10 July 2012 - Vienna

We left our comfy hotel in Salzburg and made a fairly quick trip to Vienna. On the way I suggested to Stephen that we leave the tree lined autobahn and detour into the surrounding countryside. With no idea of wheat was around us we did that and found ourselves in a small village called Rutzmoos!!! such a picturesque village – see photo – houses quite typical of what we expected to see with Swiss influence.

Another village ran into Rutzmooz, by the name of Alm. There we saw sites that our guide in Salzburg had described – parents build family home with attached upstairs barn for cattle fodder and downstairs barn for wintering animals . . around their home they build other such establishments for their children to live in with their family in turn – designed to cope with work load on the land – we saw old houses like this with new versions around them so this appears to be a tradition that continues today! 

Austrian farm

Suddenly Stephen had to throw out the anchor as I had spied 2 , two humped camels seated in a small field quietly ruminating and enjoying the view over pasture and woods! Thence followed spirited debate between the Berties senior re the purpose of these animals in this situation.

 Camels in Austria???

No answers made sense so on we went.

Having arrived, checked into our hotel, in the outskirts of Vienna, we spent time , between cold showers to combat high temperature with associated lassitude, working out what we would do next. Decision finally made we ventured forth to buy cheap travel pass for 48 hours at the underground station ( across the road! How convenient and how clever of Stephen to book us in to such a site)Thence on wards to Schonbrunn Palace – up the road quite a bit on tram 10. Maria Theresia, hubby and 16 kids ( one of whom was Marie Antoinette)lived there sometimes – spreading themselves around Austria in the many and various palaces they owned. We intended to stroll through the vast gardens but before we could do that we were drawn but the sound of a brass band playing beside the imposing staircase to the palace's front door. We trundled up staircase and hung over the railings to watch, listen to ,applauded and sing along as the band from the Netherlands played a large range of music – classical, a medley of folk music for children around the world and then – to our delight excerpts from Queen! How the audience ( and we) loved that! So many items evoked memories of a special time for our family. The musicians played and role played at the same time - The crowd would not let them stop – the Dutch conductor responded to the mood of the crowd. The encore was enthusiastically received then conductor bade us all farewell – go home please – so they could have their photos taken. 

As I said – these incidental moments are truly highlights. 

We then wandered through gardens that were largely arboreal – cunningly laid out to trick those keen to explore. Flowers are laid out in lawns in fascinating patterns but not in beds as is common. Rather the flowers grow in the lawn – carefully tended so grass does not intrude amongst the flowers. Grass is kept low so the flowers stand higher. Does that make sense?

Schloss Schonbrunn from the gardens

Once our tummies stared to rumble at the same time as lightening began to do its thing so we found our number 10 tram again and whizzed back to hotel / restaurant Mataushenk – or something like that. And wouldn't you know it! The 3 nights we are here the restaurant is closed for a holiday!!!

So – with instructions from our host we ventured forth with brollies into rain – lovely and cooling as it was still very hot- to Martin's Bier Garten. Great Austrian food – always huge amounts. Completely stonkered – as my grand parents used to say – and with Stephen with somewhat soggy knickers as we ate outside under umbrellas and he insisted he was fine on the outer edge!!! - we tramped back to our beds. Finally had to shut double glazed windows as traffic noises were considerable. Ah! Peace at last. Double glazing over here is great sound proofing. Nonetheless it was a hot night and as there is no air conditioning in Austria yet ( again, info from our sound of music guide – she was great source of info sleep au naturale was in order. Oh dear – back to NZ temps will be a shock – never mind. Scotland will prepare us!