Well, we arrived safe and sound and grabbed a taxi from the airport to our hotel – Arcotel Vienna – which is impressively posh. The room is lovely if a little bland, but bland is often good; the view out of the window leaves a lot to be desired though !

Last night we went out to eat at a Austrian resturant (http://www.kaisermuehle.at/) since the hotel offering seemed a little expensive and limited. We walked about 15 minutes and found it; and it was well worth it. It was basically a huge barbecue with any variation of meats or fishes you could imagine perched right on the banks of the Danube.

I had baby octopus, Lucia had schnitzel and Belinda choose a skewer of pork. We had to wait about 30 minutes for a table which was no trouble since we seated ourselves near the bar and sampled Austrian beer (well I did, Lucia had a Coke and Belinda an apple something). The staff were very welcoming and friendly – definitely the smiliest Austrians we have seen so far ! We had dessert too, strudels, profiteroles and a moose – but the mosquitoes came out as the sun went down and quickly drove us away from the waters edge – even so, it was a superb meal.

Breakfast was magnificent; We could have feasted on poached salmon, champagne, juices, coffees, teas, cheeses, meats, breads, cakes, fruits.. pretty much anything you could have wanted to start the day – stunning !

But today is a non-cycling day, we don’t actually start pedalling until Thursday (today is Tuesday), so we plan on spending it wandering around Vienna, drinking in the culture, sights and sounds, and almost certainly going for a ride on the big ferris wheel.

Well, we are back at the hotel; hot and tired. Vienna is an excellent city: bright, clean, filled with interesting places to see and visit.

We started off by getting the underground to the centre of Vienna and then commenced touristy things including

St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

A magnificent, ornate building with a quite stunning roof. It is half covered in scaffolding at the moment, so I give you a photo of the inside.

Trip in a horse drawn carriage. Yes, very clichéd and very touristy, but we did it in Bruges and we did it in Amsterdam, so we HAD to do it in Vienna !

Whizz around in the big ferris wheel. It is, it seems, a very famous ferris wheel, and has pretty spectacular views over the city.

We had a great time. Vienna has a huge fun fair just a kilometre out of the town centre – like a mini Disney World. Some of the rides where so scary that even Belinda ( a woman who knows no fear) said “Oh Lord, that is just stupid!” – so we went on a mini train instead ! Oh, and Lucia showed her prowess as an archer :-

All in all, a great day. Tomorrow we go to see the horses in the Spanish riding school and then prepare for the point of the holiday – the cycling