Day 3 - 30 February 2019 Vienna

Part of the deal at the hotel I am staying at is a free two hour walking tour of inner Vienna.  This started at 10.00am and included the older parts of the city including the Jewish area.  Vienna still has a Jewish population and my hotel is close to a synagogue.  There is a continual police presence at all of the Jewish buildings in the city.  The guide also told us about an area near my hotel that is known as Bermuda.  It is called this as it is full of nightclubs and bars and once people go into this area they tend to disappear and are never seen again.

Laneway in Vienna

Baroque Catholic Church
(obviously it wasn't only the aristocracy that was ripping off the peasants)

I had lunch in one of the older traditional cafes in the city.  Bratwurst sausage, fried potatoes and sauerkraut (no scurvy for me) and beer.  

After lunch I decided I would visit the Prater amusement park and take a ride on the big ferris wheel.  This ferris wheel featured in the movie the Third Man and has been a feature of the amusement park for many years.  I went on this ride in 1986 when i was last in Vienna.  The carriages are like an old fashioned railway carriage and take about 15 - 20 people.  The rest of the amusement park is a bit old fashioned with dodgem cars and ghost trains plus some very very scary rides involving heights and sudden drops.

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Dinner tonight was at a nearby bistro/restaurant and being Saturday night was crowded and busy.  I was lucky to get a seat as usually they don't like single diners on busy nights.  I don't know why they don't introduce the American idea of seating single diners at the bar, I think that is a great idea. 

Anyway, I was sitting there eating my dinner and having a drink when two well dressed young women sat next to me and with the tables being close I could hear a bit of what they were talking about.  They obviously knew each other well and were chatting away in accented English indicating that they weren't Austrian and weren't from the same foreign country.  I ordered a strudel for my dessert and it came in the form of a large pizza, and although delicious it was far too much food so there was a little left on the serving plank when the waitress took it away.  When the waitress took it away one young lady said to her friend (in English) , 'that man didn't eat all of his food, think of all the hungry children in Africa'.  I assumed that she was having a go at me and didn't realise that I spoke English.  Anyway as I stood up to leave I had to squeeze past their table, so I said to them 'I apologise for not eating all of my dinner but there was too much'.  With that they looked at each other and started laughing.  It turns out one of them is Tunisian and works for a NGO an the other is a diplomat from Lebanon.  They speak about a dozen languages each and speak to each other in English, French, Italian, Arabic, whatever.  The lady who made the comment explained that this was what her mother used to  say when she didn't eat all of her dinner, and they weren't being rude to me.  (A bit like when I was young my mother saying any food not eaten would be given to the starving children in China). 

Step count for the day 10,009.

Observation; Electric scooters everywhere.  Particularly the public share ones that are currently being introduced to some cities in Australia.  I wonder if people are throwing them in the Danube.

Day 2 - 29 March 2019 Vienna

Beautiful spring day in Vienna, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the locals and the tourists (including me) are out and about.  Probably only about 14c through the day and cooler in the morning and evening but very pleasant weather for being out and about.  And out and about I was, my watch has told me that I did more than 16,000 steps today.  I reckon 6,000 were finding my way back to the hotel after finding myself a bit geographically embarrassed.

Purchased my 72 hour public transport pass this morning for E17.00 and caught my first train out to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, known to you and me as the Austrian Military Museum.  (The Austrian language is a slight variation on German and like the Germans they just keeping adding words on until they get to the word they want).  This isn't a bad museum however a bit old fashioned with lots of things in glass cases, however they have spent some money and updated their The Great War (TGW) exhibitions. However given the Austrians were on the losing side they probably don't think of the 1914 - 18 war as TGW.  I got in for E5 instead of E7 by flashing my Victorian seniors card.

The pride of their collection, in my eyes anyway, is the car that the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were in when they were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia on 28 June 1914.  Standing looking at this car, including the bullet hole, it was amazing to contemplate the repercussions and consequences of this action, in the Balkan back blocks, on the rest of the world. Including my then 15 year old grandfather in far away Tasmania and also his slightly older brother, my great uncle.  Bismark, the great unifier of the German nation once stated that the Balkans weren't worth the bones of one Pommeranian grenadier.  Unfortunately it cost them lot more than that.

Entrance to Military Museum

Archduke's car with bullet holes

After morning tea at the museum, coffee and cake in the Viennese tradition, I started back into the city.  Part of this walk was through the Belvedere Gardens and past the Belvedere Palaces.  My word the Austrian ruling family, the Hapsburgs, knew how to build a castle and gardens, would give the French a run for their money.

Schloss Belverdere  

The rest of the day was taken up with lunch (sausage wrapped in bacon, chips, salad and beer) watching the world go by in outdoor restaurant.  And then a long walk taking in some of the sights and working off my jet lag.

Some observations; people can still smoke in restaurants, gentlemen still smoke pipes and dogs are allowed in restaurants.

Day 1 - 28 February 2019 Melbourne to Vienna 

Some of you may have been aware that my flight to Europe was scheduled to depart from Tullamarine at 6.00am (that’s six o’clock in the morning!) which meant having to be at the airport at 3.00am which meant getting picked up at 2.00am! Anyway my limousine arrived at a bit before 2.00 and I was at the airport at 2.45. The Emirates check in was open and using my Business Class priority bags were promptly dropped off. However security and immigration didn’t open until 4.00 so I had an hour to kill with nothing open, couldn’t even get a coffee or a beer!

 (And before you all start to shout ‘capitalist pig dog’ travelling business class, I am doing it on frequent flyer points, so there).

It took a little while to clear security and immigration and I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t get a chance to experience the Emirates business class lounge. Anyway the travel gods smiled on me and I had time for a glass of Verve and a little sausage and hash browns.

So I am typing this somewhere over the Indian Ocean at nearly 35,000 feet travelling at 580mph (946kmh or mach 8.1) with an outside temperature of -40c. I have had breakfast on the plane and for those of you who are interested I had scrambled egg with truffle served with a potato scone, hot smoked salmon and roasted cherry tomatoes accompanied by fresh fruit and yoghurt. I am now about to decide what I will have for my lunch. (Flashy, I had a V&T down the back of the plane, a couple of the flight attendants asked after you.)

After a 3 hour stopover in Dubai my anticipated time of arrival in Vienna is 8.00pm this evening. Of course there was much excitement with the crossing of the equator. Fortunately the clouds cleared and we were able to see the equator spanning the globe far below us.

Sitting at the airport at Dubai waiting for my connecting flight to Vienna and watching the trains coming and going to and from the airport station and wondering why it is going to take 10 years for Victoria to get a train to and from Tullamarine. As you can see, I am a bit bored.

On the flight from Dubai to Vienna, late afternoon early evening. Flying near some interesting places, Basra, Baghad, Mosul etc. The mountains to the north east have snow on them, not sure what mountain range it is, will check it out once I’ve got wi fi. Just about to serve dinner, seems like I have been eating and drinking all day, and there is nothing wrong with that, you might say.

Safely arrived in Vienna at about 8.00pm, a little bit knackered, crikey it is a long way.  Why didnt Captain Cook discover somewhere a bit closer to Europe?

And before anybody starts whinging, photos will be on their way shortly.