Central Europe 18 Saskatchewan People Are Great

 Very good but no way could I eat it all. After I checked into the hotel I took the underground metro to the city centre and just walked around. Vienna is a beautiful city. It was really busy downtown. I was having a cappuccino downtown when a couple of ladies stopped to talk to another lady at the table beside me. I noticed they had little Canada pins so I said to them I have one of those. They were from Nova Scotia. One of them said she works in the restaurant business and she said she has never met a single a..hole from Saskatchewan lol. She said do they tell you at the airport that you are Saskatchewan ambassadors. Anyway she thinks Saskatchewan people are great. :). Later I took the metro back to my hotel and went nearby for a pastry and coffee. An early night tonight.

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 17 Wiener Schnitzel

 The whole trip was just under 3 hours. I asked some ladies on the train about getting to my hotel. I had the directions I had printed off at home. All the stations/metros are so big with so many exits I wanted to make sure to leave out the right one. They pointed to the right exit and I walked to the hotel in about 10 minutes! It was too early for the 2 pm check in so I left my bags at the hotel and went to the restaurant they recommended. I had Wiener schnitzel. It was really good. I asked the waitress if it was very big and she said no.

Well, the plate was a regular sized dinner plate and the schnitzel covered the whole thing plus another plate of potato salad!

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 16 Vienna

 It felt pretty cool wandering the streets with my umbrella in the drizzle today with the church bells ringing. A nice ending to my visit to Salzburg.

I made it to Vienna. I don’t know if I’ll be able to post many pictures here. Only one uploaded onto my iPad. The wifi in the hotel isn’t very good but the hotel is nice. I took a taxi from my hotel in Salzburg to the train station. It was 7 Euro. I thought that was a good deal since my taxi was 15 Euro on the initial trip.

Now I see what they mean about rip off taxis lol. When I got to the train station I bought my ticket and the train was leaving in 5 minutes. I made it on time. Yay!

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 15 Salzburg

 I’m short on photos today. It rained pretty much the whole day so I walked around and spent a lot of time eating and drinking coffee. I had some apple strudel, very good! We saw Red Bull factory yesterday. I guess it originates in Austria. 

Our guide yesterday said they are extremely wealthy. Not only do they have their own plane but they also have their own runway. She said a number of years ago they flew in the real Marie VonTrapp in from the US for some special dedication. She was over 90 years old. That is the daughter Marie, not the mother. The real VonTrapp family actually moved to the US after their escape from Austria. Some interesting trivia. :)

My last train ride tomorrow. Vienna. The forecast is looking good so that’s a bonus.

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 14 Hallstatt

 My new hotel is very nice. It’s just at the edge of the historic district. I walked and grabbed something to eat nearby. Roast pork with dumplings and a cabbage salad (which was more like sauerkraut) It was yummy.

A great day today. I went on a Sound of Music tour today. There were only 3 of us so it was fantastic. My wifi isn’t cooperating so I couldn’t add more photos but oh my goodness the scenery was absolutely amazing!! I am spoiled with all the beauty I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks. The tour guide did a great job of showing us all the locations filmed in the movie as well as the picturesque village of Hallstatt. On the way back to Salzburg she played some songs from the movie. We were out for almost 8 hours. A perfect day. :)

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 13 America not so good

 Once we arrived in Salzburg I told him thank you so much for your help and kindness. He said “I am a gentleman and I’m from Central Europe, what else would I do.” 

I had written instructions before I left home how to take the bus to my hotel but I had had enough of public transportation for the day so I grabbed a taxi. I couldn’t have cared less how much it cost. It was $15.00 Euro to my hotel. The taxi driver asked where I was from. He said, oh Canada good country, America not so good. Another point for us Canadians lol.

Shawn   (to be continued) 

Central Europe 12 I Had Some Of His Sandwich

We had an hour and 45 minute wait there before catching our next train then another train ride before having to get off again. Then onto a bus for an hour then another train to Salzburg!! The man on the train turned a potentially awful day into a very pleasant day. He stayed with me the whole way, loaded my suitcase numerous times onto the overhead bin and even bought me a coffee. At one point he offered me some of his sandwich. I said oh no but thank you and he said in his broken English, no please. So I had some of his sandwich. :)

He was traveling from Zagreb. He was a professor and was going to Salzburg to present at a conference regarding immigration issues. It was so interesting talking to him. He had a great sense of humour and we laughed a lot too. Running into him really made the day.

Shawn  (to be continued)