A drop of Culture

An early start for a palace tour - vast and with beautiful gardens, and then on for a walking tour of Vienna. It is quite a pretty place with wonderful architecture. We sampled Sachertorte which is a traditional Austrian chocolate cake served with lashings of cream. We’ve tried to eat local specialty foods as we’ve travelled around - a good excuse to have chocolate cake only for lunch!



Our evening excursion was a real highlight. We went to a top class local restaurant for a four course dinner, which was the best meal we have had, and definitely the best ambience. The men’s toilets had to be seen to be believed - there was neon pink scented water coming out of the taps! All of the women in the party had to inspect them too!

Vienna is all about music and we were taken to front row seats at a performance by a string orchestra (plus clarinet and flute) as well as a soprano, baritone and ballet dancers, playing the music of Mozart and Strauss. It was quite short but a lovely end to the day. There was even a comedy spot with one of our party being invited on stage to accompany them with a triangle. Luckily, neither Allan nor I were the nominated victim this time!

Oh for a cuppa…

We are (I am?) struggling to find a decent cup of tea in Europe. The Germanic hotels don’t provide it in the room, so if we’re lucky, we get one for breakfast. To buy one is around 5.20 euros ($11) which is more than we pay for a latte or cappuccino!

Today (Monday) we stopped for Movenpick ice creams - Allan had 2 scoops, I had one. The guy wrote 3x4.00 on our docket so we fronted up to the check-out expecting (and horrified) to be paying 12 euros ($25) for our ice creams. Fortunately, it was a code and they were only 4.20 euros, and we did enjoy them as it was very hot again.

We have seen two lovely cities today. We spent a few hours in Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart, and home to Mozart chocolates. The town allows no traffic within except horse -drawn carriages, and it was very quaint - teeming with people though. We tried an original Mozart chocolate - marzipan and pistachio centres. Lovely.




We’re now in Vienna for the next couple of nights. We’ve been out for a group dinner at a winery. Again, there was music provided - an accordion and a violin, who serenaded us with traditional Austrian music, as well as a range of sing-along stuff (including Waltzing Matilda!) They played quite a bit from the Sound of Music which was set (and partially filmed around) here. Edelweiss was spine tingling! We had to laugh when they passed around the plate for tips - they rejected coins and were only interested in notes!

Travelling was much quicker today as it is a public holiday, and trucks are not allowed on the road (unless they are refrigerated) at weekends and on holidays. We have been blown away by the huge numbers of trucks on the road, both here and in the UK. They are shocking tail-gaters too. We are doing between 400 and 600 km per day, so it’s no wonder we need to be on the road by 7.30 am each day!

Four countries in one day

Before lunch today, we had been in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany. Not a bad effort.

We covered a fair few kilometres today - with stops to look at the castle which the Disneyland Castle was based on, and at Oberammergau, where the Passion Play is performed once every ten years.

Everyone on the coach (including us!) was tired today, so it was quieter than normal. We arrived at Munich late afternoon, having a quick visit to the Olympic Village, which was fairly striking, and the BMW factory, the grandeur of which made it easy to understand why BMWs are so expensive!

We were taken to a German beer hall and given a litre glass of beer, which was almost too heavy to lift. Developing the biceps! They sold us giant pretzels - a hundred times bigger than the NZ ones! The place was beautifully decorated and had a oom-pah band performing to add to the atmosphere. I am not normally a beer drinker, but It was a great laugh.

Munich is an interesting town. It was largely wiped out in WW2, but they rebuilt it exactly as it was before, including reconstructing the things that weren’t right before, which seems a little strange.

Both of us have to say that we are really impressed with the tour company. The organisation is superb and they are not taking us to junky places. We have a pre-organised wake up call at 6 am every morning (aaagh!), baggage is taken care of and everything works like clockwork. A great way