The journey begins....

As planned, we met John and Linda at the airport – they flew from Edmonton to Calgary earlier in the day. Had coffee at a combination Tim Horton’s/bar – staffed by the same two women – where John was tempted to order the Chili Deal with a scotch. Sorted out all our European money – euros, Czech koruns and Hungarian hufs.

The flight was 9 hours long. John and Linda sat in a bulkhead – lots of leg room, but beside a family with kids who “wanted to go home and sleep in their own beds”. Owen and I were in the “knees around your ears” seats behind a woman who talked most of the night to the man across the aisle from her. When I woke up once, she was talking about grilled cheese sandwiches. Later, she was still discussing cheese. Air Canada food makes you nostalgic that way.

Made our connection in Frankfurt (the gates, a kilometre apart – I have a step counter!), then a quick flight to Vienna – barely time to down the Coke and chocolate bar on board. We determined that a cab ride to our hotel would be cheaper than the train/metro/tram combination suggested on our hotel’s website. Our driver was Turkish – pointed out all the industrial and historic sites on the way into the city – and gave us his cell number, in case we want to hire our own driver, in or out of Vienna. The boulevards on the way in a covered with dandelions – have the Austrians renounced pesticides or is it the city flower? We later saw a Gaudi-esque statue of a dandelion near the city centre., so perhaps the latter.

Vienna…. Owen already loves it – says he could spend days just wandering around the centre – looking at architecture and statues. We took Linda’s “forced march” shortly after arriving at our very clean and comfortable (small) hotel. (For those of you who have never traveled with or to Linda, a forced march involves getting out and walking for a couple of hours after arriving at your destination, when what you really want to do is go to bed and sleep for a few days. This “torture” gets you over jet lag much quicker.) Found the tourist info centre, ordered cappuccinos at the Mozart café on the Albertinaplatz, and began planning our cultural events for Vienna – opera? ballet? day trip to the Benedictine abbey in Melk? … Stay tuned.

Hungry, we decided to head back towards our hotel, alert for a welcoming pub or restaurant – we found two! The first pub - a tiny, dark spot with 8 patrons, all smoking, 4 of them playing cards – including the barmaid. Turns out the only food they had was toast and sausage, but the beer was excellent (Gösser) and Owen got to keep his mug (his traditional holiday souvenir). He also got a quick lesson on the card game – tarock – apparently only played in Austria – but what with our hunger, the language barrier, and the complexity of the rules, he was not dealt in. Continued on down our “strasse” (we can always find home – we are right on the tram line) to another pub – bigger, and with a full menu. The English menu was full of wonderful translations, although our girls would be disappointed that there was nothing “donkey style” like the food in Mexico. We decided on a dish for four, called “Wheelbarrow of dirt” in English. Which it was. Not dirt, but a child-size wheelbarrow that covered our table for 4, with 2 large chops, 2 schnitzels, two kinds of potato/ham combos – one with cheese and the other spicy – and fries, lots and lots of fries. Throw in a few more beers, another free beer mug (with the logo of the “Centimetre” pub) and call that dinner.

Back to our hotel by 9pm, and so we are “allowed” to go to bed. Three oblivious hours of sleep, and now I am typing this in the bathroom at 12:30 a.m. So much for the forced march…..