So I got away from writing about the staycation a few weeks ago, but I wanted to finish the story of the rest of our week spent enjoying Vienna.  We didn’t do anything else as ambitious as skiing, nothing else as iconic as the Riesenrad, nothing as unexpected as swimming in a giant wave pool.  The end of our staycation was a bit quieter, but still really fun.

Even though our ski trip this time was the easiest of our ski attempts so far, it was still exhausting, and we decided to spend the next day resting at home … and building paper airplanes.

We followed that with another great trip to the Vienna zoo, which is one of our favorite places in Vienna to spend a day with the kids.  As always, I was most amazed by the close access visitors have to the animals, and the close oversight required (on my part) to keep everyone safe.  (Why yes, that IS a picture of Liam with his hand in the cheetah enclosure.  I am an awesome parent.)  As I’ve mentioned before, it would be possible — and in many cases quite easy — to climb into quite a few of the animal habitats.  My years spent in America watching people be protected from their stupidest impulses leaves me in a state of constant awe as I wander through the zoo and witness not a single person take advantage of the minimal security at the zoo.

We had a great day.  The weather was warm (for early February) and sunny and we had a beautiful time enjoying Vienna.  We found a honey vending machine near the bee area, where we purchased some local Vienna honey in a jar (because it seemed like the thing to do) and spent a long while playing at the playground where my kids demonstrated what they’re like in their own semi-natural environment.

And after our lovely zoo day, it was time to prepare to get back to work and school and our regular routine.  We had a great week enjoying Vienna.  It is pretty wonderful to get to enjoy a week-long European vacation without leaving home.