Amazing what a plate of pasta and a good night’s sleep does for one. I woke up on Sunday feeling like a new person. Cold was still lingering, but nothing like the two days before. To make things even better, when I went down for breakfast I saw that the rain had stopped and the sun had come out. What joy! I ambled around to Stephensplatz (the cathedral square), sat outside in a café to drink a cup of coffee and debate what to do with my glorious day. The original plan had been to go visit one of the palaces, but it was just too nice a day to be inside - especially after the rain over the past two days. My guidebooks of choice are Dorling Kindersely because they have great maps and wonderful ... read more

I have over 250,000 miles with British Airways that I never get to use because they never seem to have any offers available to where I want to go or, more importantly, when I want to go. In BA’s on-going attempts to get me to spend some of these miles, I am constantly getting emails with special offers. Most of them are not worth the time it takes to open the email, but once in a while, they come through. They had a “sale” last month where one could fly to various cities for half the usual miles plus the airport taxes. The only city that would work with my diary was Vienna - so for 7,500 miles and £59 off I went. I actually took a day off from work so that I could spend ... read more