Blogs from Austria, Europe - page 241

As we approached the southeastern outer ring of Vienna, we decided to take the train into the Southbahnhof (train station) - to have more time to relax in Vienna before the planned evening visit to the Danube Island Festival. Our first stop was a city square for a picnic lunch, where a study group of some sort, was doing a lecture tour about a pavement stone near our park bench ending with a long transcendental chant, which we took to be our welcome to Vienna. Ray was excited to show the Ring, which is the circular street, which surrounds the old part of Vienna, and has all the monumental buildings on its various parts - the Opera, the City Hall, the Parliament, the State Theatre etc. We cyled through Vienna along the Danube Canal and ... read more

The train ride to North Burgenland took us two transfers to do as the service is mostly one train car. North Burgenland had several train routes which have a one car service which we were often stopping for on the next two days. The train conductors on our trip to Mattersburg (formerly Mattersdorf) were very friendly and helpful. If you like friendly people, go to Burgenland. Friendliness can have its drawbacks as we were very hungry in Jennersdorf having waited to near 2 p.m. to have lunch and the lunch specials always end at 2 p.m. An older guy enthusiastically talked about cycling in Burgenland and Vienna and our bicycles, especially Ray´s new touring bicycle. As we sat down, we ordered the lunch special just as the church bells for 2 p.m. sounded. We had ... read more

because we had spent so much time with the irish boys in münchen, we got into salzburg, austria late in the evening. once we arrived, we followed rather vague directions to our hotel. after a 25 minute walk, we were there. the reception was closed for the night, but the person in charge had told us to look for our room key in the mailbox to the right of the hotel's front door. so, we were the shady girls sneaking a small, brown paper bag out of the mailbox at 10:30 pm and probably giggling about it. in any case, we got it and found our room...it was amazing...like an apartment. we were set. i think we pretty much passed out after this. our first and only full day in salzburg, we set out to find ... read more

The following day we again start early because of the heat. There has not been a thunderstorm of any significance to cool the air but it is pleasant until about 10 a.m. when it becomes a solidly hot day. We continue on until a misread of our map has us climbing a double steep hill (on foot) in the noon sun - when suddenly we both realize that it is much too hot. We sit down in the shade of a tree - realize ten minutes later after we have cooled down that it´s a cherry tree - we had noticed the scads of cherries on the ground when we sat but with the heat had not made the connection that the tree might be a cherry tree. The cherries are very delicious when we ... read more

Vienna Austria... read more