Ohhhh Vienna

Wein, has been home for the last three nights. It wasn't on the list of places to go but after deciding to avoid Slovakia on the way to Poland it was the obvious next stop.

(I am sorry to be missing out Slovakia, but all the reasons for going are the reasons to miss it, namely a lack of motorways and its beautiful landscape being on many mountains. Both need lots of time and attention that really if we are to fit in the 'must dos' we have to let go this time).

So Wein, Vienna as we know it. Really we've seen just a snippet but what we saw we saw through what you might call movie tourism. It made a good change from sight seeing old style. Although we did have a peek at the Habsburg palaces and stopped off at the butterfly house on the way.

The Burg Kino (cinema) has weekly showings of The Third Man. In case your film ignorant like me- It's set in Vienna just after WW2, British film, Oscar and Cannes award winner, Orson Welles is the main character if not most featured. We didn't recognise most spots as we hadn't done the sightseeing -theres a walking tour you know- but afterwards we went to the Prater, themepark since 1766 and saw the Reisenrad (a 1897 version of the london eye- also made by an English man) where the most famous scene is played out. A fun, quality story, in black and white with excellent music- which I thought would stick in my head for ages but it hasn't. Girls you might be impressed like me that for a film of it's time there is no happy love story ending, the main female character is able to resist the charms of a man who brings her flowers and likes a drink and a cigarette without being portrayed as a bad kind of woman. It has hilarious use of shadows and a small boy in a fur collared coat.

Vienna looks to have some excellent antique/junk shops, bars and food places but being a Sunday we couldn't make the most of them. Saying that we weren't energetic enough to head back into town today and try again! We've had a relaxing day on site attempting to stay cool.

I've spent most of the day planning a route and finding sites for the next bit of our trip. I've also continued to read a travelogue by a Hungarian/Austrian and Jewish guy who emigrated to Australia as a child after WW2 and then returned in 1991. (The Habsburg Cafe by Andrew Riemer)

We are moving on to Czech tomorrow heading east with a one night stop over before arriving in Oswiecim, Poland. I have mixed feelings about visiting Auschwitz but I want to see it. I have Victor Frankl's 'Mans Search for Meaning' lined up for the next few days.

After that we will head to Krakow to see the city and then back to Czech, south of Prague, to see my lovely friend Lucie and then to Prague itself to revisit, it was one of the first holidays Mark and I had (after IOW and Paris) and still one of our favourites 8 years on.