Sunday in Vienna - August 29, 2010

All is well. It has been a very relaxing day in Vienna.The picture on the left is my hotel. The Hotel Lucia. It is near the West Bahnhof (train station). I chose it to be near the station for tomorrow. Today I did three things and did not do one thing. The thing I did not do was ride ny bicycle. It set locked in the parking garage behind the hotel safe from bicycle thieves. The hotel has been comfortable and clean. The desk clerk has been very friendly. He lived in Boston for a summer and speaks good English. He has helped me with my German. I would stay here again. There is a subway station one block away.

The first thing I did today was go to the railway station to research theloading of the bicycles so there would be very few surprises for me tomorrow. I will have to have my bicycle unpacked for the trip. I brought a duffle bag for the five bags and helmet. That way I do not have to struggle with so many things try to make connections. The train trip will take 6 to 7 hours and involve three transfers. I have plenty of time on two of the transfers but one will only have 14 minutes to unload move to the next track (involves an unground track and two sets of steps.) and load on the next train. Wish me luck. I will take pictures of the train travel for tomorrow's blog from Stuttgart.

The second thing I did was go back to the historic district to visit some museums and see more of the sights. This is one of the sights. I could not pass it by. The banana ice cream was outstanding. There were many people out just walking. Most of the stores were closed as were about half of the restaurants.

Vienna is an old royal city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It sits as possibly the transition city between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. It has many different nationalities of people living in it. It has many royal building. They are quite majestic and surrounded by many parks.and statues. The one on the right is of Mozart.

The one on the left is for James who requested something in black. She is not a statue. I returned to my room to charge my camera battery. I had a Polish beer while eating a Russian chocolate candy bar during that time. The Polsh beer was better.

The third thing I did today was vist the Prader. It is an amusement park near the river. It supposedly has the largest ferris wheel in the world. Maybe so, but it does not seem as large as the London Eye. Each car holds 20+ people. You could have a party in each car. It was nice to be with people laughing and having fun. Vienna is like evey big city I have visited. People on public transportation and on the street do not smile and they barely acknowlege your presence. I took lots of pictures of the people and the rides at the park. I miss the Miracle Strip. I regret my grandchildren will not have that memory of the beach.

I returned to my room after a beer, some fried chicken and french fries at the amusement park. On the way I bought two Czech Republic beers to enjoy as I did this blog and pack for the evening. They both were very good and are high quality Czech beer. You may recognize both names.

I will now finish packing. Thank you for staying with me.
Pax,
Bob