The first stage - Vienna

Sitting on the Leipzig Express from Munich to Berlin, in first class luxury, at 8.30am on Saturday morning (5th Sep), I am contemplating our first week in Europe (well almost a week). In a word it has been sensational, exceeding our expectations in most ways, particularly Budapest but more about that wonderful city later.

Our adventure started in good old Perth at 10.30pm on Saturday 29th August when we boarded an Emirates flight for Vienna via Dubai. Everything about Emirates was excellent except the seating arrangements which for a six-footer+ like Ron is just inadequate. Back to Malaysian Airlines next time – the seating is much better. Not much to say about Dubai as we only experienced the new airport terminal, which was opulent in a way that only oil can buy! Arrived in the beautiful (and relaxed) city of Vienna early on Sunday afternoon and made our way to the apartment we had booked on the net.
Fantastic choice – we found ourselves in a modern roomy 2 bedroom apartment, in a highly energy efficient building, where both the heating and the cooling comes from geothermal resources directly under the building…..and we were within 5-10 minutes walk of the main city square, Karlsplatz, which is also the central hub for all public transport – very convenient. Like most European cities we have experienced, the public transport is superb.

We had 3 nights in Vienna, enjoying perfect weather the whole time, filling our days with constant activity. To make the most of our limited time we decided to do a couple of guided walks and were very glad we did. The first one was The Third Man walking tour. For those who don’t know, The Third Man, consistently rated one of the best British made films of all time, was set in Vienna – mostly in the sewers, although we were told most of the filming was done in a studio in England because Orson Wells (the lead actor) did not want to get his hands (and knees) dirty! The tour was conducted by Chris, the son of the local woman who founded the tour 20 years ago and has since written several books about the subject. Not only Chris, but her two daughters have also followed her into the tour guiding business. The 2.5 hour tour visited all of the locations used in making the film, covering a sizeable portion of the centre of Vienna, and was full of entertaining and informative anecdotes. Highly recommended for anyone visiting this city. A couple of photos of film locations visited are shown below. In each case Chris is holding up a print from the film that was set right where he is standing.

The second tour, guided by a retired woman passionate about her city, was more about the fascinating history, architecture and culture of Vienna, and again had us wandering all over Vienna for more than 2 hours. No-one else turned up for the tour so we had her to ourselves. She was an excellent guide with exceptional knowledge that she enthusiastically shared with us.
The partially revealed fresco in the picture on the right dates from medieval times. Apart from these two organised tours we just explored the city as best we could, armed with our map, our 3 day transport pass and plenty of excitement. The highlights were probably the Salm Brauerie (brewery), sort of a “poor mans Little Ceatures”, the fresh food markets, and the continually stunning architecture. The few negatives included the failure to find a decent coffee (always a problem when you leave Australia), and some bum directions to our departure point that almost saw us miss our train to Budapest.