Blogs from Austria, Europe - page 232

Feeding on popular worldwide confusion between Austria and Australia, tourist vendors here sell t-shirts that say "There are no Kangaroos in Austria". That is of course wrong in a literal sense since there are kangaroos in zoos here, but also in a figurative since we had lunch and "winner" (a wine dinner) with Oliver (who is Austrian) and his wife Sarah (who is Australian). So we have at least corrected that new myth that these tourist shops are trying to propogate. The Belvedere The day started out a little chilled and rainy as had become the custom but I ventured out in my shorts hoping the mid-80s high they had promised us for later in the day would become a reality. So we took a back way towards the Belvedere, gently avoiding the familiar Karlsplatz and ... read more

We are at the Hilton awaiting for a room to be ready for us as we continue our trend of early arrivals. But we got access to the Executive Lounge as usual and are stuffing our mouths with the free food. More later on our trip in. I made contact with my Austrian friend Oliver from my MBA studies and we will be hanging out with he and his Australian (you read right) fiance on Saturday!!! My oh my! Where have all the community dogs gone? The city is incredible and is of course topping our list as our favorite now, so to be fair we will have to devise some categories in how we would rank and you cannot put Vienna in the same grouping as cities such as Belgrade or even Budapest that were ... read more

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Hey everyone, quick little note to say that we made it to Vienna yesterday. CC is going to post pics later, but for now I can tell you that it is pouring rain and about 10 out, which is crap!! We had a crazy day yesterday, we missed our flight on KLM because all the computers went down at the Amsterdam airport and had to fly Air Austria instead, which was a very nice airline actually. We got in late and found a hole-in-the-wall bar to have a beer and relax and then slept for about 10 hours again. We really really loved Amsterdam more than either of us thought we would so now we have high expectations for Vienna. We are off to see what we can in the POURing rain and will write more ... read more

This time the train was much more to his majesty's liking (someone had complained a little bit about the first train and wanted to go first class on the return trip to Vienna). Our return to Vienna was not auspicious and the weather was very cold, grey and windy. Our first impression of our new hotel was that it was in the middle of nowhere. We went out for a walk in the afternoon after we arrived and our impressions were being reinforced, right up until the point that we stumbled across the main shopping street that was two blocks away from our hotel. Right at that point it started to rain, and it didn't stop for the next three days. Much to our dismay. Vienna itself is just so lovely, it was such a shame ... read more