Augarten

Wednesday September 28th
In Which we Wander the City of Mozart
There is no doubt that Vienna is one of the most spectacular cities of Europe. I have been here twice before and each time I just loved the history that seems to flow from every cobblestone and rooftop. It is generally a clean city (apart from the carpet of cigarette butts underfoot everywhere) and has a very efficient mass transit system. The metro trains are much cleaner that the famous Paris Metro and run every few minutes, so you never have to wait long for the next train to come along.
Today we caught the metro back to Stephansplatz and then walked to the famous Leopold Museum. Since Maggie was more interested than I was in exploring the art works on display there, I opted to wait outside in the sunshine. I had not been sitting long before I began being approached by a series of persistent beggars asking me for money. From my observations, they did not appear to be too badly off and I decided that they were "professional beggars" on their daily round

Beautiful Gardens

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I also had not been sitting long before the daily inflow of tourist groups began to invade the courtyard. As I looked at the shuffling mobs with their headsets clamped over their ears, I could not help but think that they looked like mindless zombies being controlled by some sort of remote mind control device. I imagined that there was a controller somewhere that was directing them along with a big joystick.
Vienna has a huge smoking problem that is clearly evident in any open space. It is , impossible to sit down at any outdoor restaurant without getting stunk out with second hand tobacco smoke. This really is such a pity for such a beautiful city.
In the evening we bought some food from the local supermarket and joined David and Carol for a picnic by bank of the Danube. While we were sitting there, eating our goodies, we would not have swapped places for the swankiest restaurant in the city. With our fruit, drinks and nibbles we were blessed with one of the best free entertainment spectacles you could imagine.
We watched the pyjama boat parade of buses collecting travellers from the huge "pyjama boats" and transporting them to one of the many "Mozart Concerts" held every night in the city. The tickets to these concerts are sold by touts all over the city,and somehow they always magically just happen to have a few tickets available for tonight's concert.Not for us , thank you.
As we were finishing our picnic dinner, the moon started to appear over the tops of the trees on the opposite side of the river. It was a wonderful way to finish a truly memorable evening.Read more