Hello again

I have decided not to to worry about catching up on the last 4months and just start again here. We are Vienna for a week having arrived Wednesday night. We flew into Vienna and took a taxi to the apartment. The taxi driver drove pretty quick - Dad was a bit nervous - actually, I was too - but if we were going to have an accident it was going to be in a nice car - a Mercedes Benz. All the taxis were the same.

We have a great apartment in the middle of the old town. We are on the Judenplatz, in the centr of which is a memorial for the 65000 Jews killed in the 2nd world war. Memorials here are huge - something about Europeans doing things on a large scale.

Our first night was pretty quiet - actually, all our nights are! We found a very old - huge place, old fashioned restaurant 2 doors away and had some tea there. The next morning, we were up and out looking for a supermarket to buy some breakfast stuff. After breakfast, we headed into town to the TI for the usual sheafs of brochures and maps. We sat down in a very old cafe to work out a plan.

We decided to visit Schloss Schonbrunn about 10 mins by tube out of town. It was the summer palace for the Hapsburgs - huge place 1144 rooms although the maximum you can visit is 40. Pretty sumptuous. There were magnificent gardens and the first owners were very gracious and allowed the public to use them from the start. There were all sorts of different types of gardens with ponds that were nearly iced over with the ducks walking on water. We had a beautiful walk around and then headed back into town. We were walking so not far along, we came across the TechnicL Museum. Dad decided to stop and explore that whilst I went off to my technical museum - a fabric store - and would you believe it, I didn't buy anything! I decided that I probably had enough to keep me going!

We met up in town and stopped at the sausage stand and had a delicious sausage with lots of lovely mustard and horseradish - it really cleared the head! I headed off home then via a cake shop - the best cakes here! And Dad dropped into the casino which he found a bit disappointing - he had to register and they had his name from when we were last here in 2008!

We did pop down to the pub next door but one and had a drink. And here we are up again at 5.30 to catch the train to Graz. It is 2.5 hours south of Vienna hence the early start. We wanted to go for a train ride through the mountains and see some snow. This train goes through the Semmering pass which is UNESCO listed - the first pass built though mountains.

On the train home now from Graz. We had a great walk around the historic centre. It is also unesco- listed and it is rather lovely with winding streets full of Renaissance style buildings and a magnificent cathedral. It made our trip worthwhile - we saw lots of Austrian countryside and a beautiful town.

That is it for now. Love to all. Mum xxxx

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