Thursday April 25th

Vienna Calling

I have one final item on my "Travel To Do - A List" - and it's about time to finish that list off.
Today I am heading for Vienna (or Venice as it's apperently called in Swedish), a city I wanted to visit for some time now - not sure why, but I have the feeling it's a city worth checking out.
I flew there via Berlin and got to Vienna International Airport in the afternoon.
I choose not to take the speedtrain (City Airport Train), instead I took the ÖBB, which turned out to be a bus. It was about half the price, with not much loss in time (although the traffic stretched that time a bit).
But it wasn't really that bad and I finally got to Vienna (the stop was called Schwedenplatz so that's not bad either).

It's really hot here, around 27 degrees. I didn't expect that (my bad). I probably should have brought some shorts with me.

I then took the U-Bahn to Stephanplatz, where my hotel was. I didn't find my hotel right away so I walked around the Stephanskirchen (which is located in the middle of Stephanplatz)

After walking 358 degrees around it; I found my hotel (which was simply called "Hotel am Stephansplatz").
It was a nice hotel, very much into eco, fair trade and similar things - I like.
I got room 303, which looked like this:

I can even see Stephenkirchen from my window.  :)
I didn't stay long, instead I walked out again, looking for:
1) A tourist information, which I could collect different leaflets and
2) a restaurant to eat and look through the leaflets mentioned in 1)

I found both and start looking for things to see I didn't already have on my list while I was eating my wiener schnitzel (what else?). I also had the Austrian version of potato salad, which wasn't that nice. But always fun to try.
After the stomach was satisfied, I went to see my first tourist-thing.
And I might be the first tourist ever in Vienna to start with this one; the Gasometers.
The Gasometers are old gas tanks (four of them) which is now converted to a mall + offices and apartments (at least it looked like it).
It was also the site where General Koskov was taken in the Bond movie 'The Living Daylights' to be put in a Harrier aircraft and whooshed away to England after escaping from Russia.





I couldn't quite make out the angles from the movie, since it was filmed in the dark (or more likely had a "night-filter" on the cameras), but I did easily recognize the buildings.

So the experience was a good one, but far from orgasmic.
I hope to do better at the next location I'll be visiting.

After I was done at the Gasometers, I walked around a little in Vienna and stopped by the hotel for a bit before I went out for some dinner.

Now I am tired, I need to get ready for more walking tomorrow.
Good night!