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Saturday 16
thMay. Travel from Toulouse to Vienna, via London. I left the house early in case of public transport strikes or other problems, but had a seamless trip via bus, metro and tram to the airport, with scarcely a wait at transfer points. So I ended up at the airport nearly an hour before check-in opened! Half-empty flight to London was comfortable, full flight from London not as good.
I had booked an apartment in Vienna to avoid the crowded hotels and restaurants. With Eurovision on, the whole city is full of people. The apartment is pretty quiet, with little street noise, but noise from the apartment above is intrusive.
Sunday 17
th May. I did a day-trip by train to the Schneebergbahn, a cog railway that climbs from Puchberg in the valley up the Schneeberg, to a height of 1800 metres. The weather was cloudy in the morning, but forecast to fine up. I checked the forecast on the Schneebergbahn website, which stated 16 degrees. Their website, I might add, is festooned with pictures of people in short sleeves, lazing in the sun and taking in the views from the top of the Schneeberg. Luckily I decided to put
gloves and a thermal vest in my daypack at the last minute…
The Austrian trains are good. They are clearly committed to investing in good public transport, because most of the trains are new, immaculately clean, and very comfortable. I was on Railjet services for part of the outward and return journeys – brand new trains, comfortable and quite fast, though not very fast like the French TGV.
The cog railway up the Schneeberg was not full, and was very enjoyable (though the trip down was completely packed, like a sardine can). The gradient was amazingly steep in parts, even for a cog railway, reaching a 1 in 5 gradient at its steepest. Pretty scenery and stunning views. Once reaching the top, I found out that there it was actually 4 degrees, with patches of snow and a freezing wind. The 16 degree forecast applied down in the valley! I rugged up to the degree that I was able to and went out to look around. Fantastic views, but to a varying extent obscured by cloud (the mountain top was in the clouds, but they thickened and thinned at times). Despite the cold wind, I walked around the
Schneebergbahn
The Schneeberg in the background 1 hour loop, which included the highest lookout point of 1880 metres. The wind was strong and icy up there I can tell you. Certainly would be an absolutely stunning place, with 360 degree views, if it was warm and clear!
As I descended in the train at around 3pm, things started to fine up, and by halfway back to Vienna it was a blue-sky, sunny afternoon. I wandered around the historic centre for a couple of hours. Vienna, like Paris, is littered with magnificent and historic buildings, but Vienna certainly has a different ambience – it does seem more imperial, more imposing. The Eurovision Opening Ceremony was on last evening, in front of the Rathaus (town hall). It was a closed, ticketed event, but I was able to get a view of the ‘big screen’ inside the venue, and watched for a little while. Certainly there are a lot of excited people from many countries around, I even saw some Australians.
Monday I am planning to explore the city some more – I did try to find a particular gluten-free pastry shop today, but its building is all hoarded up for renovations – its gone!
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