Vienna

Jon nipped over to the supermarket first thing and picked up a couple of croissants and a couple of tubs of fresh fruit salad for our breakfasts. This is the kind of compromise I like – the evil of the croissants clearly balanced up by the healthiness of the fruit :) Perfect.

Vienna today then.

Oh, and it was raining.

We hopped on a bus from just outside the campsite and didn't buy a ticket. We didn't know how to, and nobody seemed bothered, so we just sat quietly and hoped there wouldn't be any inspectors about.

The bus stopped somewhere near the town centre and everyone got off – so we did too. We were at a metro station, so we went down into it and bought a 24 hour travel card thingy - €5 each, which isn't bad – and then we were legit, and not fare dodgers. We caught the metro to St Stephansplatz – the place where it is all happening (apparently). So there's a church there and a square and some shops. And it was raining.

So we walked down the shopping street, and we were already fed up with the rain (did I mention that it was raining?) – so we stopped for coffee.

There's only so long you can drag that out for though (no matter how attractively presented the drinks are), especially when all the newspapers are in German and, although you can guess at what they are saying, it gets a bit wearing after a while – so we had to go back out in the rain.

We walked about a bit more and then it was time to stop for lunch. We stopped at this place, it looked alright – and it was – although we had got a bit confused and thought the menu was all about sausages (I think it was the "Weiner" thing that got us - although obviously (well, you know - with hindsight it's obvious) that refers to Vienna (Wien in German)) but actually it was all about chicken. Luckily the chap brought us menu translations before we ordered – so we didn't get a suprise when our food arrived!!

I had been telling Jon the day before how I remember from living in Germany when I was a kid that there seemed to be a lot of half chicken & chips on the menus – and that's what we got today. Lovely. :)

Then it was back out into the rain.

We did our best – we walked around the Hofbrunner a bit, admired the old buildings, etc – but the rain was just miserable, and really we decided that there wasn't all that much that made Vienna special. It was nice, but nothing amazing – and not so different from, say, London. But really it was the rain. It didn't stop all day.

Inevitably (predictably?) we ended up in a pub.

There was some confusion – Austrian / Australian (not really) but at least we bought Austrian beer and not Fosters!! It was a nice place, and Jon managed to get the Australian barmaid to lend us the staff pack of cards so we could have a game of cribbage (the Silver Lining challenge) which I won – 2-1.

3 x 0.5litres of beer later we were a little confused, and still a bit damp (jeans take forever to dry out don't they?) and back out in the rain looking for somewhere to eat.

We got a tube to another tube station and came above ground to see what there was – nothing (but rain), so back into the tube and back to the place where we had got off the bus in the morning.

A bit of a walk and we found a nice sushi place (I know, real Austrian experience today), where they made your stuff to order, it was quite cheap, reasonably healthy and it was dry :)

A walk back up to the bus stop - buying a German copy of Runner's World on the way (well, I couldn't resist it could I?), caught the right bus back to the campsite and got off in the right place and everything (are we learning?) and back into the van – which was still standing (as was the awning amazingly) despite being surrounded by a small moat by now :( Stupid rain.

We did arse around a bit taking a couple of photos for the blog (beer is so bad for you isn't it?), and we had a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits, but mainly it was just bed time – miserable weather (I bet you are hoping it stops raining soon aren't you? So I'll stop moaning on about the rain? He he :) ).

Shame about Vienna though – although we have decided not to concentrate on stopping at cities any more. The only places we are definitely going are Prague and Amsterdam. Prague is supposed to be great – everyone says so – and Amsterdam is supposed to be cool also, and that's where we are meeting up with Helen & Andrew when they come over. Otherwise, although the Rough Guide mainly concentrates on cities – so I suppose that's why we have too – unless you are into churches and old buildings, or you are there for a reason – Opera, ballet, beer, whatever - there usually isn't much worth bothering about in most places.

We are more of the lakes/mountains/countryside types – so at least we have got that straightened out!