Vienna, day 1

We had a wonderful time in Vienna. Lovely people, lovely food, amazing architecture. (And I lost 3lbs, despite the fact that I ate a lot of bread and cake. Not sure how far we walked as my pedometer battery gave up the ghost, but from the blisters I’d say it was like our most over-doing it days in Paris and Rome, i.e. about 30k steps a day.)

Now, I’m aware that I can be immensely boring about my research trips, so I will try not to bang on about it too much. Which might be a bit tough as this one did treble duty – cakes (the Rome book), chocolate (my intended Vienna book), and art (idea I had out there, which needs discussion with my ed). Actually, make that quadruple, as there’s a book-of-my-heart involved as well!

Anyway. Vienna.

Let’s start with a lovely sunset at Heathrow, the night before we flew out.

And a view of our hotel – it’s the yellow building with the ivy on the left. This is where Mozart stayed with his family on his very first trip to Vienna, aged six; sadly, the Schonbrunn palace was quite a way out, so we didn’t get to see the Hall of Mirrors where he played for Empress Theresa. The staff were lovely, especially as we had a horrible start – seems that the travel agency cancelled our booking at the hotel on the day we made said booking. (Won’t bore you with the full story, but Thomas Cook gave us very poor service indeed, and we won’t be using them again.)

This is the Alte Rathaus – the old city hall.

And the Altesuhr clock; the figures on the clock face are from Austrian history and change every hour. Apparently at noon they all proceed across the clock, but we were never in the area at noon to see it for ourselves!

Research: the window of Café Sacher. (We visited the café later in the week. Well, if you’re researching cake, it means you have to eat it, yes?)

And my first meal in Vienna: a traditional goulash, served with a fried egg, boiled potatoes, a dill pickle and a frankfurter.