Vienna

Vienna: It's stripey

My first impression of Vienna, as we make our bumpy descent towards the airport is that it is a land of stripes. The fields are beautifully ploughed in long straight rows. Trees line parallel boulevards. It seems perfect; even from this distance.

The airport is amazingly clean and the Long Suffering Husband is very impressed with the hugely powered ride on machines that the workers are using. The floor is buffed to sparkling perfection (it really is sparkling as the tiles appear to be laced with glitter) by huge polishing machines driving up and down in perfect stripes. 

The train (CAT) is also spotless, with comfortable seats, legroom that Easy-jet could never comprehend and it takes you straight to the centre of town without stopping. There are two young English women next to us discussing how they will find their hotel.

"It's on the good side."

"Which is the good side? It's not labelled on the map."

"Let me see."

"Can you read a map?"

"Yeah, I'm not bad if I know where I am and where I'm going to."

The train fills up because it has two layers there is plenty of room for everyone to have a comfortable seat.

Looking out of the window we see there is something for both of us in Austria. The LSH gets excited about a pipe and tube factory and I enjoy the rows of polytunels.

Due to an excellent Hotwire deal we are staying in the Hilton, which is helpfully signposted from the station. We are upgraded to a room with a view of the park and city. The view, framed by curtains with tasteful horizontal stripes is perfect.

We remember that the last time we ate was in Gatwick Airport when we grabbed a pastry from Pret. When we read the guidebooks we were given the impression that we were in for a relaxing break. They all mentioned sitting for three hours in a cafe, taking a gentle stroll but there is loads to see and do in Vienna. Lunch, for us, was cake. You can't go to Vienna and not sample the Sachertorte, which is the least layered of all the cakes on display. The one I had tasted very much like a Jaffa cake.

The wonderful thing about Vienna is that you can have cake for breakfast dinner and tea. We had apple strudel for our evening meal in Mozart's cafe; perfect laminations (or stripes) of pastry hugging the cinnamon spiced apple: delicious.