RR travels 10 June

 Another special day…a later start after a good sleep, which made me feel SO much better!

It was lovely to talk to Chaz and know that he’s feeling better although not enjoying the rain and cold.

We had a domesticated start after our usual delicious breakfast of fruit, yoghurt, cheese, smoked meats and bakery goodies(and yes, I will be needing a new wardrobe by the time I get home). This mainly involved a walk to the 2 local supermarkets to ogle at huge selections of delicious cheeses, meats, summer fruits and goodies too numerous to mention. It’s such fun to see what shops sell in other countries. Needless to say, we returned home laden. Then a relaxing time of blogging (me) and knitting (Geli) before a walk into the city to view the famous Stephansdom Cathedral. But it’s impossible to go in a straight line and once again we were veering off down fascinating streets to see the most famous purveyors of Vienna Schnitzel, duck into churches and peer into tourist shops. The cathedral was impressive-vast, dark and ornate and (surprisingly) full of tourists. Then onto the stunning Burggarten, at the back of the Hofberg Palace. There were also some amazing and huge glasshouses with hundreds of butterflies and tropical plants in one and a cafe and palms in another. It was too hot to go in, so after a quick look, we got yet another sausage from a cart and lazed in the shade for a long while. Then home to devour some of the delicious food we’d bought in the morning!!

The best stories come when least expected. We’d stopped to admire this beautiful little car when an enthusiastic little man appeared. He said it was the 2nd Smart car to be imported into Austria 25 years ago and he’d designed the paint job. He got a lot of flak for owning this excuse for a car. He wasn’t sure he’d make it as recognisable as this if he had to paint it again as it makes it pretty difficult to hide! He obviously loved it to bits🩷

Whoops…I’ve landed up in England!

This is a pub outside Geli’s local tube station.

Distractions on the way to the Cathedral 

The famous schnitzel place 

Stephansdom

The tallest steeple is known to locals as Steffl or in English, Old Steve…I liked that!

The Burggarten with glass houses

 

Spot the sociable teens!

Lunch and post lunch

More magical moments…we headed into a large courtyard which housed not only an incredible art exhibition but also a school of opera and ballet. 

So we sat a long while amongst sculptures listening to singing students practicing in upstairs rooms.

Love the reflections of old buildings here

And home again…to read more of the terrible tragedy of a school shooting in Graz. A sad time for Austria and all affected. There will be a nationwide minute of silence at 10 am tomorrow.

Ironically, we will be in Bratislava.