038 - wed 07 jun - halstatt/vienna

we caught the early ferry and the early train out of halstatt. we could have stayed there for weeks longer, just sucking in the views and the atmosphere of the place.

we arrived in vienna much later, at 1 pm. today, we were to meet our tour group who we had signed up to tour through central europe with. we found our assigned accommodation, the 'hotel mozart' (you may sense a pattern emerging in austria..) and we checked in.

as we were to be meeting up with our group at 6, we decided to spend the afternoon out at the schonbrunn palace. it is a grand palace and gardens a short train trip out of vienna. we wandered around the gardens and climbed a big big hill to get to a great view of vienna atop the gloriette. it was a sunny day with clear blue sky, at least until we descended the great hill. black clouds swept in with gusto. there were some foreboding views with the black clouds hanging in the sky right next to the bright blue sky. some would say that it looked 'cool'.

the rain passed quickly. we went back to the hotel. we met with our tour leader and our 10 fellow travellers, got through all the formalities and required form filling, and then all went out for dinner at a place specialising in schnitzel (not uncommon in vienna). unsurprisingly everyone ordered schnitzel, except me, i ordered beef in red wine sauce. after dinner, wherein much getting to know of people took place, we adjourned to a discotheque for a few beverages. drunk russian lads, and i'm not sure why we assumed they were russian, were clearly enjoying themselves vocally. suz and i stuck it out to the end with our new buddies, but we were all in bed by midnight. a good start to the tour.

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