Tina and Denis

 I visited Annie yesterday. 

She is Bernhard's mom and 88!

 Then my friends Tina and Denis came from Rhode Island.

We had dinner at the Naschmarkt.

 Today we visited Karlskirche - a large Baroque church

dedicated to Saint Charles, the Plague saint.  

It was started in 1716, after the Plague had decimated the city.

 The restoration work is almost finished.

We took the elevator up to the cupola.

 Then we had to take a rickety staircase to the lantern.

 We walked up to the top of the lantern

where the Holy Spirit is watching over us.

 This is the view from the scaffolding.

 We see the paintings up close. 

The cupola was painted by Johann Michael Rottmayr.

 Especially the golden detail is fantastic.

 Here is a little angel.

 We are on our way down again.

 The fake marble - it is painted -

looks real from below.

 There was also a little chapel for Saint Agnes. 

 The door was smiling!

I love my friend Tina!

Melanie's birthday - Piriwe

 We went to Melanie's birthday.

 Here she is (black).

These are her parents. 

 Today we went to Piriwe's winery to visit Thomas at work.

 Elisabeth and Bernhard will travel to Corsica tomorrow.

 We ate some good food.

 Mrs Piriwe (left) is the boss, Elisabeth Piriwe is her sister-in-law.

Then we gave the new sofa a test drive.

Wein - Heuriger - Polish Heroes

 While Thomas was working we went to the Weinfest

in Gerda's village.

 This is Gerda and her husband Dejan.

 This is Snesana and her husband Alexander. 

Snesana means "Snow White" in Serbian.

 The next day I met with my friend Sangeeta. 

We met at university when we were 18.

This is Sangeeta and her husband Franz. 

They have been together for 30 years.

 This is Sangeeta's sister Usha, the vet.

Next to her is Ezra. Ezra is 40 and 

we all used to babysit him 30 years ago.

 We went to the Heurigen in Grinzing.

 Today Thomas and I went to the Winter residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy.

 They have a wonderful exhibit on Jan Sobieski,

who rescued Vienna from the Turks in 1683.

 The rooms are beautiful.

After that we had a sausage.

Everybody is happy!

Gerda was happy with her cooler bag - here at the pool.

Thomas was happy with his toast - empty plate.

 Opa was happy with Stanka, his care taker....

 ... and then happy with his BBQ ribs.

 Stanka loved her lunch.

Benny, the neignbor's 10-year old son was happy 

to mow Opa's lawn for some cash and an ice cream.

Girlfriends

 I met my high-school friends Dagmar and Karin.

It was so nice to sit and chat. 

 After a couple of sandwiches...

.. it was time for Thomas to go to work at the winery.

Annemarie and Ross

 Annemarie and Ross came to visit us. 

We walked up the South Tower of Saint Stephen's.

 We had some sandwiches.

 We went to the Imperial confectionary's store...

 ... and looked at the sugar sculptures.

 We had some coffee,

 and a lemon tarte.

 Then we went to the Art Museum...

 ... and saw "The Art of Painting".

The staircase is fantastic.