Austria: Vienna and Salzburg.

We left our hotel near Venice and headed north, crossing the border into Austria not long after. The scenery changed dramatically, mountains started springing up seemingly from nowhere. This was quite exciting for us as we haven't seen 'real' mountains for quite awhile, and these were certainly real mountains!

We arrived in Vienna in the afternoon and had time for a quick rest before we headed out to dinner. We had Dinner in the 'Vienna Woods' in a 'farm house' which is all now just really a suburb of Vienna.

Here the wine was free flowing and much to Zadok's delight the meat was plentiful, even if he did have to remove the scnitzel covering off evrything he ate.

We were entertained by quite a hilarious accordian player and everyone had a really good evening.

In the morning Zadok and I were blessed with a SLEEP IN (till about 8am... Hahaha) as the others did and optional we opted out of. We then had a local guide to show us the most famous sights of Vienna.

The size of the palace was quite amazing... Althought the design seemed much more conservative than other places we had so recently seen. The local guide we had in Vienna was my least favourite, all the other guides seemed to be in love with their cities and countries but this one seemed less so.

One of my favourite things from Vienna was the Prater Wheel (The Riensenrad). This is a ferris wheel (somewhat smaller than the afore mentioned London Eye) but it was built as a celebration of Emperor Franz Joseph's Golden Jubilee, in 1897! Nearly 110 years ago. I was excited because I read a children's book recently that featured this wheel. I am trying to remember the name of it but it wont come to me.

Here is a photo from the top of the Wheel.

When we left Vienna, on the way to Salzburg we were pulled over by the Austrian Police, for a routine check of all of Luciano's and the buses papers. Simone and Luciano were involved in a half hour discussion (as much as Luciano could be only speaking Italian). Luckily after all this time they found nothing to comment on. Simone said they seemed quite dissapointed and in the end told her to ensure Luciano WROTE ON THE LINES in his log book as this is an offense he could recieve a fine for.... Quite amusing.

We arrived in Salzburg just before lunch. We wandered around and saw the house where Motzart was born and lived. Salzburg is also the city of the Sound of Music.

Zadok, Bianca and I enjoyed the Mirabell Gardens, here are some of the gardens with the fotress on the hill in the background and a photo of my metrosexual man.....

Then we reboarded the bus and headed to Innsbruck in the west of Austria for the night.