Wednesday 29 August 2012

Austria

What can I tell you all about Austria? Seeing Christof again was super marvellous, and totally brilliant, and certainly made up for a lot of my hesitancy about returning.  The countryside here is really lovely, everything has faded to a golden colour, the maize is browning and the wheat and barley harvested and the sunflowers look a little sorry for themselves too.  We went for a super bike ride up a hill with the most amazing views; we went for a paddle in the river (some kind of side arm or tributary to the Danube), and the forest is shady and cool and very pretty, I hope to go there again on my bicycle this evening.
My bicycle!  I have a new one!! Well I am very excited about it.  As my proper bike is a rather nice one and can't really handle dirt paths and didn't have any real desire to be left at the railway station, so I left it in England; but I have now been loaned Christof's Grandmother's bike, which is lovely and charming and very sweet.  It has lights which go on when you pedal, and the only brakes are reverse pedal ones!  I think it needs a name like Doris or Irene or Vera or perhaps Polly, except of course more Austrian sounding. (Any nominations welcome.)  I did however get told that Austrians don't name their bikes, which I thought was very sad. 

The mountain bike I have also been loaned is, I think, very cool too - but at the moment it is a bit too high tech for me, it has buttons to change the height of the seat, and all sorts of other buttons.  It is pretty good though at stress free off road riding, but it can't really be described as cute!
Vienna is a fabulous city, but swarming with tourists - so much so I refuse to take any photos, as there are too many people from all over the world pointing cameras at statues and their friends with scenic view behind.  I wandered around town early one morning to take these for you, before most of the tourists were up!  I really like how small it feels, I love the Stadt park, the way the Cathedral can be seen from everywhere, and the way all the streets lead to the Cathedral and town feels so medieval in its layout.