The Trip. Part one.
Frankfurt.
Well not the most interesting of places, the old city is a tourist trap with over priced restaurants but still worth a look. The river cruise is somewhat a waste of time as most of it seems to go via the industrial area with the highlight being a modern coal fired power station. Relaxing on the boat though is not too bad.
We Took the car for a spin to re aquatint myself with driving on the other side of the road and also the size of the Volvo SUV. The destination was Wurzburg about a 1.5 hour drive but on reaching the place discovered a "Queer festival" (their words not mine) was on and parking was impossible so had to drive back.
Spent some time walking by the river dodging the maniac cyclist who seem to think they are on the
tour de France, apparently using a bike bell is not an option in this part of the world.
Rothenburg ob de Tauber.
What a fabulous medieval town this is, completely walled ( all intact) and about 4.5 km in length. The old town ( Alt Stadt) has no modern buildings and must be close to what it was originally. Plenty of tourists but not as much as we would have expected.
I came here about 5 years ago with my son and it is still worth a visit.
Vienna (Wien)
The trip from Rothenburg to Wien was quite long and instead of driving into the we city stopped off the Autobahn about 20km short to try and find a small village, we do not like big cities so found a small village called St Christophen. The Gast Haus was really good and mixed with the locals and found out about local issues, I was amazed to find out that the average diary farmer only owns about 20 cows and is subsidised by the EU.
Still averse to going into Vienna by car we moved on to Pressbaum and stayed in a nice 4 star hotel and after consulting the lobby decided to drive to a Park and Ride and take the train into Vienna.
It is always interesting to discover in different parts of the world how to use the local train service, especially when everything is automated, the same applies to car parks. Took the train to Stephen Platz ( the main square) only to be met with a hoard of tourists milling over every inch of the place. I can see why locals are fed up with tourism. we thenWent to a must do thing ie a cafe for cakes and coffee but did everyone else in the plaza I think. Just could not wait to get out of the oppressive atmosphere and pushy Hungarian waiters.
Visited several churches and a cathedral, the architecture inside and out is just beautiful.
The next morning at the hotel breakfast the Restaurant was full of long benches so just sat at the end of the French group, after starting the food a strange sight appeared before me, an Indian lady done up in a buxom Austrian national dress with a very stern demeanor ( and moving her head side to side in a typical Indian fashion) informing me that breakfast in that particular part of the hotel was not for me. The next moment her with my breakfast clutched in her hands disappearing into another room. It was really difficult not to laugh at the whole situation!
Decided to go for a walk and after a short consultation at the foyer drove to the woods at the rear of the hotel and went off for a jaunt in the forest. On the walk back an old man came from nowhere to show me an old carving of a mushroom he had made many years ago from a tree stump. I guess loneliness is everywhere these days.
