On the Road

Wednesday, 14th September

First of all, I must describe last night's entertainment. First, we had a drive to a small town in the country outside Vienna for dinner. The entire waiting staff were waiting outside for our arrival and immediately rolled out a red carpet across the road for us to walk on. Violinists played us into the restaurant - rather a quirky little place. Lots of little rooms heading in all directions and every room was absolutely stuffed with all sorts of different stuff! This place used to be a very swish restaurant (still is, of course) and its patrons have included Napoleon, Franz Ferdinand, Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Margot Fonteyn, Neil Diamond, James Stewart, Audry Hepburn - just to name a few. Many famous people have left behind a small memento, these are displayed in the many cases throughout the building. We were immediately given schnapps in a test tube to drink (majority were left undrunk!), salad was followed by a choice of main course, dessert was a chocolate cream type of thing, then coffee with whipped cream. Wines and beers were also included, however, most of the wine was also left undrunk. Certainly not the style of wine Australians are used to!

Following dinner, it was back on the bus for the trip into Vienna for a Viennese concert at the Stadt Park Palace - this is the venue where Strauss performed. We were seated in the very hall in which Strauss played, only this time we had an orchestra of twelve, two opera singers and two ballet dancers. We were treated to some lovely music by Mozart and Strauss, concluding with the compulsory Blue Danube and Radetsky March. All concerts in Vienna finish with these tunes.

We had a later start this morning, with the bus departing at 8.30 am - the Hilton Vienna could not cope with eight tour groups departing at the same time, so we had to wait. We had beautiful clear, warm weather for our short drive to Durnstein, and lovely medieval village on the banks of the Danube. The village was overlooked by a ruined castle, the very castle that Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned in! We were allowed free time to have a wander and discovered the most amazing cemetery, as one does. The tops of the graves were turned into gardens and planted with flowers. Evidently the graves date back to medieval times and are reused after fifty years. We continued along the Danube, with a photo stop at the Melk Monastory.

The weather now deteriorated to heavy rain as we travelled into the low alpine country, passing under (yes, under) Linz before heading to the Czech Republic. The Iron Curtain border crossing still exists, although is no longer in operation. The countryside changed almost immediately after the crossing - although the trees remained similar (beech and fir), the houses were now more like concrete blocks and not the traditional styles of Austria. We reached Cesky Krumlov about 3.00 pm - this is another medieval town with very narrow cobblestoned streets dominated by a castle. We had about a five minute walk to our hotel (fortunately we didn't have to worry about our luggage) before checking in to our suite - entrance hall, bathroom, dining room and bedroom. There is a kingsize bed plus three smaller beds - literally small beds that hopefully extend somehow to make additional beds for the room.

Cat was very excited to have his own bed for the night and not have to share. He has had a wonderful day on the bus, being made a fuss over by quite a few of the ladies, and a couple of the men. The dynamics of the tour group is rapidly becoming apparent as well. A couple of groups tend to stay apart, but most people at mixing well.

The day finished with a walk - UP the hill - to the castle for a guided tour. We were lucky to have clear skies and sunshine again by this time. The castle was lived in by one of the minor princes of the ruling dynasty - Rosenberg (or something like that). It has now been turned into a museum and has a wonderful garden even further up the hill. A quick check of the local jewellery shops on the walk back to the hotel filled in a further half hour.

This hotel has FREE internet - and we are only staying one night!!!

Lots of photos to post today, so will do them in two different lots.