hello all
as kendra said we spend yesterday in baden with julie, who is such a sweet lady, and she showed us a few of the many beauties of austria. baden has an old-town, village-y sort of feel to it and from what we were told is a big touristy point, but you would never know it. they have still managed to keep the quaint feel and it's natural beauties. it is also a place where many older (and wealthier) austrians retire too, and it has natural hot water springs.
anyways, i'll just add a few pictures to give you a visual.

this is a view of baden from behind beethoven's temple (more of a pagoda).

this is another view of baden from the top of a hill we climbed (so pretty!)

one of the scenes painted on the ceiling of beethoven's temple.

kendra sitting on the balcony of beethoven's temple, looking out at baden

julie and i at an Ebuscho coffee shop (julie said to say that she's holding her favourite coffee)

my photography does not do the place justice, so you'll have to make it to austria to see for yourselves :)
i will add more sometime this week as we plan to go back to baden on wednesday morning (which i believe is our only free time this week) for a hike up to one of the nearby castles. i don't know any history of it, but it's over a thousand years old and it was in one of the turrets that kendra's dad proposed to kendra's mom some years ago, so it's got some history ;)

well, that's all i've got for now. kendra and i spent a lovely morning/afternoon wandering around vienna's numerous catherdrals, opera houses, and other gorgeous structures after church today. after living in athens for so many years, i had forgotten that a city could be so beautiful (and clean!). for random reasons i did not take too many photos, so i will save that for another day.

-becky