Sue and Gerry's Europe Trip 2012: August 2012

Monday morning saw us depart from Bellagio on the tortuous multi-moded transport system, each booked or planned independently from the other. Pleased to report that after a bus ride, 2 trains, a ‘plane and then 2 more trains, we emerged from the underground escalator in Stephansplatz, Vienna, right under our hotel’s neon sign. Only took 10 minutes under 8 hours from hotel to hotel, door to door.

But the main strategy of the day was weight smuggling. Some people smuggle drugs, some money, others animals or cigarettes or alcohol, but we smuggled weight. With a limited allowance of only 20 Kg per person for checked-in luggage on the economy flight to Vienna, all effort focused on avoiding the exorbitant excess weight charges. So, we strapped and taped all the heavy stuff to our bodies, including wearing the heaviest garments and coats (which in the prevailing heat made it less than fun) and pushing all our heavy travel books and crockery items down the front of our pants (or the back if there was no room at the front). Our combined checked-in baggage weight came to 39.8 Kg and we couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief for fear our pants would come down with all that weight in them.

Anyway, we made it safely to Vienna and it’s almost like coming home, having been here 5 times previously. After strolling the streets, we ate a fabulous meal at the legendary Plachutta restaurant – it was absolutely packed. Stuffed like turkeys, we rolled back to the hotel (directly opposite St Stephan’s Cathedral) and into bed.

Tuesday : Visited Karlskirche (Karl’s church) and climbed the 120 steps to the top (after taking the lift to near the top). Lunch at the historical Griechenbeisl – very disappointing, has gone right off. Then out to Heiligenstadt to meet up with Gerry’s mother’s friend, Ursi who drove us to Kahlenberg on the outskirts of Vienna where we had dinner with her, her daughter and the two 6-year old twin grandsons at a “Heurigen”. This was a lovely little place, overlooking the vineyards with a view back to Vienna, sitting on a terrace and having “peasant food” washed down with local wines. We had schmalz und grammeln on rye bread, which is about as fattening and unhealthy as you can eat without actually poisoning yourself. But, it was a one-off (for the day).

Wednesday : Back onto the streets and a stroll up the Mariahilfe Strasse from end to end. Snack lunch on the sidewalk and then a trip to Landstrsse-Hauptstrasse. Just about walked ourselves to a standstill. Evening meal at the Goesser Bierklinik with a fabulous Gulasch soup, Vienna Schnitzel and Kaiserschmarrn (on 3 separate plates). Finished ourselves off with Bier Schnapps.

Thursday will see us “mop up” the last of our sightseeing and in the evening we fly to Frankfurt (more weight smuggling) and then connect (hopefully) with a flight to Singapore and then a flight to Perth. Total travel time will be touch over 24 hours!

As our holiday draws to a close, we are going to rate Vienna as the most elegant and beautiful city that we covered on this trip, rich in history and culture. And we also rate our hotel in Vienna as the best of our trip.

This will be the last post for this Blog. To all our faithful readers, thank you for following our trip with us and putting up with our sometimes feeble attempts at humour (it won’t stop me from continuing to try).

Safe return.