First Days in Vienna

Journey to Vienna, called Wien here. Train to Frankfurt, overnight at an Airport hotel. Spent the evening in the Beer Garden, or Biergarten eating dinner and drinking wine. Our room didn’t allow smoking in it so we stayed outside. Briefly met a couple from San Francisco who’s flight connection didn’t happen so they were put up there. Her accent was more mid-west we guessed because it was quite pronounced. Next morning up and “at em” to the Airport where they had a problem with the batteries being plugged in on Bruce’s chair so it took a while. They didn’t charge for Lexi which is unusual, probably forgot due to the chair issue. Anyway, all got sorted in plenty of time for the flight. De-planing and having them bring a wheelchair to the gate means we are last off so we are not in the way of more ambulatory people. Collect bags and Bruce’s chair and look for the special cab driver we’d hired to accommodate the chair. Found him, on to the flat. 

Another thing, same airport, different policies every time it seems, I won’t go into detail here but it is sometimes confusing.  But some of what happens is not sensible, or sometimes even more sensible. Go figure is all I will say on the non-subject. Just another rant.

I texted our host, Peter, and he was at the flat to meet us. Now he has SuperHost status from AirBnB and deserves it in our opinion, as does Pepe in Sevilla. He left us a fridge full of food, shopped for coffee and sparkling water after he heard I liked it. Gave a thorough run through of the flat which has the most amazing views of Vienna’s buildings. 

Liked the shadow made from the statue in the cupola 

The flat has air conditioning, a major reason for renting it because Bruce wilts in the heat and it's hot! The building  is old, we're on the top floor and the walls are a bit strange, covered with tacked white board, but nice and bright, two floors, will do us fine for the next two months. Shops are close by as is a light rail system. 

Lexi pulled her hiding trick and took all three of us to find her behind a kitchen cabinet. Travel weariness gets to us all sometimes like the time in Paris, but this was quite an easy trip really.

Will be out exploring tomorrow after a restful night I hope.

Another building although they look and are the same, cathedral to the left

Restful night, out doing our usual circling of the neighbourhood so we don’t get lost. Had lunch at a burger joint and it was good. Did a shop at a Spar grocers we found. Came back to Bruce having trouble getting up the entryway to the flat so contacted our host to tell him - make it a priority please - a ramp is needed!

View between previous pictures, don't have a wide lens on the camera

Hazy view but you can see what we look out on

Peter said all buildings in Vienna have to be wheelchair accessible by January 2016 by law so he and a friend will hopefully design something for market. A good idea since a moveable one will be needed. and if successful could go to other cities also. Handicapped access isn’t easy in Europe with the old buildings. We found one! sturdy rubber, small, but large enough and not heavy, perfect! Bruce felt quite trapped in the building not knowing if he could get back in again. He can still walk some but really to get out and about he needs the chair. We took our host to lunch at a local place he suggested in a large garden area to say thanks. 

Did another shop at a different Spar, larger, that we had spotted yesterday on our wanders. We had read about an aquarium in Vienna and wanted to check it out. Built in an old war bunker, we look out one side of the building at this enormous round concrete building which is frankly very ugly and found out it is the aquarium, right close by! We’ll be going there soon.

The transit system here looks good and one runs by our door regularly, mind, not all have handicapped access but some do so we’ll do the transit monthly ticket thing and have greater access to further points in the city. It’s just too big to walk or roll everywhere. Our host is living a bit outside the city, while we occupy his flat, in the wine producing area and has offered to show us around when we are ready. 

About our host Peter, he has had many lives, travelled widely and had many different careers. It’s quite amazing what he told us and I won’t go into too much detail here but working in multi-national finance, a pilot, living on the street, a trained artist focusing on sculpture, and living in so many different countries. He was a nomad before many of the blogger’s we’ve met were, and didn’t blog about it, before blogging became a medium, and he’s not that old! Bruce asked him if he would consider writing a book because he certainly was and still has a life that is not a conventional of work 9-5, go home and veg out. It does go a way to explain this eclectic flat interior with it’s fabulous view.

He’s had a Nobel prize winner stay in the flat, forget whom. Has also had a couple of Google programmers stay and they drank a lot of champagne and ate pizza basically, didn’t go out at all. The flat view has been used in movie scenes but when it isn’t being used for such illustrious functions, like us living here, Peter does. It is full of his possessions which he marks by a red bit of tape to say “hands off”, there is a fair bit of red tape around…

I re-arranged the kitchen cupboards because Peter is quite a tall man and he’d put everything where I couldn’t reach. Luckily we have a ladder in the flat so it wasn’t a problem. 

A neighbouring area is called Spittelberg and it is full of antique shops and funky little shops. Good restaurant called Boheme, named after the opera in a small lane off a main street. There was a Saturday market and an organic food market there too. Small parks along those lanes provide shade which is needed right now with temps in the mid-thirties as it seems everywhere. Because this District of Vienna is small we only walk a couple of blocks and we’ve hit another one. We’re in Neubau, 7th District, of 23 total, read about it here http://www.tourmycountry.com/austria/seventh-district-vienna.htm

Second full day here and I’m happy with the choice!

Cheers, Bx2 and Lexi Cat