13 May

Today in many ways was a very interesting day.
It started out okay, with a good breakfast of ham rolls, thus getting me in the Vienna/Inspector Rex mood. I then packed, as Barbara was booked out for tonight but her sister-in-law wasn’t. I went down to the sister-in-law’s place just to check and introduce myself, did that and then headed into the Tourist Centre in Vienna. I had already determined that yesterday was a holiday, so there was real work traffic today.
I finally found the Tourist Centre and went in and asked about tourist information and parking. In common with southern Italy, you have to purchase your tickets elsewhere and then scratch (or punch) them and place them on your dash. Mind you, in Vienna, the zones are only marked at the beginning and end, so if you drive in the middle of one, unless you are a native, you don’t know you are in one. I found out the safe way to park and travel, by staying at a park’n’ride area, which at €3 for a day is quite cheap by European standards. An all-day rail pass was only €5,90, so I got one of those too.
I set out on the underground (all the stations have a large U in front of them), except it was above ground. I got off in the middle of the old city, at the church, had a look around and found I was about a hundred metres away from where I was last night. I had a look at the church and the area immediately around there, had lunch (helped a Canadian couple and had a chat with them about travel) and then set out on the city walk, but just to be different I did it in reverse (not really, but by the time I oriented myself with the map I had, I was already halfway between the last two places, so I kept going – and I was able to help a few others who were also having trouble orienting the maps they had with the city names (the plates have the full names, while the maps have only the surnames).
I walked along the path and saw some interesting things, apart from the sights listed. I got a picture of the gentleman with the hat walking a little girl, the bricks used, and a picture of a girl with a bear behind – she didn’t realise!
After I finished the tour, it was too little time to do a museum crawl but too much time to do nothing, so I caught the underground to the Prater and went on the large Ferris Wheel (famous, apart from Inspector Rex, through Harry Lime and “The Third Man”). That was interesting because finally I could orient myself and also see the extent of the city (and just how much open space there was). It also made me understand how people can sunbathe in the parks in the middle of the city once there is sun (make the most of it, because it’s going to snow soon).
I went back to the car, extracted it and me from the car park and headed out to Gablitz. On the way I called into a shopping centre (boy, could they learn from the Lowey family) but couldn’t get what I was after. I went into a Lidl Supermarket and got some biscuits and chocolate (emergency supplies, so I don’t have to stop while travelling). I called into an Aldi Supermarket and was surprised to see Australian produce on sale at €0,89 a kilogram, but I couldn’t work out what it was (because they had all been sold, but the tag was still on the shelf).
I got to where I was staying and went in. The lady of the house was in, we settled the formal details and then I took my stuff up. I went down to ask about Zimmers (yes, B&Bs but also apartments) and registration plates, but we never got that far as the father and two daughters were in and we started talking about cars, licences, learners, road trains and travel. I tried to teach them some jokes and Australian slang, but I don’t think the children understood (dad did).
After that I did the usual photo processing and blog writing, but I also burned an up-to-date DVD for the family to look at on their computer. After that, despite having my own private balcony and room and time to put my feet up, I tossed up whether to go to bed early as walking all day had tired me out a little, as well as driving through Vienna peak-hour traffic (roughly the same as Perth’s, so I will have to compare populations).
I will be heading up the Danube tomorrow and find a place to stay somewhere between here and Munich and then back to Innsbruck on the day after (and I’ll post all the photos and blogs then too).