Central Europe 22 My Favourite City

 I had a good amount of coffee breaks and a bit of shopping. (I’d mention what I bought but Karen I think Neil might tease me lol ) I really didn’t pick up much at all since I really don’t have any room.

My taxi is booked for the morning, a terribly expensive trip, but I don’t want to take any chances of being late. Just trying to squeeze everything into my small suitcase.

Some observations that I’m remembering:

I enjoyed all the places I visited but I think Prague was my favourite big city and Ljubljana was my favourite small city.

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 21 Underground Metro

 My last day. I hadn’t planned to do much. I took the metro to the centre and wandered down side streets just looking. Just under 10 km today. For anyone who hasn’t taken an underground metro, it’s really quite something compared to what we are used to. At one I walked down a flight of stairs then down an escalator then walked a few feet then down another escalator. The train must be around a city block long comprised of several cars and at certain times jam packed with people, sitting and standing. It’s amazing the amount of people moving around this way.

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 20 Hop On/ Off

 The hotel I’m in includes breakfast, which all of them have, but I think this one might be the best. They have a large selection of foods and really good coffee too. Just under 11 kms today so another early evening.

 Today I did the hop on/off bus tour. It was $29.00 Euro but totally worth it. I started at about 10 and went until 5. There were 3 different lines and I went on all of them today. I saw so much I can hardly remember what I saw. I really like my hotel here but the wifi is horrible so I can’t post anymore pictures from today.

If I remember this correctly about 1/3 of Vienna was bombed during WW2. You can sure tell. Going down streets there are beautiful old structures and next to them plain newer ones. They said in the late 40’s - early 50’s there was a huge housing shortage so they needed to build housing as quickly and as cheap as possible. What an interesting city. A long but enjoyable day of sightseeing. :)

Shawn (to be continued) 

Central Europe 19 Schönbrunn Palace

Today I went to Schonbruun Palace. Incredible!! The palace is huge. You can’t take pictures inside. This is where the Habsburg families lived. It is amazing the wealth of this family. They give you a recording to play for yourself in each room explaining what you are seeing. It works well allowing you to go at your own pace. You can just imagine what life must have been like for them. Paintings, tapestries, gold on the walls, riches everywhere!

After that I walked around exploring for the rest of the day snacking and of course their delicious cappuccinos.

Shawn (to be continued) 

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)