Day 50 - Friday / Daisy 14 days to go
I left Salzburg, talk about by the skin of my teeth. This is why it is important to have a reliable travel agent. My itinary had me leaving at 9am, I did not check the ticket which after my first experience with the trains that were arranged I should have learn't. On my way to Germany I flew in at 2pm and was to catch the train at 3:50pm on the itinary, but that time I caught it and the train was booked at 9:18am. So I was suppose to take the train before I had left London.
I was early as is my habit when travelling alway giving myself time so as to relax. So I dropped the car off, the hire company dropped me at the bridge to the station. Great, I had some large array of stair to climb with the cases. Went over the the top and down into the station to find out I had 10 mins to get to the platform to catch my train as it was leaving at 8:10 and not 9am. So made it to the train with minutes to spare. The trip was quite uneventful and arrived in Vienna at 10:45am. I then took a taxi to my accommodation. Again flights of stairs, I got the lift from the ground floor to the 3 floor and then 3 flights of stairs to the 4th floor and then one more for good luck to the room I was staying in.
Finally settled grabbed the camera and hit the town for the sights. Took a hop-on hop-off bus ticket for 48hr so will return tomorrow to explore more. After a few hours headed home to prepare for a function that I had been invited to. Black tie event, but without black tie due to heat. I finally returned at 1:30am, very interesting night. So quite tired but quest what the place I am staying the son who has gone for the week left his alarm set for 6:45am so finally killed the alarm, back to sleep and 10 mins later again the alarm went off. So I have set it for 10:45am as I could not shut if off and about to get up and head into the town to see market.
Yesterday I had brought a hop-on and hop-off ticket for 48hrs around Vienna. So I headed off to see more.
But before I did that I went to see the Naschmarket which was recommended buy a person I meet last night at a lodge meeting. The market was enormus and it had standard fruit and veggies, then there was a trash and treasure area, but most of what I saw were antiques. Everything from Roman artifacts, world war two and one artifacts and paintings, books and anything you can imagine from the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century. When I get full internet access I will upload pictures.
Ater that I then headed for the bus tour. The buses carried out three tours, red, green and blue. Today was the blue loop, which took in the Gieant Ferris Wheel, over the Blue Danube, that also included the New Danube and the Old Danube and I was staying near the Danube Canal. After that we went past the Danube Tower, UNO City which is a modern area of Vienna and then returned to the State Opera House. I just noted a couple of places to return to at a later stage.
I then took the green tour and visited the Schobrunn Place which was really beautiful, but again very hot and sticky. Photos will come laters in Singapore when I get better internet. After that I completed the green tour noting the other palace for tomorrow. Due to a 2am return after a function on Friday I returned home about 2pm and crashed until 7:30pm when people I had meet the night before took me to dinner. Really great and I had a traditional Boilded Beef dinner.
While we were their Marco received a call from another person from the night before. After dinner which was 11pm we then dropped his wife off home and then meet up with this person at the old Hospital which was now a university but the grounds were full of pubs and drinking places. Again returned home at 2am and crashed. ;)
Day 52 - Sunday / Daisy 12 days to go
Today after surfacing around 10am I headed back into town to visit the last palace I had found. Schloss Belvedere Place, this was more of an art gallery. There were some interesting old paintings but no camera. Some large gardens but not so well maintained. After walking back to the center of Vienna I then headed home to crash again. I need to stop the early morning take a lot out of me especially with the oppressive heat. It is now 8pm and I am looking to pop out for a quick bite and hopefully some reduction in the heat.
Tomorrow starts the interesting part with respect to my research. I head out to CURE (Center for Usability Research and Engineering) where I have been invited to join them for a number of days starting Monday afternoon through till Thursday. I am giving a presentation on Tuesday of what I am doing and what I had discovered to date on my trip.
Signing off 8:10 pm
No comments:
Post a Comment