Vienna, Austria 8-11 September (Written by Andrew, edited by Belinda)

The train to Vienna took around 6 hours, mostly through flat, forested country. We crossed into  Czechia (formally Czech Republic) and then left it on the other side going into Austria. We started with a Polish train crew, changed to a Czech one then became an Austrian one. Each crossing of a border required a check of tickets but no passports required – good old EU.

The palace (we will get to this later)

The walk from the Vienna station to the apartment was about an hour so we scooted down to the underground station and caught a couple of trains, arriving at the apartment about 25 minutes later. The apartment seemed rather dark and gloomy and also smelt a little damp (the problem with bathrooms with no ventilation when the temperature is touching 30) so we retired to a hotel for a cooling beer. After paying for the beers we moved to a much smaller restaurant/pub  and got a second one. Please note that Austrians drink more beer than anyone else in the world other than the Czechs so we were only fitting in with the locals. This place was rather nice, very Austrian. We seemed to be the only customers in the bar, but not the only drinkers, as the staff/owners seemed to be drinking their way through an astounding amount of wine in the 35 minutes we were there. They were also smoking inside, something which I haven’t seen for about 20 years !!!

The next day we had a walking tour with Wolfgang, a guide. He was extremely entertaining and informative, taking us around a few of the many highlights of Vienna and regaling us with tales from history, both ancient and recent.

A statue of some ancient pop star

We saw Mozart’s statue, lots of impressive public buildings and a couple of magnificent churches, the highlight being Saint Stephens cathedral. A towering structure right in the centre and the only large cathedral where the spire (444 ft) is taller than the building is long (333 ft). Talking of tall, there was a young couple on the tour, she was easily 6’2 and he was probably 6’5”. Belinda and I looked at each other knowingly, “Dutch or maybe Swedish” we whispered. Well, it turns out Slovakians can be very tall as well 😃



St Stephens tower.

After the tour we had lunch in a cafe close by, I (Andrew) had cheese schnitzel, which was nice if rather filling. Belinda had a much more sensible salad. We then retired back to the apartment, which was no where near as gloomy in the daytime and had a siesta for an hour or two. In the evening we went and sat by the river and had a beer or two (only fitting in with the locals, you understand). We also stood in a small crowd looking at a clock. We had no idea what was suppose to happen, and after 5 minutes, we were none the wiser. Most people remaining watching it but we moved on. I guess if enough people stop and look at something it becomes a self sustaining thing 😀



The clock which we watched, possibly pointlessly

The next day we went to the railway station and bought the tickets from Vienna to Graz and Graz to Ljubljana ready for the next few days. Then we went further along the line to Schonbrunn Palace, a huge place built by the Hapsburg family as a summer residence. It was a hot day and by the time we arrived there was a wait of over 2 hours to get in. So we bought the tickets and then wandered the gardens while we waited for our entry slot. We had purchased a guided tour which was excellent, the only downside is that you cannot linger over something interesting if the rest of the group are marching forward. The Hapsburg’s were fabulously rich, but fell from power after the 1st World War when Austria became a republic.

Outside the palace, we were born to live somewhere like this …

After the palace we had dinner. We had booked a table at a gluten-free restaurant a couple of stops from the palace. The food was excellent, as was the beer and we enjoyed the dinner immensely.

Belinda enjoying a completely gluten-free menu and the obligatory beer 😀

Tomorrow we are getting the train to Graz, where we stay for a couple of days, and then onwards to Slovenia