Vienna

After Stuttgart our holiday was focussed on Eastern Europe, but Vienna was on the way and Eve had never been there before. We allowed it a day.

We had a choice of routes and we elected to go via Munich. That way we did not travel the line to Nűrnberg a second time, and there was a convenient wait between trains to allow for lunch. What we did not factor in was the extreme busyness of Munich's main station or the fact that the eating places required us to wrestle our luggage up stairs.

From Munich to Vienna we travelled on a 'Rail Jet' extra-fast train, although I noted that it was not powered by a jet engine. It was a very popular train, and even the first class seats were nearly all reserved. But we did locate places adjacent to the restaurant car.

Not only did we see a lot of very scenic Austrian countryside as we dashed along at up to 230 km per hour, but we enjoyed excellent company. Diane Putz is an engineer who designs building facades. She is also a 'mental coach' to, amongst others, the Austrian national tennis squad. She believes that she is still the youngest female in Europe to obtain a glider pilot's license. She was only 14. Doesn't it make you feel you haven't done enough with your life? Overachiever she may be, but she was certainly very down to earth to talk to. She and Eve got on particularly well. We are still in touch.

It was in the taxi from the station that Eve discovered that she had lost her handbag. We hunted, of course, in all possible and even impossible corners of our luggage when we arrived at our Airbnb room. Thank goodness for the Internet. We were able to report the lost property to both Deutsche Bahn and to OBB, the Austrian railway operator, in English. And the credit cards had to be cancelled. Fortunately the handbag was found, with all contents intact. For a modest fee OBB parcelled it up and mailed it to NZ.

I was going to skip the palaces, but somewhere I read about a visitor who spent 3 full days in the gardens of the Schloss Schönbrunn. If the gardens are that good, Eve has to see them, so we devoted a morning to them. It was easy to get to the palace, and admission to the gardens is free, so it was a cheap outing. And honestly, a morning was quite enough.

The formal gardens from the palace.

I prefer my waterfalls without statuary, but apparently the Hapsburgs had a different view.

But they also liked roses.

We spent the afternoon in the Mitte (city centre). There are grand buildings all around and we dutifully ticked some off. We were at the famous Spanish Riding School at about afternoon tea time. Commentators are agreed that Vienna is the city for coffee and cake. And, lo and behold, there was a cafe on the spot with a big illustrated cake menu. The coffee and cake were nice, but they weren't cheap and they weren't, in our view, special. We have since been advised that we should have gone to a 'coffee house' instead.

An interesting pattern on this cathedral roof.

Pull over here!  Or is it a specialist woollens shop?

The cafe at the Spanish Riding School

Laden with calories.

Nearly everywhere we went tourists are offered rides in horse-drawn carriages.  In Vienna the horses' ears are clothed.  Is it to keep them warm?  Is it to muffle traffic noise?  Are they showing off the colours of their favourite football team?  If you know why, please leave a comment and let us know.

On leaving we tried out Uber, the taxi company that claims it is not a taxi company. You use your 'phone or tablet to identify your destination and request a car. Once the request has been accepted by a driver you can watch the car approaching on a map. The fare advised in advance is only an estimate, and the actual charge to our credit card was rather more than the estimate, but it is certainly easy to use app.