30th August - 4th September 2007.
The drive to Vienna was wet and wild as we were buffeted by a thunderstorm for over two hours as we made our way north from Slovenia. My neck hadn't improved much either so driving was painful and it was not the best day of our trip. It wasn't that bad though. Some of the scenery was classic Austria. Rolling green hills, forests, snow capped mountains etc. We are staying outside Vienna in the hills about 40 minutes from the city centre. The entire city of Vienna has been booked out by a massive cardiologists conference, there is literally nowhere to stay in town. Our chalet is surrounded by forests, more rolling green hills, creeks and walking trails so I think we're happier here than we would have been in town.
As promised in our last entry we have a special guest with us for the next four weeks. We picked up Suzie Hutch (aka mum) from Vienna airport Sunday morning and drove back out to our base for lunch. Mum has travelled quite a bit through Europe in the last few years but had never been to Austria. She seemed to like what she saw on the drive and was pretty happy with our choice of accommodation. Monday afternoon we drove to Vienna to have a look around, have some dinner then take in some kulcha. We attended a performance of the Vienna Mozart Orchestra. The concert hall was packed and nobody paid any attention to the no camera signs. The orchestra was accompanied by a male and female opera singer for more than half of the show. The orchestra was great but you can keep the opera. The bloke in particular was pretty weak and I just wanted him to sit down and shut up so we could here the real talent, the musicians. It was a new experience for me and we all enjoyed it, although the mosh pit was pretty lame.
We felt we hadn't seen enough of Vienna the previous evening so we headed back in the following day to check out the sights more thoroughly. We walked the botanical gardens, took in the parliament house, the Rathaus (city hall) and the Hoffburg, the Imperial Palace. We only missed the Pope by five days as he was due to visit next weekend. We didn't stay all day as the temperature only reached 13 degrees with regular showers. Not exactly a heatwave. We spent the rest of our time here walking through forests, teaching mum about her new digital camera, and picking up little bits of German from her, drinking a few beers and wine (now that mum's here) and eating far too much at the restaurant attached to our home base.
Next we head to Germany, but only just.... More thumbnails ...
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