Foz & Annies Big Walk

Finished up in Vienna with a good meal and boutique beers from a local pub in a lovely town square. Caught the fast train to Salzburg this morning. It reached speeds of up to 230kmph and got us there in time for an early lunch and stroll around the old centre.  The main plaza was the meeting point for a classic car rally. Thought Will in particular would like some of these photos . More photos and narrative of fortresses, churches and narrow cobbled streets tomorrow. 

Today we ventured to Schloss Schonbrunn (palace). Beautiful formal gardens and an audio tour of 40 of the 1440 rooms found us weaving our way around tour groups in awe of the opulance. From there we went to Belvedere gardens, another formal setting where we had lunch and the obligatory 0.5l beer with lunch. Long days here. Sun is up at 5.30 and twilight goes on until about 9.30 which means we will have plenty of time for walking. Off to Salzburg tomorrow.

After planning this trip for over 12 months we actually got off to a rather scratchy start. I lost my boarding pass within 2 min of recieving it and left my passport on the scanning machine in Sydney.  The nice Emirates ladies printed me a new boarding pass and suggested I give my passport to my wife to look after. Met Tony and Sue in our Vienna apartment as planned and spent today visiting the main sights. It seems Austria has long been rich and beautiful.  The Romans and the Hapsburgs left plenty of evidence of wealth and high culture while contemporary Vienniese seem to be focussed on coffee, cutting edge design and technology. We are a long way from Bugaldie.