Day 4 - Saturday 27th October 2012 - Vienna, Austria

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Today we woke up early for breakfast – not many people from tour were in the restaurant yet, guessed they probably had a bit of a late night for them. There was a really nice selection of rolls and breads to cut yourself, yoghurts, cereals, few bits of cooked stuff. Maya from tour asked to join us on table, she was very bubbly and lovely. She spilt her coffee all over the table as lid came off when she poured it out of jug! Luckily didn't go on any of us. She seemed really embarrassed about it but we all laughed it off. Lots more people came down later on but Fiona and I decided to go back up to our room to make space for people eating.

Hugo, Beatrice and Ada were leaving the tour today which was a shame as we were just getting to know them. We wanted to say goodbye but didn't see them before going out for day. I have no idea how it happened but we managed to be the last onto the tour bus taking us on short tour around city. It was raining quite hard and difficult to see out of windows and take pictures of sights Emma was pointing out to us along the way.

The tour bus too us through to Maria-Theresien Platz where we then went on a bit of a walking tour with Emma. We went through the winter palace, past the Vienna boys choir buildings and round past the Spanish riding school before finishing up outside Hotel Sacher. Emma told us stories about how parents used to have their sons castrated so they could keep singing in choir for longer – bit extreme! They got paid like 200,000 euros a year which their parents put into trust funds. There were a lot of military planes and helicopters around on grounds outside palace – some sort of training exercise we think. Emma also told us about the Sacher Café and how the chef at the hotel was ill before making dessert for lots of dignitaries and important people at a banquet. The kitchen porter boy had said he could make cakes, no one believed him but everyone ended up loving it. This then became known as the Sacher Torte and the old chef was sacked and replaced by the boy.

The majority of us walked up high street of designer shops and went into the Swarovski museum shop for a quick talk. He told us the history of the company and how things were made. There was a big wall of shimmering metal discs and Chandelier from Oceans 11 film in the basement of shop – it was very shiny and pretty! We had some free time for shopping – looked around jewellery to find presents– Fiona ended up getting a pen each for her mum and dad and I got bracelet for my mum.

We had some more free time to go shopping in the high street and sightseeing - we started off with a group of people from tour but quickly lost them. Fiona and I went to the Sacher Café for this so called famous cake in Europe – there was a bit of a queue to get in, and the place was really old fashioned with newspapers and menus on hand held stands etc. We were asked to leave our coats in a cloakroom for 1euro each. Fiona accidentally left her camera in her coat pocket – annoying not being able to take photos inside café but I had my crappy little camera phone. We sat in the corner of the conservatory area, and there was a really cute kid (not sure if boy or girl!) kept peeping over the edge of the seats in connecting main room looking at us. We ordered some water (drinks were super expensive so went with a shared jug of water – still 9 euros though!) and slice of Sacher Torte each. The presentation was really nicely with a little golden fork. The cake was really rich tasting with an orangey cream in centre of cake. I thought it was too rich so Fiona ate most of it but I think I ate all the cream :p It was nice but definitely had better cakes – bit of let-down after all the hype!

We saw Gina and a few other guys from the tour on the other side of the café, she came over to us as they left to ask if we wanted to join them. We said we'd catch them up as still needed to pay. The waiter took forever to bring us the bill. We did end up meeting up with the group outside the café as was raining and they were taking shelter under café canopy.

We put the weather behind us and trudged down to St Stephens Cathedral, there was a service going on so couldn't see much of the inside. We all decided to walk up to the top of the tower to see the views. It cost 3.50 euros to walk up. The stairs were really narrow, old stone spiral staircase, not much room to pass people going other direction. I got half way up but started to feel a little panicky and had to go down. I told Fiona to go up to the top and take some awesome pics. When I got back down I bumped into Alex and Lindsey we just waited for everyone to come down and had a little chat.

Afterwards we set off for Hundertwasser-Krawinahaus.. it's an architectural beauty by a Mr. Friedensreich Hundertwasser! with Gina leading way with her phone GPS. Still got a little bit lost though – probably a quicker route somewhere! We passed a lot of statues and "modern art". The house was like a mish mash of all these different houses stuck together, it was very bizarre. A lot of it was roped off so wouldn’t see much, there was a music video being filmed when we got there. We decided to visit the “Toilets of Modern Art” – this was even less exciting than its name! 2 euros just to use the toilet and it wasn’t very specials, there was a few odd decorated tiles on walls. There was a little shopping area inside which was quite surreal – little stalls selling souvenirs and fruit/veg etc, the floor was very uneven and kept tripping up. Lots of random trees and fountains everywhere. There was penny machine but was broken. We walked back very quickly to the bus as we realised we didn’t have much time left. On the way back to the bus, we did stop off at the hot dog van which was recommended to us. I didn’t have anything but I heard it had the best wieners in Wien :p It was a lot easier coming back then going there.

In the afternoon we went for our optional outing to the Schnapps museum aka Fischer Schnapps. The museum itself is a family owned and run business that has been going since 1875.. and they have been using the same distilling equipment since 1904. It only cost 6 euros to go so why not J It seems pretty closed when we were there but a guy finally opened up and invited us in. The guys dad who was meant to be doing the tour was ill and had asked him to do the tour. He was hilarious. He said he had been out late the night before and was still bit hungover – clear he didn't really want to be there doing it! Taken through series of rooms, first old office area with picture on wall of the room in olden days – still looked the same. He told us about the factory processes and selling schnapps, interspersed with drinking stories. There was a gift shop at end of tour, shots of schnapps to try but didn't fancy any. Lots of people took advantage of freebies – meant to just get 3 each but people serving couldn't keep up with who had what. I bought a bottle of Vienna Gold for my dad which is schnapps with 23 carat gold leaf in it.

In the evening there was an optional trip to go to a classical music concert with dinner but was 67 euros, so Fiona and I decided not to go as it seemed a little overpriced. I went to say bye to everyone going and ran across the road to get bubble tea from McDonalds – apple flavour with strawberry bubbles – bit strong in flavour but bubbles interesting popping in mouth! It was nothing like the bubble tea in Kingston :p I then went back to the room and mentioned there were still quite a few people downstairs.

A few others not going either decided to go out for meal together, we decided to join them. Ed (our new personal tour guide) asked the reception staff for recommendations but were quite unhelpful as they said most places around not likely to fit us all in. We decided to all just go out and look – we found a pub, it was pretty empty inside and had big booths where we could all fit around one high up table. Just enough room for us all! Nearly all of us ordered a schnitzel with potatoes. Fiona and I had the chicken schnitzel. It came really quick considering number of them to cook – it was really nice but a bit plain without vegetables. Fiona and I ordered the apple strudel for pudding – it was huge! It had a lot of cinnamon and I didn't really like it much so we passed it around the table for others to share. We had a really good time chatting together – felt better with smaller group of people – wish this was size of main tour group! Chef kept making joke about me needing to help with the wash up – I can’t even remember why that started!? More people came in later in evening and it started getting quite smokey again. We decided to walk back to the hotel; it was so cold outside and started sleeting. Nikki, Tarryn and a few of the other South Africans started laughing as at me and Fiona for saying "sleeting" - apparently it sounded very posh and British?!

There weren’t many chairs left in the hotel bar so we all sat around the reception lobby area chatting waiting for others to get back from the concert. Most of the guys that went to the concert said it was good but nothing special. They had schnitzel and apple strudel too – ours much cheaper though!! Emma arranged trip to the Pratadome Nightclub (biggest nightclub in Europe) but not many people ended up going. Most were too tired! A group of us stayed down in reception for bit longer.

After a while we headed back to our room to pack again ready for mornings drive to Bratislava. Our clothes still stunk of smoke from night before!

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