Austria

Nicky: Our first night in Austria, was in a designated motorhome parking spot in Vienna. We have ended up spending 4 nights here whilst we explore the city. On our first day we bought 72 hour travel passes for use on the bus, tram and U Bahn. In order to reach the central city from our location, we took a bus for 15 minutes, and then got on the U Bahn (underground train) for about 10 minutes. The travel passes have been ideal as we have been all over the city.

On the first day we went in late afternoon. We still didn't have a Vienna map at this stage, so exited the U Bahn at St Stephens Church and wandered. We saw a Jewish holocaust memorial and many expensive looking shops! Once we reached the impressive Hofburg Palace, Dale programmed into the GPS 'tourist information centre', which was a 10 minute walk away.

That night we visited an old Ecan workmate of Dale's, Rachel Williams and her husband Andy Gaul. They had a lovely apartment in central Vienna, and I enjoyed getting to know them, as I had never met Rachel or Andy before. We were treated to a dinner of schnitzel and potato salad, which was delicious and huge- it became the following nights dinner as well. They also gave us a list of destinations to see in the city, which we ticked off one by one in the next two days.

St Stephens Church

Hofburg Palace

Dale was still struggling with a bad cold, so we had a late start the next day and headed first to the Naushmarket. The market was interesting and differed a bit from the ones we had seen in the Baltic countries. There for fish, meat and vegetables for sale, as well as spices and fresh pasta. There were also take away food stands, and permanent restaurants in the complex.

Afterwards we headed to Schonbrunn Palace. Rachel and Andy had advised us that the grounds are free, so we spent 2 hours there taking lots of photos and seeing various monuments: a roman ruin (specially built, not an actual ruin), the Neptune fountain and an obelisk. We walked up the hill at the far end of the gardens which gave fantastic views of the gardens, palace and city, and we sat there for a while admiring the view. We ended the day with a walk around Hofburg Palace again and to the Museum Quarter which was very impressive. On our approach to Hofburg Palace, we heard loud music and there was a large marquee set up. We rounded another corner and saw a familiar face - Werner Faymann the Austrian Chancellor from the SPO party. The Austrian elections are the 29th of September and we have been seeing faces on billboards from the Czech/Austrian border to in Vienna itself. He had quite an entourage but as we recognised him, Dale and I both gave him a courteous nod of the head!

Schonbrunn Palace

The next day we went to an area of the Viennese woodlands, which again gave great views of the city. It was the warmest day we have had for a while and the sun shone all afternoon. Unfortunately the views of the city were a bit hazy. We walked through the woods then found the field Rachel and Andy had been married in 3 weeks ago, as they had shown us on Google maps. We sat there for a while baking in the sun and watching four dogs as they played Frisbee with their owners and ran around. They must have been entertaining, as we aren't the biggest fans of dogs! We made our way down a path to the bottom of the hill, there were 2 vineyards we passed on the way, and as well as restaurants in the local area, where participating in a wine festival that day.

That afternoon we checked out the Prater area of Vienna. It is home to an amusement park, which you pay per ride, so we had a walk through. There were the usual ferris wheel and bumper cars, but also a couple of rides that we hadn't seen before, which looked really scary. We walked out to the river (Danube) and past a beautiful church we had seen when driving in a few nights ago. We had seen a laundrette near the U Bahn station, so we gathered up a load and took the bus to do some much needed washing in the evening.

Funpark

 The modern Donau City business district

The next morning we packed up and headed south. We bought a motorway vignette, which we had been weighing up whether to get. By paying the toll, we could use the motorways and it would shortened our travel time. We do enjoy driving the smaller roads and seeing more countryside and villages, but this time it made sense to use the motorway. We also then got use of the very good Austrian motorways facilities of rest stop toilets and wifi at one particular rest stop. Just out of Vienna, we stopped in two interesting towns: Heilingenkreuz and Mayorling. That night we stopped at a motorhome service and parking stop in the town of Wolfsburg, where we met a lovely German couple. In the morning we made use of the free water and waste disposal. We had a quick walk around the town and made a stop at the bakery across the road. The weather was still cold, and the Austrian hills misty with cloud, which added to the beauty of the countryside.

Heilingenkreuz

The following day consisted of more driving, with a stop in a town called Ferlach. Again cold, we rugged up and went for a walk before driving to our destination of Lake Bled in Slovenia!