Travel Diary 21

Travel Diary 21

Today we got a reasonable start in terms of time and we drove from Venice to Vienna. I was looking forward to Vienna because over the years it has featured in a number of books I’ve read and mostly authors have had nothing but good things to say about it. Culturally, it was supposed to be head and shoulders above a lot of other cities, even though it was the Viennese who said so themselves! I had believed it to be clean, well laid out with wide, tree lined boulevards down which Viennese love to walk, or as the French say “promenade”, in their best clothes both being seen by others and checking the others out. Photos I had seen of Vienna during the 1920’s and 1930’s gave a distinct impression of wealth, serenity and contentedness. Women dressed in their finery, escorted by men in black tie strolling down the Ringstrasse, while their drivers of horse and carriages waited for their owners to return.

But I get ahead of myself!

The drive there is through a long narrow valley amongst a chain of large mountains. The highway winds around fortress like mountains acting like buttresses for this end of the European Alps. They are covered in large trees with the occasional scarring from a mountain slide leaving greyish scars on their sides.

The valley floor has a shallow, but fairly wide river flowing through it. Typical of Alpine rivers, and seen often in the Eastern side of the South Island of New Zealand. I wondered if there were some big fat trout hiding in some of the quieter pools. The river stones are nearly white in colour and the water looks clear with a distinctly blue tinge to it. We crossed it over time and again as we drove through.

Every now and then we’d see a couple of houses sitting on hillsides on the edge of the valley at the start of the tree line. Sometimes a road leads to them and sometimes we couldn’t see any at all. On occasions a small village appeared consisting of maybe a dozen houses. Interestingly, no industry or business apparent to provide jobs and one couldn’t help thinking why on earth would you live here. Nothing to do, a few hours’ drive from anywhere, no work to provide an income and just a few neighbours to keep one company. What a lonely existence.

Maybe a few of these are houses kept for hiking and climbing parties or clubs. A bit like fishing shacks near a deserted beach or on an island. Maybe, hundreds of years ago, people had settled here as it was safe and secure. Nobody would want to attack them. No point in taking this lot over! Maybe, Mum and Dad had lived here and their Mum and Dad and their Mum and Dad and so on for generations and it was the only thing the family owned. Maye they were all empty. Who knows …

Half way through we stopped to take some photos but it is impossible to photo such vast massiveness in a way that gives a viewer that sense of loneliness and being so small in the world when nature is just so huge. One would need a camera and lens that took 180 degree photos and they would have to be close up shots as well. Or maybe a video could do the trick.

The only other stop we made was at a truck stop with a diner. Inside were the usual displays of food ranging from Pasta to Chocolate to bottles of wine and a host of touristy stuff from China. We had a coffee, a bit of stretch and walk around, then back on the road. A cup of coffee again setting us back 1.5 Euros – about $A2.25 per cup. By the way we are now drinking what is known as Americano coffee. In other words, black and not a lot poured into the cup, so you get a small jug of hot water on the side! This allows one to make the strength of the coffee just as one likes.

At the end of the valley, it opens up onto rolling countryside covered with fields of various crops – corn, what looks like barley, and some green leafy things we have no idea of.

Then we suddenly remembered that we had to buy a “vignette” for Austria. A Vignette is a sticker one buys to put one’s windscreen and is a payment for driving on the roads. Austria has no toll collection system and this takes its place. We pulled up at a service station and paid our 40 euros for a month’s driving which is the smallest one can purchase. Peeled the backing off and stuck in the centre of the windscreen. Just as well too as about half an hour later roads signs appeared telling us to slow down from 120 to 100, then 80, then 40 and the motorway became a single lane that turned off to the right and we drove through a series of chicanes and then before us appeared a large building with a large parking area beside it and about 30 or 40 police and soldiers standing around directing traffic one way and another.

We immediately thought “S***!” what’s going on? Then we realised it was the border and these were Austrian authorities. We noticed that some cars and trucks were being searched. Others parked with people just standing around waiting. Fortunately, we got waved straight through by 3 or 4 policemen and then we chicaned our way back onto the highway again.

We had been told that travelling between borders was quite open with no checks or stopping etc and to date this has been true. In fact, mostly unless you saw a road sign or you noticed the shops advertising is in a new language, you wouldn’t know you’d even left one country and entered another. But here is a bit different apparently. Maybe it was business as usual checking one had a vignette. But it seemed to me to be a bit more than that. Perhaps heightened security for some reason. Whatever it was, we were glad to be waved through.

A couple of hours later, after another stop, yet another Americano and a visit to the loo, Simon us directed through the outskirts of Vienna to the camp site. As usual we endured the lane changes and switches from one motorway to the next every 500 or 600 meters, around clover leaves at 40kph and then hammering the van to get up to speed again as one joins the next highway along which people are driving at 120kph. Fortunately, the laneways leading onto the new motorways are mostly very long so one can get a good run up before changing lanes to join the traffic. Also, all drivers in Europe move over a lane when vehicles are joining. And I mean ALL drivers including those in trucks and buses.

Incidentally, we experienced our first bit of road rage today. We were barrelling along this two lane motorway with traffic fairly well spread out and going at about 130 kms on the left hand lane and trucks doing their 90 kph in the right hand lane. A van loaded with men and gear passed us and about 200 meters ahead of it, a truck pulled out to overtake a slower truck. Normally no one worries about this. They just slow down and wait for the overtaking vehicle to complete the manoeuvre and then speed up again. This is going on constantly and no one thinks anything of it.

But in this case, the overtaking truck was only going 3 or 4 kph faster than the truck it was overtaking. This meant that the manoeuvre was completed over a distance of about one kilometre – a long way.

As the truck pulled back into the right hand lane, the van driver pulled up beside the driver’s door and there was much yelling and waving of fists. Then a guy in the back seat of the van turned around and started rummaging around all the gear behind him. Another guy opened the sliding door on the van and was shaking his fist at the truck driver. I slowed down and backed off thinking “ohh No – here’s trouble! What if someone falls out of the van? I be on top of him before I could react!”

The next minute, the man in the back seat came up with something that looked like a folded up yellow danger triangle used to put behind a broken down vehicle that has stopped on the motorway. He lent out door shaking this at the truck driver and then as the van pulled ahead he threw it at the windscreen of the truck. Then the van sped away.

Kerrie and I were a bit taken aback as you could imagine and about 5 minutes later after commenting about what a bunch of idiots the guys in the van were, we heard a police siren coming up behind us. The cop car was going close 150 or 160 kph in my estimation and everyone was pulling over to let them through.

Then the penny dropped for us! The stupid idiots in the van had not thought things through very well as the truck driver had CB Radio and mobile phone to call the police, give the van’s license plate number and a description. Serves the idiots in the van right! I hope they copped plenty from the police.

To reach this campsite, one drives along a beside the Danube River. I had always imagined this to be a blue river after the song. But it is not. It is a muddy brown colour. It is wide, fast flowing and looks very deep.

Heaps of bridges crossing it and even more heaps of long tourist boats parked up on the wharves waiting to load their hundreds, if not thousands of cruisers for a night of drinking, food and dancing to Strauss while sailing along looking at Vienna under lights. I briefly thought, that’d be nice to do, but that thought got lost when the road narrowed to a single lane and we got closer to making yet another turn. After a quick stop at a Supermarket for a food top up, we found ourselves turning off, driving under a railway line that we just fitted under and straight ahead was the campsite right on the intersection of three or for roads all joining up with lanes going every which way. I suddenly realised I was in the wrong lane and what with focusing on the traffic missed the entrance to the Camp. Easily done as it looked a bit like just another road opening up onto the intersection. Around the corner and I mentioned that maybe there was another entrance down the road a bit. But no there wasn’t and fortunately we found a car park which allowed us to turn around and go back. This time we were on the right side of the road and got into the camp site without any more deviations!

After checking in and picking a site close to the showers and toilets, we set up and poured our first red for the day. At last we could relax!

At dinner time, Kerrie was cooking and I went for a wander around the camp to see what I could see. It’s very well set up, about 15kms out of Vienna proper and was full of nothing but Polish, Dutch and Austrian campers. As I returned to our van I noticed the van next to us had an “I” on its number plate – this meant Italian.

But as it turned out, it wasn’t. The couple were sitting at their outdoor table having a drink and smoke and said “Hello” in an Irish accent.  I replied and as you do when recognising another English speaker, it turns into a bit of a chat. This couple, who are Declan and Debbie, come from Cork and have been on the road for nearly a year. They have camped all over Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, parts of Italy and were know heading slowly back to Ireland over the next couple of months! What a life!

Of course, the conversation turned to Rugby and past players and the All Blacks and so on. Kerrie came around the van to see why I had taken so long and joined in. They said for us to have dinner and come back. So we did.

We had a ball! An impromptu party which only got stopped when the people in the van banged on their window telling us to shut up!  We looked at the ground and realised we had given the red a bit of a shake up what with empty bottles lying around and then Debbie said something about it being midnight and we all had an early start. Well, maybe not so early anymore! What a hoot these people are!

The next day was Saturday and the All Blacks were paling their 3^rd Test against Wales. So to help get into the swing of things I put on my All Black shirt which cracked Declan up when he saw it. He called me into his van and the game had just started. He subscribes to Sky Sports and uses the camp sites WiFi to stay in touch.

Ireland were also playing their last match against South Africa the same day and so you can imagine the excitement as Ireland had beaten them in the previous Test and Declan was hoping for a Series win. For some reason where I had parked our van was missing out on the WiFi and I couldn’t get any video what with it being so slow and yet 15 feet away here was Declan getting wonderful reception! I was about to settle down and just watched 

The first All Black try when Kerrie came around and said “Are we going?” Well. I was torn between going and staying I can tell you. Then I remembered that the first two Tests had been uploaded onto You Tube and I could watch it later. Reluctantly I left to go to Vienna. When I got home I discovered that for some reason, the third one was not uploaded and I still haven’t seen it!

That’s right … Vienna! That’s what we are here to see! Not bloody rugby!

Vienna – what can one say! Once again we used a Hop on Hop Off Bus which are a great idea if you want to move from one place to another quickly. Mind you, the tourist maps of the city streets and attractions one gets given, are written in such small print to fit everything in, that reading them is difficult at best and impossible if you do not have good light. The first thing we did after getting off the metro was to orient ourselves.

Where are we? Which corner? All in a strange language and unfamiliar spellings. After a few minutes of discussion and holding the map this way and that to line up the streets on the map with the streets in reality, we walked to the pickup point. This is outside the Opera House which is bigger than anything in Australia except perhaps Parliament House in Canberra. Between it and the next building of equal size is a park filled with statutes and fountains, lawns and shrubs and small trees. Very picturesque!

The bus on the Yellow Line was supposed to leave in 20 minutes but after half an hour it hadn’t eventuated. We waited and eventually it arrived. But it was not part of the normal painted buses that Hop On use. So we assumed that the proper one had broken down and this was its replacement. Never mind, we got a lift to our first Hop Off point.

Incidentally, Vienna has around 5 different Hop On and Hop Off 

Lines – each differentiated by a colour. Each route is different depending upon what one wants to visit. Most cities have one or sometimes two Lines. That’s how much Vienna has to see and we quickly realised that in two days, we weren’t going to get around it all. So much for the pre-trip planning!!

Our first Hop Off was at the Fresh Fruit Markets. These are really Markets where every kind of fruit, vegetable, nut, grain, herb and other edible plant are sold. It is superbly fresh and the choice is overwhelming. Additionally, are stalls where the food has been pre-pared. Containers of cut up vegetables, dried fruit, sugar coated fruit slices, about 10 different styles of olives even some red ones, flavoured olives soaking in trays of oil, fresh sea food, breads and buns of all sorts, and of course restaurants where one could buy indulge in the food. Drinks of all sorts, clothes, a couple of specialty stalls selling jewellery, artwork, clothes and pharmacy items. This market ran the length of a huge lock and probably had around 150 stalls. It was packed with people pushing and shunting one another – mostly tourists! And every stall holder calling out specials and offering samples of his or her wares. What a feast and what a sight! For a minute I thought I was back in Italy!! 

Anyway, we sampled some olives and bought 100gms to nibble while we walked and dodged and pushed with the best of them. Then bought some rolls to eat and had some water to wash it all down with.

Next we re-caught the bus and off to the Palace. Here we bought tickets that entitled us to a tour of 40 rooms with audio guides. Fascinating. Full of history, stories of the Hapsburgs who had lived and ruled from there for a few hundred years and their original beds, chairs, offices, tables, chairs, silverware and of course paintings of all the family members and a few others who were important in the history of Austria. After 40 rooms we had had enough and then we realised we had only seen about one third of it.

This Palace has three sides to it forming a square which would hold about 15,000 people at a guess. Maybe more. Infrastructure for a concert was being set up; no idea who was playing or singing or whatever. By now it was middle of the afternoon and hot. Over 30 degrees C. So a beer was called for. Then back on the bus.

Next stop was the Military Museum. A small charge at the front door and we had 45minutes of wandering around this amazing Museum. Again full of history, war paraphernalia and stories of everything that Austria had been involved in from the 1500’s to modern times. This country while experiencing peace and stability due to the Hapsburgs was almost constantly at war. If it wasn’t the Goths, it was Napoleon. If it wasn’t Napoleon it was the Germans. If it wasn’t them, it was the Ottomans. Then of course, they were deeply involved in the commencement of WWI as their favourite ruler, Prince Franz Joseph (correct me I’m wrong), got himself assassinated by a student on behalf of a Russian political group. Then of course after WWII, everything changed including the borders and the ruling elite were no more. But what a heritage they left! Talk about how the other half live!

On the way home, I stuffed up which bus stop we had to get off and we ended up with a 5km walk I could easily have done without. On the way, we decided we’d buy dinner at a local restaurant. After looking at a few, we picked this lovely little place with outdoor seating on the footpath and a few tables already full of locals. Good stuff we were both hungry and thirsty. So first off ordered a beer which came in a Stein each! We struggled through that, but didn’t let the locals down! Then looked at the Menu which was 100% in German and totally unreadable. To help matters, the pub/restaurant owner didn’t speak a word of English and we stood and sat around looking and smiling and saying “What’s this?” and he’d read it to us German!

In the end I mimed to him and pointed at other customers and asked if any of them speak English. He did the decent thing and asked and found someone who was excellent. This guy explained the Menu what the various dishes were and with his help we eventually got fed what we wanted! Everything by this stage was up in the air what with the other customers all joining in and asking where we were from and what we were doing in this village and so on. We ordered a bottle of red to go with the conversation and had a great time for about an hour or so. Then back to the camp site where Declan the Irishman was still up watching some rugby and wanting a chat and drink. Couldn’t let him down either. So it was another late night!

The next day we caught the Red Line Bus which does a tour of places and things around the city. That took an hour or so, then onto the Green line which covered different places again. This time though, we got off at a little village on the outskirts of Vienna where we could do some wine tasting.

However, despite the Camp site people and the Hop Off and Hop on bus people all saying this village has a row of wine tasting shops, it doesn’t. Not one. Apparently they did some years ago, but the Government changed the law and now they can’t do it. You’d think the Tourist people would know this stuff wouldn’t you!

Instead we had lunch at Mario’s Pizzeria. This little restaurant is in the middle of the street under a couple of big old trees and looks as old as Adam. We sat outside and watched the other tourists doing what we had done – looking for the wine tasting shops only to end up where we were. Y the way, this place of Mario’s which sells Pizzas we thought was run by an Italian and might have been a little taste of Italy.

But we were disappointed as Mario had never owned it and never worked there. Instead it was owned and run by a Romanian who only employed Romanian staff. Still they were very friendly and spoke good English. Lunch was delightful and cheap.  I had a Gnocchi and Kerrie had the Calamari Salad! And a couple of local reds which I must say are rather nice!

At about three o’clock we caught the bus back to the train station, caught the bus and this time got off at the right stop! All in all, a couple of lovely days in Vienna.