Ohhhh...Vienna!

What an eventful last 24 hours! The first 13 were spent enjoying the excellent China Airlines service between Taipei and Vienna. This was pretty standard except for one odd moment. As I was waiting in the galley at the front of the plane to use the facilities, a middle aged Chinese lady emerged from the toilet, took a look at me and launched herself towards me. Before I knew it she was attached to me, giving me a vigorous hug. Fortunately the flight attendant was onto it and managed to pry this stranger off me. I still don't know what that was all about. Maybe they shouldn't serve alcohol on intercontinental flights?

Anyway, having composed myself once more I finished another movie and watched the lights of Vienna emerge from the darkness. We touched down on time and made our way to border control expecting fingerprinting and forms to fill in. Less than 30 seconds later we were on the ground side of the airport wondering what just happened. Austrian efficiency at its best is what. This efficiency continued as our bags arrived within minutes, another perk of business class, then we strolled through arrivals and down the escalators to the City Express train which of course left dead on time. There was even free on board wifi.

On reaching Wien Mitte station we got an Uber to our hotel, which of course we couldn't check in to until 3pm. We were there before 7am, curses! No worries though as we had our Vienna Hot Rod tour booked for 10am. To kill some time we decided to walk the 3k to the Hot Rod headquarters. However some time remained alive as we got there more than 30 minutes early. While standing outside looking hopefully in we struck up a conversation with an older couple. Turns out they were doing the tour with us and they were Aussies. Anzac Hot Road championship duel activate. After some high speed, high powered hot rod instruction we hit the roads around Vienna central.

I thought I'd seen some beautiful historical cities before, but Vienna takes the Gold, gives the other cities a wedgie and then leaves with their girlfriend. It is flooded with grandeur and is standing room only from one amazing historical monument to the next. Simply unmatched. Of course we first saw these eye popping gems from 6 inches off the ground, hurtling along at up to 60kms an hour. The Hot Rod tour was fan- bloody- tastic. Dominic our guide did an impeccable job guiding us through the streets around the Ringstrasse and keeping us alive. I had been really looking forward to this opportunity and it totally lived up to the hype. Hopefully there will be video from my video glasses to come.

After the tour we had a drink with our Aussie compatriots then took the hop on hop off big bus tour. This time we travelled at a speed that allowed us to see more of the sights. Finally we made it to our hotel room and we were very ready to crash out.

Tomorrow, more of incredible Vienna. To see what the hot rods were like in action visit https://youtu.be/p7J_SNvKcVE or
https://youtu.be/V2iN43PPLXcRead more