Picnic in the Prater

We had a wonderful final Sunday in the Prater. We invited the folks with whom we spent Seder, Dave and Eva and Karl and Ina and their kids to join us for a picnic in “our” park. Turned out to be a wonderful day- beautiful weather and lovely people and a really great way to finish our stay in this most-livable city.
Dave and Eva have two little kids- Samuel who is 6 and extremely reasonable and easy to talk to and Olivia who is 3 and an amazing child. She is totally independent and often just wanders off to see something of interest. First thing at the park, she started climbing a tree- all by herself and all the way to the top where she stayed, swaying in the breeze! She did this numerous times during our outing, while her parents looked on and shrugged! Ina and Karl brought one of their sons- 8 year old Sebastian. They have two boys who mostly play American football, but today it was all soccer, probably in honor of the World Cup which is everyone’s main topic of conversation here these days.

We made some food and took it to the park, as did Ina, so we had a great picnic while the men (big and little) played soccer nearby. We also got to ride on the “Lilliput-bahn,” a small-gauge railroad that runs pretty fast, on coal, through a large part of the Prater. It is so cute and I have been wanting to ride on it, but needed small children to come with me, so today was my day! It was actually quite fun for everyone and even Olivia sat still through the ride! The best part of it is being able to say I rode on the Lilliput-bahn! While we were waiting for it to start Olivia decided she wanted to ride up in the engine, “where Thomas is,” and before anyone quite realized it, she had climbed into the driver’s seat and was about to move the throttle! Luckily Rich noticed it in time and grabbed her out before she could do anything. Later, Rich and the guys took the boys to ride on the bumper cars at the amusement park and they also had a good time there.

It was so lovely to be able to sit and talk with these interesting, warm people and I hope we can continue the friendship across the ocean. Getting to know such hospitable, friendly people has definitely added to our enjoyment of Vienna.