Thursday 28 April 2011

Austria (...via Switzerland and Germany...)

I had a great Easter weekend in Vienna with Carla. After so much schnitzel I ended up fuller than a state school but it was all good fun. I also managed to consume my other goals; Red Bull, Jaggermeister, apple strudel, and as much meat as possible.

Red Bull, Austrian number plate, proof.

Thanks to BMI, we missed our connecting flight in Basel- a city I was somewhat fascinated with, only because Roger Federer hails from that area. That fascination has bewildered me because I find Federer rather boring. From the airport carpark, however, the city looked beautiful. Unfortunately I couldn't go in to explore as we only had a 2 hour wait until our next flight, and we were lucky to get that. The downside, however, was that this flight went via Frankfurt.

Strangely enough the 2 stopovers weren't too painful and we arrived in Vienna on the same day we left. Kinda glad too, as we did leave home at 5.15am...

We walked so much over the weekend, I'd be surprised if we didn't cover 25kms across the 4 days. The tourist 'hop-on-hop-off bus' was a welcome releif on Monday when were were able to see the sights a little further out of the city without having to walk. Shonnbrun Castle was great, the Opera House was great, St Stephen's Cathedral was great, but one of my favourite activities was dinner each night in a local pub or restaurant out in the burbs! One night we got a lock in and a guided tour of the photos on the wall from 1930-1970's taken by the family that own the pub. The vocal-happy bar tender told us all about the districts of the city and the history of each one; we wanted to interrupt but it was too interesting!

I'm in Lisbon now and I'm sure that within a few days I'll lose track of which tourist attraction is where so I'll leave you with some photos while I remember them...

The Opera we would have seen, had we spoke German, been more cultured, and had nothing else to do with that 4 hours...


I do love the way they do this- they played the opera live on the big screen on the side of the Opera House, with deck chairs set up. Just like the tennis in Fed Square but... different.


On recommendation we went to a fantastic bar on about the 6th floor which overlooked the centre of Vienna. Yes, the photo is blurred but you should see the other one. I'm taking Carla to be 'assessed'.


Google Shonnbrun Palace. Amazing place. Useless now that the Emperor stood down. But looks incredible!


I love old trams...

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