vienna

I caught the train to Vienna with 3 other ladies at 6am this morning. It is a very pleasant train trip of around 2 hours 20 minutes and the city was already heating up by the time we arrived. We are in the middle of a heat wave that is expected to last for about 2 weeks. We caught the U-Bahn to the Naschmarkt which is a wonderful food market in the heart Vienna. Too bad it was too hot and too early in the day to buy much to carry around, but I did get some Asian ingredients that I can’t get locally.Two of us bought sun hats to wear - at 5am this morning I didn’t even think about sunscreen or sun hats. We then caught the train to the Vienna Prater which is a huge public park which houses the oldest amusement park in the world.
 I just lost the rest of my spiel after here as I was about to save it so I am adding a link to the Prater and the Riesenrad or giant ferris wheel, which is my blip. 
We didn’t ride on it in this heat instead opting for the air conditioned madame tussahs and a leisurely lunch in the shady gardens of the Schweizerhaus. We met the cousin of one of the girls for a drink just outside the park then caught the train to well known ice cream parlour. They really know how to do ice cream sundaes over here and they are so beautifully presented as well as delicious. i couldn’t decide between an ice coffee and an ice cream so I ordered the vanilla ice cream with coffee sauce and Baileys. It was to die for! 

We decided to catch the next train home but found it had left when we got to the station. Our time table was an old one and the next train was in 2 1/2 hours. We didn’t feel like walking around any more and found this lovely oasis (see extra) right next to the station. It is a canal belonging to the Danube and we managed to wile away the time quite easily. In the background of the extra photo is the Hundertwasser heating tower that I featured in a previous blip. We finally arrived home at 9.30, tired, after a lovely day with lots of laughter.