G & J away from home

Tuesday, 12 May

What can we say?  This isn't how the trip was supposed to go, but we can't fix the engine by wishing and so this morning we packed our bags, had a last breakfast aboard, said good-bye to crew and passengers, and climbed aboard a bus to take us to Vienna.

We had elected to pack the morning we left - and before breakfast, at that.

It didn't take very long as we didn't have miles of stuff and I have to say that nearly everything I bought with me has been used (except the cold weather hats, scarf, gloves, and shirts).    I'm pretty pleased with what I packed although somehow I ended up with the wrong pair of black trousers in the bag.  That didn't actually matter since we didn't get very cold weather but if we had, those cropped trousers would have lead to a pair of very cool ankles!

The bags are packed ...

The passengers going on with the tour as a bus tour left first - about 60 of them, among them many of the 29 who had been with us from the Black Sea.  It was sad to see them go but we're hopeful we might catch up with them at Amsterdam as we may be accommodated at the same hotel.  The ship felt pretty empty once they'd gone.

Empty corridors aboard the Vista

Eventually it was time for us to leave.  The crew carried our bags off the boat - a job all of them were helping with.  In the photo you can see me and coming ashore and the man in the 'crew' t-shirt going the other way beside me is the Captain.

Leaving the Vista

Avalon had arranged for us to have a guide on the bus from Linz to Vienna, who would also help us get checked in at the InterContinental Hotel.  She was a great guide and very helpful, on the 2 hour + break for lunch bus trip, though Gary may not have been as impressed as she found the The Sound of Music sound track to play while she wasn't talking.  It was Gary's worst nightmare - stuck in a bus listening to The Sound of Music!  (I enjoyed it ... only a little of it, though, as I slept most of the way.)

Gary on the bus from Linz to Vienna

What I saw of the scenery was beautiful, similar to our day-tour of the Austrian Lake District.  Our stop for lunch was at a motorway services spot and the food was very nice.  I think paid more for the two greetings cards I bought afterwards than we did for the meal. ;o)  The highlight of the stop, though, was getting a very up-market receipt for the 50 Euro cents we paid to use the toilets.  I was so excited that I would be able to take it home and photograph it for the blog but then realised that if I handed it in when I bought the card I could get my money back.  In a moment of madness I did that -  clearly the wrong decision as the photo of it would have been well worth the 50 cents.  (Especially as it had sparkles on the receipt!)

As well as the guide the hotel had somebody waiting for us to arrive - all very helpful.  Our room is on the 9th floor of the InterContinental Hotel and the tv seems pleased to see us.

The tv welcomes us

I took some photos of the room.  It's a perfectly nice room but not a patch on the stateroom on the Vista.  We really have been spoiled on the river cruise.

Hotel room in Vienna

The hotel room has a very nice reading chair

The view from our hotel room window was nice, though the cranes certainly detract from the city-scape.

View from our hotel window

But this?  Is that a beach in the middle of Vienna?  Are there beach volleyball courts back there? Little stalls all around and beach umbrellas?  What a quirky thing to find and our room had been on the other side of the building we might never have known it was there.

Sand in the City

Naturally we had to go and investigate.  The afternoon was warm and once we were inside 'Sand in the City' it really did feel like a beach-side cafe.  There were all sorts of people there, from parents with young kids to businessmen popping in for drink after work.  (The man in the suit with his briefcase, standing at a bar leaner in the sand made me smile.)

At the beach in Vienna

In winter the same space (without the sand and the stalls) is used as an ice skating rink. All the stalls are disassembled in September and stored in big cellars underground, then brought out again in late April.  Brilliant idea.
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