A night in Vienna

Arrival in Vienna - J waits for the cases. There was a bit of a kerfuffle at the hotel but J was pretty scary and they produced a bottle of champagne and a 70 Euro discount!

Quite nice as it was my birthday!!

J looks stunning in the Vienna State Opera House in her new "ruby" outfit (which the author bought and I'm proud to boast about it!!!) meanwhile the author clearly takes his opera very seriously!! The centre piece and only planned musical event of a trip which turned out never to be without music was Carmen - and a fantastic production.

The photograph below isn't the sharpest in the blog but it is one of the great little things that made this trip magic. We ran out of the Opera House in the rain hoping to find one of the old red and gold Viennese coffee houses. We didn't know where to look but ran straight into this - not just only exactly what we were looking for - but THE original coffee house itself - Sachers, and better than that - Sachers torte - its world famous chocolate cake. It's just out of sight under the glass cover to the left of the shot. And yes we did have a bit - ok, well a chunk!!

(Below) We may fancy the Orient Express, hydrofoils and gondolas but we like to try everything that moves including this Viennese tube (subway) and its imposing entrance (left) The memsahib dosen't look too impressed.

Made famous by the atmospheric spy film "The Third Man" not long after the second world war (so I'm told) the Reisenrad (travelling wheel) in early morning sun - and keeping the musical theme going the same shot behind an old gramophone.

Getting onto the wheel the cabin looks like a railway carriage compartment - looking at the car behind as it nears the the top of the turn, it still looks like a railway carriage compartment!

(Below left) A view of the city from the wheel and (right) ...J takes a final look

Below - A last glimpse of old Vienna. A nice finish to 20 whole hours!! in a great city