Vienna

After a bit of running around and stress we had a very relaxing and enjoyable trip into Vienna. We needed to drop off Casey at the kennel in the morning for our flight and even though I drive through some of the worst traffic known to mankind every morning at about the same time, we neglected to factor it in to our timing. We came to a full standstill on the way to the kennel and saw our ample time allocation work itself down to a mere 45 minutes. Nevertheless, we managed to drop off our bags and get on the plane in good order.

We love taking the KLM flight to Schiphol. It's always nice and roomy on the plane and the hour and half passes by so quickly. Soon we were wandering the halls of the worlds largest airport/shopping mall looking for a way to burn a few hours. We found a really great little bar/restaurant and had a few croquettes and fries with mayonnaise. We also bought some Dutch language comic books which Fiona read to me and translated. Our flight to Vienna was a carbon copy of our first flight - an hour and half in a roomy plane with beautiful views, this time of the of the Austrian countryside as we came in to land.

We took a quick taxi into the Innere Stadt and settled into our hotel quite nicely. Other than the fact that we got two single beds pushed together instead of a king-size, we have absolutely no complaints. The AC works well and the neighbours are quiet.

We asked the hotel concierge for a late dinner recommendation and she pointed us to a place a few blocks down. It was a beautiful night in Vienna, not too warm, and quiet. As we walked down the street we would be hit with intermittent blasts of amazing aromas coming from the blooming trees. We're still not sure what they were.

We got a seat outside at the restaurant, sitting down for dinner at a respectable European 9pm. The concierge gained our total confidence as the recommendation turned out to be a hit. We had a great Austrian red wine - a blaufrankische. Fiona had a great shrimp starter with a wasabi sauce and a deadly hot chili-mango relish. She kept complaining about the burn but in the end there was nothing left on her plate. She had a nice veal steak with scallops for a main while I was challenged with a hefty portion of prosciutto wrapped pork. Needless to say, we skipped dessert.

When we got back to the hotel we pretty much fell into bed. When the alarm went off at 8am the next morning, we pointedly ignored it. Vienna has so many things to see that you can get quite stressed thinking you might miss one thing or the other. So it makes sense to start with a relaxed attitude, exemplified by a good sleep-in. I hope Vienna is ready for us!