29 of November 1999 - Monday

Our bus to Hendaye was leaving Bilbao at 7.30, so we had to get up early in order to catch it. We had bought the tickets a week before, just to be in the safe side. The bus arrived into Hendaye at 9.20, having stopped in San Sebastian and Irun. Then, we had to wait until 10.30, the hour of departure of the first direct TGV from Hendaye to Paris. Previously it used to be at 9.40, so now we had 1 hour to sit at the Café de la Gare, and had three cups of tea while waiting. There is an early TGV at 6.30, changing in Bordeaux and arriving into Paris around 12.00.

The train leaves on time, but there are a few stops between Hendaye and Bordeaux, and afterwards there are plenty of work in the railroads, meaning that we will reach Paris with a delay of around 20 minutes, at 16.30. From Montparnasse we get a taxi to our hotel near Gare de L´Est. And here we got another "nice" taxi driver to add to our list. There are three of us, each with a carry-on and a small bag, but very bulky due to the winter coats, so I wanted to sit in the front, but I wasn´t allowed. The cabby had his cigarettes and his newspaper sitting there. So, we had to manage to squeeze into the backseat. There was a big traffic jam, and when we arrived to Gare de L´Est, our driver wanted to drop us there. There were many people waiting for a taxi, so I guess he saw "business". I had to remember a few words in french I didn´t even know I could say, with a little help from my mother, and we got dropped at the entrance of the hotel, just two minutes from there (137 FF, including luggage). I say we could have done by metro, but not with my mum´s girlfriend.

The hotel is O.K., although I have found that the IBIS in Portugal or in the french roads are better. The good thing is that it´s located really near from the train station, and we had a very early train.

We left our carry-ons at the rooms, and headed straight to the nearest metro station in Gare de L´Est. I bought a carnet (10 tickets, 55 FF), and got the metro down to the Louvre. We enter into the shop gallery from the metro station and got out towards the Arch du Carousel. There weren´t a lot of Christmas decorations yet. The weather was fine, and I got a few pictures of the Lei pyramid. We walked up towards the Champ Elysees along the Rue de Rivoli. I wanted to stop in Angelina, but it was a bit late, so we went on walking. We had to stop in Place Vendome, because my mum´s friend wanted to see all the jewellers. I think she is only happy when she has a diamond nearby.

There were plenty of policemen all around Paris. It looked like a high-security event was taking place.

It wasn´t really cold, and we saw the big Christmas ferriswheel on Concorde. We crossed the Seine through the Pont Alexandre, and there it was. All the new illuminations of the Seine, and a really bright Eiffel Tower. The previous week was probably very cold and icy, because there was still salt on the footpath in the bridge. We decided to walk up to the Quartier Latine, and have dinner some place there. It was only 19.30, and everywhere was almost deserted, except for a few tourists. So we began to walk along Boulevard Saint-Germain.

There weren´t so many people sitting in the Café de Flore or Deux-Maggots, but of course, they are also expensive enough (23 FF or 24 FF just an expresso, 41 FF a beer). Afterwards, it was just window-shopping in all the restaurants we found along the way. We were really hungry, only had a rice salad for lunch, and it had been a long day. I would have settled for a japanese restaurant, but Gabi wasn´t very keen on raw fish, so my mother opted for a small Greek restaurant just off Rue Buci, really scruffy looking. I think it´s called Orestis, and it was founded in 1928. Everything seemed to come from that year. It had long tables, with paper napkins and paper tablecloth. The decoration was mainly hunting, not very greek, really old lamps, but the owners were greeks (nice people) and most of the people sitting there were french people, they seemed to be habituals. Mum and myself shared a green salad, moussaka, nice, and apple tart (really good, this one), and Gabi had a green salad. They wrote the order on the tablecloth, and that was. 92 FF altogether, not too bad for Paris, I think, and we had a nice dinner (although I think it was the beginning of our holiday companion from hell adventures, because Gabi kept complaining all the time).

From there, it was time to get a metro back to our hotel, and get to bed. It was going to be a long day, and we had to get our beauty sleep.

Back in the hotel I called home to check on the family. Thanks God for the mobile phones. They are really useful, although it´s still expensive to call from a different country than yours.

30 of November 1999 - Tuesday

A really early day. 5.30 in the morning, thanks God that the shower is good. I still cannot understand how my mother manages to be so awake, so early. We went down at 6.15 for our breakfast (supposed to be coffee or tea, juice, bread and croissants) and there was only coffee and bread. After a lot of pleading we got 4 croissants, and they took away the bread. Great. So we got out of the hotel by 6.30, and mum picked up one paper, "Le Figaro", because she thought we deserved it. Not having a good breakfast, what a disaster. We had to buy a couple of baguettes at the train station.

Thanks God we were early at the station. We found our train (EC Mozart to Vienna and Graz), but when we arrived to our car, I saw that two seats were missing. We had the reservations since October, and I thought it was funny. I found a couple of unreserved seats, left the two girls taking care of the places, and went hunting for a conductor. When I finally got him, we found that there was an austrian woman complaining that she had the reservation for the only seat we had left. It happened that she had it booked for the next day, I don’t know if by mistake. Nevertheless, the conductor found three places for us, and changed our bookings.

The train belongs to the Austrian Railways, and it is a bit different to the french ones. We had place enough behind our seats to put the carry-ons and the bags, but I think you have to arrive early in order to get enough place. We were travelling in an "open" car, not in compartments. That gave us more space for our things, and although it was a mixed car (smoking and non-smoking), there wasn’t so many people smoking. As the train was leaving from France, we had to validate (composter) our tickets prior to departure.

And there we were, sitting in our train towards Vienna. There were an american couple going to Vienna (they slept all the way to Vienna from Paris), two iranian businessmen, some french people, and us.

The First World War plains were running in front of us, as we headed towards Nancy and Strasbourg. Mum was checking her Europe map, chanting names as we were passing through, and Gabi slept on the window seat. The weather was gray and dull, and we couldn’t see much light.

Also we were going very slow, due to railworks, as the previous day with the TGV.

In Strasbourg we got more travel companions, mostly japanese people. We went across the border, and the police got on the train in Kehl. They were checking very thoroughly all the people that were carrying middle eastern passports, specially the iranian ones. I think that it might have been caused due to the death sentence of Ocalan. There is a big kurdish minority in Germany, and I understand the german worries.

Also, through the whole travel in Germany we had to show the tickets to I don´t know how many conductors. Thinking that the german railways have been privatised (and they have lost a lot in the meantime), it looked as if they were trying to fight the unemployment.

We went for lunch in the restaurant car. The menu was thoroughly an austrian offer. A good way to get into the mood. If you pay by credit card, you get charged in Austrian Schillings, but you could pay in FF, DM,… It wasn´t very expensive, and the food was nice. Vegetable Strudel, a huge salad, goulasch, apfelstrudel, coffee, beer and mineral water, 332 ATS (not counting the tip). And it was a refreshing change from our seats.

My only problem was that Gabi began to read (already one day into the holidays), the dossier I had printed for them, and then she realized that we had 15 hours by train from Paris to Vienna. A few glances towards us, and mutterings of "you deceived me". Alright, life is hard, sometimes. I was happy that mum was enjoying her time in the train.

There we were told by the waiter that it was going to be a delay in Munich, and that we would arrive to Salzburg with 30 minutes delay.

The train goes across Baden-Baden, Stuttgart, Ulm (we see the cathedral tower really well from the train. It´s huge and impressive).

Many people travelling around.

We still had a bit of light before reaching Munich, so we could see the Alps in the distance, gleaming with the last rays of sunshine.

We were on time in Munich, but afterwards we got diverted (the cause of the delay). The ground around us was pitch black, and the snow falling, and the fir trees so dark… By the time we arrived to Salzburg, we still had three hours of journey. We could see the fortress as we crossed over the river. There they took away the last three cars in the train, that were heading towards Graz.

We passed Linz and St.Pölten, and we could see Melk Abbey from our window, and after a while, there we were. Vienna at last!

It was almost 21.45, and we had -1º. Not so bad for that time of the year. There are elevators from the platforms to the entrance and to the metro, so it´s not a problem to carry your luggage. More complaints about "there are planes that fly into Vienna", "only poor people go by train", "I am freezing", and into a taxi. Brand new Mercedes, I could sit in the front, didn´t try to get us through a long way, and 140 ATS from the station to the hotel, including tip. The driver took us across the Hofburg into the old town (another complaint, "Vienna is not like Prague"), and we reached the hotel. It´s a bit difficult to get there by car, too many one-way streets, but we had arrived. I had sent an e-mail the previous week saying that we were going to be late, and they told me that wasn´t a big problem.

The hotel has a beautiful Jugendstil-lift, and they also have a small roof garden that might be nice in the hot summer nights.

We got our rooms, 405 and 404. Our room didn´t have much place to put the clothes, but we weren´t carrying so much, twin beds painted in white, two small armchairs with a coffeetable and cable TV. The bathroom was big enough, although it had a small problem, as mum said: "Where are the shower curtains?". We managed during the week with a hand-held shower. Gabi´s room was smaller than us, and she had a shower-stall, which she regretted, and she kept complaining about the lousy travel agent that had booked the hotel (it had been me, via Web, and asking my friends to check my list of hotels and say if they were OK). Her room had not been completely renovated yet, as ours, but I had seen worst things in 4-star hotels in London.

Anyway, we left the things and went out for a quick walk along Kärtnerstrasse and Graben. There were plenty of people walking around, and by the time we got back to the hotel we were so tired that we fell straight into bed.

We got up early. I had to pick up our tickets for "The magic flute", and they were opening at 9.00. By 8.30 we were sitting in the breakfast room. Plenty of cold meats, cheese and different kind of spreads (although I do not recommend the matjes spread unless you like herrings), boiled eggs, cereals, breads, butter, honey and jams. Twinnings tea and good coffee. All that you need for a long day sightseeing. There were a few retired women that were doing walking tours every morning, and two english couples. The waitresses were nice and attentive.

I couldn´t guess the temperature, only that it was cold, so we got our scarves and globes, and headed to do our work.

First thing, we went to the tourist office. I picked up a few broschures in Spanish for Gabi (although in the hotel they have plenty of papers, they give you maps, programs,…), and for myself the Ball calender. I am seriously thinking about going next February or March to a ball, but first I must organize the friends.

From the tourist office, located until beginning of next year in the Kärtner Strasse near to the Opera, it is just 5 minutes away from the Bundestheaterkassen, where we should pick up the tickets. Turn right, walk along the Sacher Hotel, and there, in front of you, you can see them. There are many advertisements for the various opera and theatre houses in Vienna, so you won´t miss it. I carried a printed e-mail I had got with the reservation number, and I only had to pick up the tickets. I had already paid back in October, but I could have waited until 4 days prior to the representation day in order to send my credit card number or to transfer the money to the bank account they indicated in the e-mail. We got great seats, on the sixth row. Each of them costed 900 ATS plus 30 ATS as booking fee, a bit on the expensive side, but we wanted to have a fine seat. And at the end it deserved it.

After taking care of the small things, we headed towards the Kaisergruft in Neuermarkt. The way it looks in the outside, so clean and simple, doesn´t prepare for the graves to be found inside. Mum and myself had already been there, but nevertheless… Some of the graves are being restaured, and you could see them working on them. They did a good job on the Karl IV grave.

Sisi´s grave was full with flowers, specially from Hungarians. The last one to be buried there, empress Zita, also has fresh flowers. She lived for a few years in Lekeitio, near Bilbao, after his husband´s resignation, and their son, Otto, is still around in the European Parliament.

Practical things. I asked for a "Pensionistenermässigung". In Austria women can get discounts in many things (for the train you have to get an special card) once they reached 60 years old. For men is 65 years old. They didn´t ask for any ID, so it was 1 adult and two Pensionisten. I had brought with me my university card, but I should have got an ISIC card to get the student discount. From then on, any place we went, I was asking for discounts. You never lose, and you have many things to win.

Afterwards we headed to the Hofburg. We walked around the streets between Kärtner and Graben. In Graben we had our first and last punch of the season. Still I am not used to the glühwein, I find it too sweet and spicy. We decided that we only wanted to visit the Imperial Appartments. They aren´t anything special, too much of Sisi for my taste, but I suppose she draws the crowds. Now that I think about it, there is a fine book on Sisi by an austrian writer… I´ll post it at the end. At the Hofburg I had my breaking-point. Gabi bought a Sisi postcard, 8 ATS only, and she wanted me to ask if she could pay with DM. I am afraid I blew off my head, specially after she told me that the Mark was strong currency, and that poor countries are delighted to get some of them. I think I started to rant about the Euro, the fact that all of us are tied on to the Euro, and going down fast, fast, fast, including the Mark… So I headed towards the street, and waited there for a while, trying to breath in the cold air.

We thought about going to the butterfly exhibition at the Palmenhaus, in the Burggarten, but we were too tired and too hungry. Mum decided that it was time to "humble" me (sometimes she is not a "real" mother, and I agree with Calvin when he says that his parents come from outer space), so she opted for finding out a place that has been recommended to Gabi. Some self-service near the Auditorium, she had been told. I guessed it should be Rosenberger, just off Kärtner Strasse, because probably her friend was meaning the Stadtoper when she said Auditorium. It´s OK, specially if you don´t feel comfortable with the language, although there were too many people. It was overcrowded, and we didn´t have so much, just roasted vegetables. For a self-service restaurant, I don´t think it was so cheap.

I had got a listing at the tourist office with all the musical cafés, and we thought of having a coffee at the Landtmann, but they didn´t have any music, and there was only one table. So… straight into the Christkindlmarkt, by the Town Hall. I think there are better Christmas markets than this one. It can get too glitzy and kitsch, although it is good fun to go there. After a while, I decided that we were really needing a break, so we tried the Café Central.There was piano music, cakes and we could relax for a while. We had two melanges (coffee with milk, afraid I am bit of a classical when it comes to coffee in Vienna, although sometimes I would opt for a kleiner Brauner), cake (Café Central Torte, with chocolate and nuts, it´s easier to eat than the Sachertorte) and camomile tea (Kamillentee. We drink it in Spain when you have an upset stomach, and it´s also quite useful when you need a coffein-free hot drink ). Including tip (never forget the tips in Vienna, unless the service was really lousy), 170 ATS. I don´t think it so expensive. You can stay as long as you want, get the papers (many times you also has english papers), and enjoy the view of the people sitting and chatting away. After almost two hours, we went back to the cold streets.

Café Central is located in the Palais Ferstel. During the ball season, there are many balls celebrated in that palace. There is a shopping arcade, with very nice shops, and a couple of courtyards. At this time of the year, the courtyards are decorated with lights and with punsch tents. Just when you cross the shopping arcade, you find the Freyung. In Advent and Easter there is a market, smaller, but much better than the one at the Town Hall.

We walked up to the hotel, crossing Am Hof and arriving to the Graben. I had planned to meet a friend late that evening, and we bought tickets for a gospel concert at the cathedral for my mum and Gabi. A bit expensive, though.

I met my friend at the Segafredo café in Graben. I know, it´s not a typical viennese café, but it´s a classical meeting point, and the italian coffee is good. He was going skiing on the Thursday, for the opening weekend of the season, so I enjoyed telling him that we had already had two weeks of ski season in Spain (not that there were so many open resorts, but…).

By the time I was back at the hotel, mum was already in bed. The concert had been a bit of a disappointment, because the public was on the cold side and didn´t react to the singers. Also, there wasn´t any heating at the cathedral (it´s normal, because heating can affect these old buildings, but not so nice for people staying inside for a couple of hours).

A bit of television, trying to find out it something was happening, and straight to bed. It had been a long and interesting day.

Another early call. I thought I was on holidays, and it seems as if it´s getting worse every day.

First thing of all, we had to change some money. It doesn´t matter is you change in a bank or in an automat, they have the same rates. And afterwards, walk up to Karlsplatz, to get a three-day ticket and jump into the metro, towards Schonbrünn. The automatic ticket machines are not very good. They only have displays in German (and it looks as official German, worst of all), and if you don´t speak it. That wasn´t my case, but it is complicated nevertheless. The good thing about the 72-hour ticket is the fact that it lasts 72 hours from the moment you validate the ticket (yes, there are small orange boxes at the entrance of the metro where you put your ticket. But you do it only once). If you are planning to stay for a week, beginning on Monday, you would be better off getting a Wochenkarte (week card). You need a photo, and you can get it in Tabaks (tobacco shops) or at the counters in the main metro stations.

We got into the U4 line, towards Hütteldorf, and got off at Schönbrunn station. The next one, Hietzing, has the imperial station building, built by Otto Wagner, but it wasn´t open that day.

There were many young kids around Schönbrunn, with the teachers, and very well behaved. I say it gets worse when you are a teenager. The small Christmas market inside Schönbrunn was already set up, but we left it for the time we finished visting the palace (another place I hadn´t been to). I tried to get the discounts, but they didn´t have any, and also they didn´t accept credit cards. Thanks God I had enough cash with me, but there was a Bankomat just in the foyer, so you can get money. We opted for the Grand Tour (the most expensive one), and it is really worth the money. Short after the entrance you can pick up an audio guide in many different languages, that is included in the price. Pick it up, because the explanations on the rooms are not so lenghty, and just in English and German. The good thing about this tour is that it takes you not only through the Franz-Joseph and Elisabeth rooms, but also you go through the Maria-Theresia rooms, and they can be impressive. The only hiccup we encountered was that we met with two of the guided tours of the palace, but it was in the last ten rooms. We had to fight our way through the people. One of them was in German, and the other one was in English, French and Italian. More than 40 people in each one. You can imagine how it was the multicultural tour. The guide was going up and down the line, trying to speak at the same time in three or four languages, people talking loudly,… and really, the audio guide tells you more than it was being said by the guides (in any of the languages, I assure you). I loved the China room, and when you see the state bedroom. Well, that´s a "real" bed. They didn´t use it for normal sleeping, just to show off, and it is out of this world.

At the end of the tour you have the opportunity of sending an e-mail with a picture of Schönbrunn and another picture of yourself, so we decided not to send postcards to my brother and sister, and we sent them an e-mail instead. It only costs 20 ATS for 3 e-mail addresses, and I think it´s pretty good value. They thought it was hilarious when they got our message at the office, and my brother´s boss has promised to send something in spring, when he will spend his holidays there. I wasn´t going to write it, but this time the one that got incensed was my Mum. Her friend thought that we were really careless by sending these e-mails to my brother and sister office address, because sure their managers would get the message before them… I closed my "big" mouth, and just watched Mum trying to explain how e-mail works, why it wouldn´t be such a big problem,… Interesting, very.

We got out, had a look to the Christmas market in Schönbrunn, and walked up to the Gloriette. The weather was quite windy, and I was afraid about the pictures, but I have just got them developed and they look gorgeous. There was still a bit of snow, and we really enjoyed the view upon Vienna.

By the time we were back in the city, it was late enough to go for lunch. Mum decided to go to a Wienerwald restaurant. The main food is chicken, and she thought that Gabi might like it more than a usual austrian restaurant, and maybe would talk to us. She had stopped speaking since Schönbrunn, and was walking up the Kärtnerstrasse muttering about the lousy travel agent that had booked the hotel. There is a Wienerwald just opposite the cathedral, in a small street. I had chicken breast with roasted vegetables, Mum had a chicken soup and Gabi had roasted chicken. It tasted good, and it is not expensive.

By the time we got out, it was beginning to rain. We thought of dedicating the afternoon to do a bit of shopping, so we jumped into the Badner Lokalbahn (blue tram, leaves from the Stadtoper) and went to SCS (Shopping City Sud) - Vösendorf. With any transport card you only have to buy a ticket for a single zone (that would be 38 ATS return). We went into IKEA, and had a look around. Finally we got some words from Gabi (I think she likes shopping), and when we were back in Vienna, we went into the Ringstrassen Gallerien. More shops!!!

What we did see, was a folklore group from Styria, dressed as goats and demons and running around the people, with bells and music. Very funny. The 6th of December is Saint Nicholas, aka Nikolo. Nikolo comes into the streets, accompanied by Krampus (a red devil), and bring presents to the children. There are many Krampus parties on that weekend, and you have to dress in black and red. The styrian goats were supposed to be the people accompanying Krampus.

By that time, we were quite tired, and we only wanted to have a cup of coffee. We rested for a while at the hotel, and then we went to visit Augustin, in the Griechenbeisl. I don´t know if you have heard the song of Augustin. There is a story in Vienna about an old drunkard during the pest times in the 17th century. He was sleeping in the streets after too much wine, and they thought it was one of the corpses, so they threw him inside one of the communal graves. To everybody´s surprise, soon afterwards he woke up and got out of the grave, singing that song (O mein lieber Augustin). He hadn´t been affected by the pest, due to the alcohol he had in his body, and that was a way to solve the epidemics. I guess everything is fake, but in the floor at the entrance of the Griechenbeisl (Fleischmarkt, round the corner from the hotel), there he is, still sitting inside a hole, old drunkard Augustin.

From there we walked up into the Café Hawelka, off Graben. It´s a really funny place. It has the same owners since the Thirties, although this time I haven´t seen Herr Hawelka. Really old-fashioned, if there isn´t any place to seat, they put you up with some other people, always full, noisy,... Frau Hawelka is an institution, so old and frail, always in the kitchen but always keeping an eye in the café, to go and say hi if someone famous comes in. They have buchteln, a nice pastry. Mum was delighted with being there. We had three melanges, and just looked around. A table was booked, and a group of really well-dressed people arrived, with flowers. They looked as actors, and Frau Hawelka came out straight away, drying her hands with a tea-towel and kissing everybody. My mum interrogated one of the waiters (for the women in the list, a really good-looking waiter, like a young Alain Delon), and the poor thing couldn´t tell her anything, but offered to go and ask. It was funny.

When we went away, Frau Hawelka came unto us and began kissing my mum and telling her how young she looked, and thanks a lot for coming to Vienna, and enjoy, and all of those things. So Mum was delighted with herself, and really, really proud. Not that dear old Gabi was so happy. She had wanted to go into the Sacher, all gold and red velvet, and we were in this smoky haunt… But Mum was beginning to enjoy the time there, and that was good.

Back in the hotel I saw in the CNN that there had been an explosion west of Vienna, so we called home to tell that everything was fine.

The weather looked a bit better this morning, and we were up by 7.30. After breakfast, we headed towards Oper in order to get the tram D to Belvedere. Trams are one of the best things in Vienna, red and squeaky. We jumped out of the tram at Belvedere. You must listen careful to the adverts in the public transport. If they are leading to a touristy place, sometimes they say the name of the place and of the street.

Belvedere Museum has been "upgraded" in the last years. Now you have to begin from the top floor, where you can find an interesting collection of Biedermeier paintings, and from then you must go down to the first floor, with all the Klimts, Kokostchkas and Schieles you were expecting. Afterwards you can walk down the park towards Lower Belvedere, the palace where Prince Eugen of Saboye lived. Upper Belvedere was used for parties, although at the beginning of the century was home to Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, the first victims of the First World War in Sarajevo.

In Lower Belvedere you can find plenty of Baroque Objects d´Art, an interesting change to the paintings found in Upper Belvedere.

It has good explanation displays, both in German and English, and also you can ask for reductions.

On seeing the fine weather, we headed towards the Ring, passing through the monument to the soviet soldier. It´s a magnificent statue, up on a pinnacle, but now its shield and helmet have fallen prey to a very Viennese custom : they have been painted with gold. Quite a surprise, I couldn´t resist and I had to get a picture. The French Embassy is located at the same place, really beautiful building.

From then we walked to the Ring, buying a few krapfen in a bakery, and stopped by the Strauss monument (another victim of the Gold. Years ago it was black), walked along the Stadtpark and the Wien river, and arrived to the Postsparkasse, a turn-of-the-century building by Otto Wagner, still working, along the Donaukanal (not a lot to see of the beautiful blue Danube), and up the Seitenstettengasse. This was the only place in Vienna where we could actually see policemen patrolling the streets. This is due to the only sinagogue standing in Vienna. It´s located in what is called the Bermuda Dreieck (Bermuda´s Triangle). There are many bars and restaurants open until late, specially for the young crowd.

The hotel was quite near, and we wanted to try a greek restaurant in our street, but it was closed, so we went to an Italian one, also there. My mum had lemon sole and I had tagliatelle with spinachs, and it was quite cheap, only 200 ATS including tip. Dear old Gabi (I haven´t spoken about her for a long time) had only a fruit salad, and according to her statement, it was horrendous.

After lunch we had to go to the Hundertwasserhaus. I guess there are people who like all these childish Hundertwasser designs (colors and irregularities on the ground), but it´s not exactly my piece of cake. Gabi had only two desires since the day we walked into the Tourist Office: visit the Café Sacher and see the Hundertwasserhaus. My mum didn´t say "close your eyes and think of England", but almost… So down to Schwedenplatz, and up into a tram. You really have to listen carefully in this case, in order not to miss your stop. I was very bad, I didn´t tell her that there was a museum nearby, the KunstHausWien, but I couldn´t. So I made them get another tram, and once in Schwedenplatz, we got the tram 1 until Schottentor, to see the Votivkirche. A huge neogothic church built in the place of an assasination attempt of Franz Josef during the 1850´s. It´s huge, dark and cold, cold, cold. It made the weather outside warmer in comparison. We thought about finishing with all the Christmas Markets (I´ll post at the end a couple of web pages about these ones), so we went up to the Mariahilfer (the main commercial street in Vienna, too crowded ) and into Spittelberg. I got myself a punsch mug to keep as a memento, although I couldn´t drink it. It has too many spices, and it is too sweet for my taste. We walked down to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and there we got the J tram to the Musikverein. It was only a short walk to the Karlskirche Advent Market. It is small, and very familiar. There aren´t many tourists, really, and it is pretty much a market for the viennese people.

Coming back from the market, we stopped at one of the souvenir shops in the Kärtnerstrasse to get a cloth calender for next year. The previous year I had bought a couple of them, but this time it looked as if there wasn´t a big selection, although we managed to get a good one.

I left the girls at the hotel, and I went out to meet a friend. We went for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant around the corner from the hotel, called "Wrenkh". I had been there only once previously, and I recalled it as fairly expensive, but I suppose things changed in the meantime. Food is very vegetarian, I should say, and after request they prepare vegan food. I had spätzle (a kind of tyrolean noodles) with "mangold" (similar to spinachs, but I have never found the name in English. We called it acelgas, and we eat them pretty much, but it look as if in english-speaking countries they are not eaten), and a glass of "weisser gespritzt´", the young viennese white wine. My friend had another spätzle dish and a beer, and everything, including tip, was less than 300 ATS. The crowd in "Wrenkh" is youngish and a bit on the sophisticated side (like everyone in Vienna lately, I should say). You know what I mean, a lot of black, expensive sunglasses as hairbands,…

From there we went into the Bermuda triangle. There were many people in the bars (Krah-Krah, Ma Pitom, Roter Engel, Kaktus, Ron y Bebida, Salzamt, some of the names), but we managed to find a table at Aera, and then my friend proceeded to scare me with the news about the bad weather coming for the weekend (between you and me, it didn´t happen).

By the time I was back at the hotel, after 1 a.m., there were still many people in the streets going to and fro. To tell the truth, much more alive than Paris.

This was the last day if we wanted to do a bit of shopping, so mum and I headed towards the SPAR supermarket around the corner to buy a few things we were going to need on the journey back and at home. Chocolate, cookies, cold meats, cheese, yoghurts,… It has a good selection, and it is very useful. It opens the whole day, from 8.00 a.m. till 19.30 p.m.

We were going to the Naschmarkt (the daily fresh products market), and as we walked down the Kärtnerstrasse I ordered a Sachertorte to be delivered to my office. We always have to bring presents, and I didn´t feel like dragging a box of chocolates around Europe. It is a bit expensive, but it was worth it. Now it is finished, and I have kept the wooden box. Must think what to put inside…

The Naschmarkt is very near by foot, although many people opt for getting the U4 until Kettenbrückengasse. It really deserves a visit, if only just to see the fruits, the cheeses, the meats and fishes, eat a kebab, the Jugendstil buildings around it, like the Majolikahaus (on your right, as you walk from the Sezession building into the Naschmarkt)… There are many, many people walking around and doing a bit of shopping, so be careful with your belongings. The "marché aux puces" that you can find from the Kettenbrückengasse metro station onwards has gone down a lot, although still you might find something interesting (and expensive also).

As there was a bank holiday on the 8th of December, there were many Italians spending a long weekend in Vienna. We didn´t enter into the Sezession due to this reason. Mum and I had already seen it before, and our friend wasn´t really into saying if she wanted or not. I left them and went into a couple of bookshops to get some books, and afterwards we met at the hotel, and went out for our dinner. I took them to the "Zu den den drei Hacken", in Singerstrasse. On the way there we stopped at the Deutschmeisterkapelle, where a wedding was taking place, and everybody was singing.

I have always liked this restaurant. It is not very big, but we were lucky and got a table. It has a traditional decoration and a good service. Mum and I shared our meal : veal wiener schnitzel, gröstl (a typical tyrolean dish, with bacon, potatoes, eggs, really hearty), salad, mineral water and another "weisser gespritzt´". All together 320 ATS, including tip. I do not find so expensive to eat out in Vienna, specially if you think that many times is more than enough with just one dish.

From there it was back into the hotel. We had to rest for a while before going out to the Volksoper. It took us half an hour to arrive there with the metro (U3 from Stephans into the Westbahnhof - I wanted to know how much time we were going to need on Monday morning - and U6 from Westbahnhof into Volksoper). We were there at 6.00, and the opera didn´t begin until 7.00, so we sat at a café, and have two melanges and a camomille tee. We could have walked down into the Weimar, just five minutes from there, a very nice café with an adjacent disco, but we wanted to stay near. The coffee wasn´t brilliant, but we could see many people coming into the café for a quick pre-theatre dinner or a glass of bubbly. There were many children, and most of the people was dressed-up.

Our seats were very good, sixth row. We left the coats and the thick jumpers mum and me were wearing over our "dressy" tops in the garderobe (13 ATS each person). I had carried with me a pair of black pants and a glittering top I had bought for a summer wedding, with a velvet stole bought in Liberty´s last year. Mum was wearing a black skirt and another "wedding" top. The clothes didn´t take a lot of space, and I used the trousers and the stole on the next days. Packing took a lot of thinking, and I know I have to refine my packing, but if I have managed to pack 9 days of cold winter weather into a carry-on, well, I´m in the good way. Next challenge will be packing ski wear. That will be worse…

Onto the opera. I got the program (32 ATS). Probably the singers weren´t the best, but the voices were nice, they were good actors, and "The magic flute" is a very funny opera. It had a modern setting, and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Around 8.30 there was an interlude, and everybody rushed to the foyer, to get something to eat and a glass of sekt. It ended up at around 10.00, so we walked down to the nearest tram stop, and went down to Schottentor. You can get the trams 40, 41 and 42 to and from Schottentor, and you can be at the Volksoper in 15 minutes. From Schottentor we walked through the city into the hotel.

It was snowing slowly.

This was a terrible Sunday. Mum had seen that in the Jesuitenkirche, just 5 minutes from the hotel, there was a Mass from Monteverdi at 10.00 a.m. So, up early again, breakfast, and by 9.30 we were sitting in the cold wooden benches of an impressive baroque church, in order to go to Mass and listen to a choir (Missa Monteverdi 1640 and an ofertorium by Bruckner). It was the Augustiner choir, and they sing there every Sunday of the year. But I got really cold while sitting there, waiting for so long, and the Mass was long also, with a nice preach about the time the priest was a missionary in India. He was a good speaker, though.

The weather looked like snowing, but anyway we decided to go up to Kahlenberg, in the Vienna Woods. We had to get a metro ticket (24 hours), that would serve us for the next morning ride into the station. We went up from Oper with the D tram until Grinzingerstr. Along the way you pass along the Karl-Marx-Hof, huge and with a long history behind it from the times of the 1934 Revolution. All of these constructions of the thirties Red Vienna are really interesting. They were built to improve the housing needs of large amounts of proletarian population, because the previous hygienical conditions... I still remember one of these "Hofs" near my house, where you could see the bullet marks of the 34’ battles.

Once in Grinzingerstr you get off the tram and get on the 38A bus. Many people were doing the same as us, and it´s not difficult to find the stop across the street. We went through Grinzing (not the best time of the year to visit a Heurigen) up to Cobenzl and from there to the end stop, Kahlenberg. There is a nice restaurant on the summit, a polish church (closed when we arrive) and a view all over Vienna and the Donau. Great, if it wasn´t for the wind and the cold. There were quite a few people hiking through the well-marked paths in the Woods, and you can walk down to Grinzing (passing through the Krapfenwaldbad, public open-air swimming-pool open in summer, with the best views over Vienna. Perfect after a few stressed days, when in summer). But we couldn´t do it, because Gabi was wearing high heels, and really, she couldn´t really walk properly. So, it was down with the bus (there are many and frequent buses), and in Grinzing we got on the 38 tram, that goes down until Schottentor.

We walked through the Freyung, having a last look at the Xmas market, and eating a very good sausage in the street. There was another open-air market in Am Hof, with many crystal things, books, china,…

I decided that we deserved to have a good Sunday dinner, so we headed towards the Griechenbeisl. I think I have told it before, but if not. There has always been a kind of inn, restaurant in this place since the XVth century. It has a few floors with various eating rooms. It´s a bit on the expensive side, but it was Sunday, we were on holidays, so what the hell´s? Mum had a chicken soup followed by Tafelspitz with vegetables (Tafelspitz is a boiled joint of beef, that was the preferred meal of Franz Josef. Mum said it was tasty and tender) and I had vegetable soup, and, I must confessed , I am sorry, my Daffy Duck won´t talk to me any more… I had roasted duck with red cabbage. It was yummy. Add onto this two "weisser gespritzt`", and we paid 640 ATS. It wasn´t bad, I couldn´t eat anything else, except an orange we had bought the previous day in the Naschmarkt. The waiter was really nice and helpful, and their menu is written in various languages. A bit touristy, I know, but nowadays you cannot cater only for your local customers, there are more people outside.

By the time we had finished with the meal, it was a bit late, so we headed to the Braunerhof, near the Dorotheum and the Hofburg, to have a coffee and hear a bit of music. Every Sunday a trio plays classical music there, and if you are hungry for papers in english or in french, you can have them. I saw a good Calvin and Hobbes strip at the International Herald Tribune. We stayed until closing time (around 7.00 pm), and got back to the hotel. We payed our bill that night, because we wanted to leave early, and although the breakfast room opens at 7.00 am, they told us that we could go down earlier.

I finally went out to meet my friends and say good-bye. Two of them are expecting a baby for April, and we, the girls spent the time talking about bits and pieces. They live in Margaretenstr., near the Naschmarkt, and there a couple of good bars and restaurants around there. By the time my friend drove to the hotel, it was beginning to snow again.

We woke up too early. We had already packed the previous day, so we went early for our breakfast. There were many Italians (I told about the bank holiday) and Chinese coming down for breakfast, but we could eat properly and quite good, as all the previous days.

Our train was leaving at 8.45, so we left the hotel by 7.35, walked up to Stephansdom (thanks God for the wheels), and get the metro. We were in the train station by 8.00 am. Mum and I decided to invest 100 ATS in the bakery at the station (krapfen and topfengolatschen - pastries filled with cheese).

Once in the train, there was a man that was confused with his reservation (he had a reservation for the previous day), so we got our seats. There were a few young children and people going skiing to Salzburg. The sun was shining, and we were able to see all the landscape that on the coming journey had been dark in the middle of the night. We saw Melk from our window, the Danube, Linz,… Mum and I decided to spend time in the restaurant car. There is nothing nicer than seeing the snow on the fields while you are travelling, sipping coffee and eating strudel, and it wasn´t expensive, just around 100 ATS. I got some pictures from the train, Salzburg with the glistening Alps, a small village in the snow. They have come out quite OK. Once we passed Munich, we went again (the two of us, Gabi had decided to sleep all the way) to the restaurant. This time for a proper meal. A salad to share, wiener schnitzel and chicken kiev, mineral water and a glass of a brilliant white Burgundy wine, 425 ATS. I think that by this time of the journey the waiters knew us already. We stayed for a long time there, just watching people and the landscape. Many people came into the train in Stuttgart and in Strasbourg, and we decided to finish our train journey by calling for a coffee and a piece of Sachertorte. There were many people having dinner, but our friend the waiter managed to get us a table, and when the people around us saw how good the cake looked and tasted, they ordered more. It was the same people working, a cook and two waiters all the way from Vienna to Paris, and always with a smile and quick. That´s a hard job.

We arrived into Paris by 22.20 pm, and we got a taxi to our hotel. Again we had to sit in the back seat, and thanks God we knew more or less where the hotel was located, because he was trying to get us out to the Peripherique. When I began to ask where were we, well, we got a nice speech about the driver not being an italian "mafioso" and the like, but suddenly the taximeter went slower and we arrived to the hotel. I don´t know what is going with the taxi drivers in Paris, but I know quite a few people that complain about the rudeness, and it´s going on for a long time.

The hotel is small, and the rooms are diminute. At least we only need them for the night, but I wouldn´t recommend them for a long-term (more than two days) stay.

The train was leaving at 10.05 am, and we didn´t know how long would it take us to walk down to the station (we weren´t calling another taxi, no way). So we woke up around 7.15, get a shower, get dressed and down to the breakfast room. Very small room, many french businessmen. It was a typical french breakfast, bad orange juice and good croissants.

We left for the station, it took us around 10 minutes, all straight walking from the hotel, and we were there before 9.00 am. We bought a couple of sandwiches, and I bought a magazine at a bookstore. In the meantime, mum got another argument with Gabi. This time, because she wouldn´t take care of the bags of a woman that was supposed to travel in our same train. I know, maybe we are a bit paranoic, and I am bored to death with the questions from the BA land crew each time you fly with them (did you pack it personally, could someone put something in your suitcase, are you carrying anything strange), but in these times it is better to be overzealous than careless.

There were many people from Madrid in the train. Nothing special happened during the journey. We had a couple of bad coffees at the bar, and we arrived into Irun (Spain) at 15.45 pm. There was a bus leaving for Bilbao at 16.00 pm. There is a problem if you are carrying a lot of luggage, because you have to go down and up two flights of stairs in order to get to the main building in the station, and there isn´t any lift. The bus ticket office is located at the station main building. We bought ours, and sat down for the return trip. My brother had offered to pick us up, but there were three of us and the car is small. At the end it worked fine. The bus was more expensive than usual, but also it was much comfortable (not that the normal ones are bad. In fact they are quite good, and the bus is a good option in Spain), leather seats, free drinks and papers, and a useful toiletries bag at the end.

Once in Bilbao we got a taxi home, by 18.00 pm we were unpacking and my brother was sitting in the kitchen table eating the Milka chocolates we had brought, and driving us mad.

We finished our holidays by driving the next day to buy our Xmas tree, install in the balcony the lights we had bought in IKEA, and going to a restaurant on a mountain pass near the sea and have a nice grilled sea-bass while looking at the waves.

Now I am going to put a few of the web pages I checked, the books I read (both guides and novels), the hotel address,…

Guidebooks: I sent an e-mail asking for various brochures to the Vienna Tourist Office, and I got them soon and without any problem. I already owned an Eyewitness Guide and I bought the Rough Guide to Vienna, because I liked the way it talked about hotels, places, …

Books: I have read a couple of books by Joseph Roth and by Fredric Morton. They are quite interesting when you think about the turn of the century. Also A.J.P. Taylor´s book about the end of the Habsburg empire (I have just forgotten the name) and Brigitte Hamann´s book on Sisi (Empress against her will, could it be) really deserved to have a look. It´s not specifically a book on Austria, but I think that Daniel Goldhagen´s book, "Hitler´s willing executioners" has to be read, because there are a lot of things going on the history that one must know (in the same way that if you are going to Ireland, you should read Conor Cruise O´Brien "Ancestral voices").

Films: Mum had to watch again "The third man" on video. If you are interested, the café Mozart is around the corner from the Sacher Hotel, and it is still alive and kicking.

Hotel Address: I booked throught the hotel reservation service in the Vienna Tourist Office web page. What I did was first checked in which hotels there were rooms for the time of the year I wanted. I refined my search to the centrum, because I didn´t want to be far away of things, and I wanted to be able to walk around. Afterwards, I checked in guidebooks and in the Web for reviews, and finally (this time I was lucky), asked my friends to have a look. Here is the address:

http://www.karntnerhof.com

Hotel Kärtnerhof

Grashofgasse, 1

1010 - Wien

Austria

Fax nr. ++43 - 1 - 513 22 28 33

As I had told already, friendly staff, good breakfast, fine location, summer roof-garden. Some of the rooms have been already renovated. A very good value for money, I would come back any time.

I booked the hotels in Paris with my tourist agent. They belong to the IBIS chain, and their names are IBIS-Gare de l´Est and IBIS-Maine Montaparnasse. The best way to find them is through the web page :

http://www.hotelweb.fr/HOTELWEB/index.htm

Useful in their sense, clean, dependable. They were just what we were looking for, but not for a long stay.

Xmas markets: Some of you asked what was a Xmas market. I have collected a few addresses that might give you an idea.

http://www.christkindlmarkt.at/

Afterwards, I have "surfed" around a lot in the last years. If you can speak and read German, I like the following address for an austrian newspaper

http://DerStandard.at/

And now a mix of web addresses, some of them helpful, some of them not so much.

Austria culture information system: http://www.aeiou.at/

Austria National Tourist Office: http://www.austria-tourism.at/

Vienna Hype: http://www.viennahype.at/

Austrian Federal Theaters (with booking on-line system): http://www.oebthv.gv.at/

Falter magazine: http://www.falter.at/

Vienna Tourist Board: http://info.wien.at/e/index.htm

Wien online: http://www.magwien.gv.at/

Schonbrunn palace: http://www.schoenbrunn.at/

Belvedere: http://www.belvedere.at/

In many of these pages you can find links to other interesting places. I find the tourist office page most helpful.