the museums/sites we visited on our trip, listed by city:

(Ah, and the caveat here is that I definitely didn't go to everything, or even things that my art-history-major self "should" have visited.  I always tell myself that I'll be back.  For example, I didn't see The Kiss at the Belvedere Palace while in Vienna.  Shameful.  It just wasn't in the timeline.)

Vienna, Austria

• Opera
• St. Stephen's Cathedral
• Hofburg Imperial Apartments, Sisi Museum, and Imperial Silver Collection
• Hofburg Treasury
• Kunsthistorisches Museum
• Kaisergruft

Hallstatt, Austria (The entire town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.)

• Catholic Church and Charnel House (Bone Chapel)
• Protestant Church
• Roman ruins in the basement of the Dachstein Sport Shop
• Interpretive signs hiking down from the Salt Mine Museum (Children under the age of four aren't allowed in the salt mine.)

Ljubljana, Slovenia (We hardly went to any museums here, but we were too tuckered out after Vienna and Hallstatt.  We wandered about, and that's good enough.)

• Ljubljana Castle
• Riverside Market and Dragon Bridge
• Preseren Square

Lake Bled, Slovenia

• The Island, by pletna boat, the Church of the Assumption and the ninety-nine steps
• Blejski Grad (Bled Castle)
• WWI sites in the Julian Alps through the Vrsic Pass, including the Russian Chapel and Kluze Fort, and along the Soca River
• Postojna Caves and Predjamski Grad (Predjama Castle), on our drive from Bled to Rovinj, Croatia

Rovinj, Croatia

• Church of St. Euphemia (and bell tower)
• Balbi Arch
• St. Stephen's Church, Motovun (We at lunch at Mondo Konoba in Motovun, a hill town east of Rovinj.  Anthony Bourdain ate here on No Reservations.  We left cool.)
• Zavrsje (It's a town, and it's old.)
• Groznjan (It's a town too, and it's also old, and it's also an artists' colony.)

Venice, Italy

• St. Mark's Basilica and St. Mark's Square
• Doge's Palace and Bridge of Sighs
• Correr Museum
• Accademia Museum
• Rialto Bridge
• Oh, gosh.  I feel like we went more places than this!  I guess we just bopped our heads into lots of churches and such.  I admit, I didn't always know where I was.  Exploring and wandering is part of the fun!)

Istanbul, Turkey (We were here for a twelve hour layover.  We needed a place, not the airport, to sleep, so we booked a hotel, strategically, two blocks from the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque.)

• Hagia Sofia

That's it - now, enjoy the photos! (Only 22 of over 1,500!)

Enjoying the audio guide at the Imperial Silver Collection at the Hofburg Apartments.  Amazing!  Seriously, one of the highlights of the whole trip.

Panoramic view of the Natural History Museum and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Diggory feel asleep in the carrier (behind Nathan) so we stopped at the Kunsthistoriches cafe.

Babies aren't allowed in the salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria, so I placated myself with the interpretive signs on the way down.

The graveyard at the Catholic Church in Hallstatt, with the Protestant Church steeple in the background. 

Inside the mountain under Ljubljana Castle, Slovenia.

The view of Ljubljana from the castle tower.

Diggory enjoying the museum at Bled Castle, Slovenia.

The view of the Island and the Church of the Assumption, from Bled Castle.

Bled Castle.

The Russian Chapel, Vrsic Pass, Slovenia.

Predjama Castle, Slovenia.

Rovinj, Croatia at sunset.  That's the bell tower of St. Euphemia, upper right.

The steps up the bell tower at St. Euphemia, Rovinj.  Yes, I climb these with a baby strapped to my back.

The view of Rovinj from the bell tower.  

The view from our room in Venice, Italy.

Me and Diggory in awe, the Accademia.

The Campanile, St. Mark's Basilica, and the Doge's Palace (left to right.)

This is the "Get Diggory in a photo with the Rialto Bridge, 'cause when's he's fourteen he won't be able to say we never did anything fun with him" photo.

Inside the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, with St. Mark's Basilica in the background.

The view of Hagia Sofia from our hotel's roof.  Yea, pretty awesome.

Crazy happy, inside the Hagia Sofia, Istanbul, Turkey.