Glad you're all enjoying the read so far gang! As you'll no doubt notice now, I've uploaded and captioned all my photos on Flickr.
Please be warned, if it's not already obvious, that this will be a trip report with a lot of photos! I shall be posting the text for Days 3-5 in a bit, and the photos added soon after. Why not all at once? The report is in memo files on my phone, and it's a giant PITA to link photos in from Flickr's mobile site!
Oh, and as a random update, I've tried some gluhwein now that my Mum had in the house. That was quite nice when I had some last night, I will be buying some more of that in for Christmas!
Sadly I didn't try it at the markets in Vienna, but I will be braver next time. I'm already looking at a possible visit to similar markets in Germany next year, although I'd also be happy with returning to Vienna and going back to the market at Rathaus!
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16/11/2016 - Tech's In Vienna, Day 3
A disturbed night due to the cold wind getting to my head, thanks to me being foolish and leaving my hat in the room, causing headaches but it was soon time to get up. It's been nice not relying on an alarm for the last couple of days, and preparations for the day begins before breakfast. As we discovered where the hot food was, we make a beeline for it this time. However we want to get going fairly rapidly today, so only have one coffee. Like Belgium, a decent size coffee like you can get in the UK doesn't seem to exist here, much to my disappointment.
Wiener Linen trams and cathedral, Schottentor, Vienna, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Vienna's Parliament building, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
We make our first use of the trams here today, and winner tram
30 rolls in to take us to winner shack Schottentor. It's about a 12 minute journey to the interchange with the U-Bahn, and it's fairly wet today as per forecast. The trainers were soon discovered to have a hole somewhere in them, as the feet got wet pretty quickly. Anyway, let's discuss these reasonably modern trams we got on. Rock solid thin red plastic seats which made Standard Class in a 387 feel like GWR HST First Class luxury. No, I wasn't a fan at all, and people moan about the seats on Midland Metro and other tram systems in the UK. I dare you to go to Vienna and try these trams out, then come back and tell me that they're more comfortable then trams back in the UK! Otherwise they did the job just fine, the PIS was pretty good although having the interchange information on the screens, not just by audio, would have made it far better. Midland Metro can manage it after all, as I'm sure other tram systems do! You're probably thinking I'm ranting a bit, but I had not yet travelled on one of the older trams...
Vienna Ring Tram, number 4867, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Look London! Vienna can manage bendy buses, why can't you?! Bendy buses viewed just south of the city centre, Vienna, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Back to the action, and we walked back to Rathaus as James needed to re-visit a stand that was just far too busy the night before. Mission accomplished, and it's more walking around the city exploring before we visit the other Christmas Market that opened today. It was nice, don't get me wrong, but not a patch on Rathaus' market! Even so, we both managed to find various things for Christmas presents, again this was the main reason for coming to Vienna, although gawping away at sights was a given from time to time. Hoffer [Aldi to you and me - Ed] is revisited for lunch, and we found a comic book shop by random chance again! This became a tradition having found one by chance in Stockholm in 2014, then it had to happen in New York in March 2016. Which it did, so the tradition was cemented into our trips!
McDonalds saw my first visit in many months, although we only popped in for coffee and a rest stop. Tiny coffee but for €1.20 I wasn't expecting much. I end up with an unexpected memento, as I have the half-filled loyalty card in my wallet now! By now we've had enough walking for now, so we make our first proper rail journey of the day on the U-Bahn, joining line U3 at winner shack Zieglergasse and taking 2085+2099+2092 to winner shack Volkstheater. James wished to get a Christelkindel Market cup too, so we decide to wait upstairs the 7 minutes for a line D tram to take us to Rathaus. As it was raining yet again, this was a good idea in theory. Oh yes it was until it kept losing time approaching our stop, which was winner shack Dr-Karl-Renner-Ring [why the tram stop doesn't share the Volkstheater name I don't know, but it counts as a seperate one! - Ed] and we finally board a very busy 4020+1420 to Rathausplatz on line D. Get ready for a rant!
These older trams have wooden floors and are just so narrow and cramped! I can't judge the seats as I didn't get to sample one, but 5 minutes stood on one of these felt like an hour. The steeps wooden steps, followed by that flimsy looking metal step, just made the tram bounce about too much when boarding and alighting, and I just couldn't wait to alight. I would have much preferred a bouncing 142 than these God-foresaken pieces of junk!
Ahhhh! That feels better now I've ranted about that. The deal now was that I get the punch including the cup, and he paid me back for the cup. That worked fine for me as I rather enjoyed the punch yesterday, and already had my cup for a memento. With that very much enjoyed, we have a little explore of the surrounding area before joining the U-Bahn again on line U2. Rathaus is a winner shack and we join 3905 for the trip to winner shack Praterstern. It seems an appropriate time to mention the lack of tweets during the day on this trip, as I'm sure you can imagine I was not willing to use mobile data! Those who have been following the action, I hope you enjoyed the selection of photos uploaded so far. It is also a good time to mention I found the U-Bahn superior to New York's Subway and would like to revisit it for clearance of the system. I seem to remember saying that two years ago with Stockholm's Metro, which I still haven't done!
Vienna's Giant Ferris Wheel all lit up, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Going round the ferris wheel, near the top, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Vienna by night from the ferris wheel, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Our next mission was to visit the Risenrad, also known as Vienna's Giant Ferris Wheel. This was only a short walk from Praterstern, and it looks rather nice lit up. We pay €8.50 each, as a Vienna Card brings a €1 discount [the only discount we used, so we didn't make the most of our €8.40 of discounts! - Ed] and go on the ferris wheel for the views of the city. I'm good with heights most of the time, otherwise I would never fly anywhere, and while the ferris wheel is perfectly safe when people moved around in the car you could feel it moving a bit. Therefore I made full use of the handrail but was still glad to get back onto terra firma! The views are indeed good, but it just doesn't compare to the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock or One World Observatory in New York. To be fair those would take some beating!
Cathedral (sorry I didn't note the name!) near Schottentor, Vienna, 16th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
After a quick wander around the amusement park, which must be amazing in tourist season, we make our way back to Praterstern and join triple winners for everything
2071+2098+2117 to Rathaus then walk to Schottentor. We take a few photos of the nearby cathedral, sadly ruined by scaffolding and an enormous car advert, and board winner tram
58 on line 44 to Yppengasse to get back to the hotel. Of course, as it was James' birthday, we went to Cafe Bon for a couple of large glasses of Villacher! During the couple of hours we spent in there, we got started on planning our massive 2018 trip. If that all pans out right, it would be a monster of a holiday!
17/11/2016 - Tech's in Vienna, Day 4
8am and it's up before the alarm, and the dreaded packing is concluded after breakfast. Checking out brings a payment of city tax, which I'd forgotten about, and was €3.55. Good thing I still had some coins on me!
We eventually settle on getting a tram into town, so board winner
63 to Schottentor. One thing is for sure, I won't miss these trams! We originally were going to visit a chocolate shop, so board triple winners for everything
2108+2104+2110 on line U2. I however notice I would be left with a really annoying gap in my coverage between Museumquartier and Karlsplatz, so we end up going to the end of the line. It's decided to go upstairs and see what's around, then we see Stephansdom in the distance and decide to go and see it. To do so involves us walking up the Vienna version of Oxford Street, full of expensive and posh shops. It was all worth it to see the enormous Stephansdom cathedral, which is just amazing to look at outside but so much better inside!
Wiener Linen tram 4022 near Karlsplatz, Vienna, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Wiener Linen tram 107 near Karlsplatz, Vienna, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Wiener Linen trams 409 and 116 head south towards Karlsplatz, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
We spy some souvenir shops and get a couple of bits we hadn't been able to get at sensible prices anywhere else, and it's onto another sight we wanted to see, the Danube river. To get there we needed to use the U-Bahn again [oh the shame! - Ed] and we make our first use of line U1 from winner shack Stephanplatz to winner shack Vorgartergasse. Getting us there was triple winners for everything
2264+2260+2226. It's worth noting at this point that I'm basing a lot of my numbers on what's in my ST Publications book. For example, 3905 is a 6 car train with 3 odd-numbered carriages and 3 even numbered ones. The book reports these as all one unit, and as 3905 is the first number in the sequencing I've gone with that. If that makes sense! They don't appear to be two half-sets coupled together like S stocks, but they could well be. As the information is limited, as it is with all non-UK trains, I'm having to guess a little. Similar story with 2264 for example, it's listed as 2264+3264. So if I've reported these trains wrongly, please do say so and let me know where I've gone wrong.
Inside Stephansdom Cathedral, Vienna, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Stephansdom Cathedral, Vienna, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Vorgartenstrasse U-Bahn station, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Anyway, on the walk towards the river, we go past a shop selling a particular sort of plant that's illegal to use in the UK. The fact this isn't the only such shop we saw on this trip is surprising! We time this walk well, as when we get close we see an unknown electric loco pass by on a container train. Just in time for photos too, perfect! We walk halfway along the bridge to take some photos and such like, noting that it was a good thing we didn't do the wheel or indeed go to do the Danube Tower at Donatrum today as there was a lot of low cloud. Back at the station, we visit a local shop for some snacks and for me a coffee, and annoyingly the lift is out of action, which meant carrying our case downstairs which wasn't welcome! We're only going one stop back to Praterstern now, as time is ticking away quickly, so we join triple winners for everything
2313+2232+2298 on line U1.
Wiener Linen container train by the Danube River, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Vienna's Giant Ferris Wheel by day, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
After a much needed PNB at the amusement park, we have a proper walk around more of it and of course get a photo of the ferris wheel in daylight. This amusement park is huge, it took a surprising amount of time just to walk from one end to the other! A slow walk to the mainline station and we find a takeaway to get food from. The guy running it didn't understand "no salad", "nein salat" or even commonly accepted headshaking or waving of hands to indicate I didn't want salad stuff all over my kebab sandwich! Thankfully he eventually accepted it for James' sausage sandwich, so we did a swap. Should have just gone to McDonalds after all! Neither bit of food was much cop, so we felt ripped off.
With the lowlight of the day done, we get our extension tickets to the airport and have a 20 minute wait for the next S-Bahn. This worked out well as I spotted a few OBB locos, two of which were 1114s and a 1116 as well. I love the noise the 1116s [again, I can only assume I'm recording these properly! - Ed] make!
OBB 1116 132 at Wien Praterstern, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
OBB 1114 111 at Wien Praterstern, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Video of 1116 132 departing, only just got the camera going in time! To play the video you have to click the picture below to bring up a new window then hit the play button:
OBB 1116 132 departing Wien Praterstern, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Thankfully we didn't get landed with those horrible looking 4020s, EMUs used on S-Bahn routes. Having no book for OBB stock, which as you can imagine may well change, I don't know if that's the right way of recording them but it looked like it. We are fortunate to have a pair of 4744s, and board double winners for everything
4744 501+4744 528 on a busy service which, unsurprisingly, empties out a lot at the airport. Far too busy to find proper table seats, so we festered in the fold-down seats which was just fine with our cases.
It's not super clear where you go to for bag drop at this airport, but eventually we find out and it's done very quickly. PNB then done, we have a relax in some seats and I got caught up on Twitter. We would have got something to drink, but no way were we spending €4.20 on a small coffee! It's time to board before we know it, and it's winner
G-DBCH to take us homewards on BA2659 1805 Vienna to London Gatwick. Seats 5A and 5B are easily found, and while everyone was on 20 minutes before departure it's 1802 before we get pushback. Another 21 minutes of crawling towards the runway before we get into the air, that was it we were leaving Europe. If only it was that easy in a political sense...
British Airways Airbus A319 G-DBCH at Vienna Airport, 17th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Extremely strong headwinds today of 140mph mean it's not until 1937 before we're back on the ground, and finally at the gate after crawling along to the terminal was at 1945, 10 minutes late. Another 778 miles of flyage for me [data taken from Flightdiary - Ed] then, and the assistant on the e-passport gateline disappeared just before James had an issue with it working. Someone else did too and they were far from impressed at the lack of customer service at border control. What's the point of employing someone to help passengers if they just disappear?! Finally we're both through, and baggage reclaim was cleared rather rapidly. It was rather warm here compared to Vienna, it must be said, even in the late evening! We find nothing worth having for a late tea, so as the Premier Inn has a restaurant we went for the shuttle bus. However, we're told on board it's £3 each per way, umm no we're not accepting that, no charges were displayed anywhere, including on the bus, so we get Google Maps on the case.
Turns out it's approximately a 8 minute walk from North Terminal to the Premier Inn on A23 Airport Way, credit to James for pointing out this idea as it saved us a small fortune! Don't bother with the shuttle bus, they're a rip off when you can walk with luggage quite easily! After checking in and dropping off bags in the room, we head back down for a meal in Thyme restaurant. My chicken curry meal was absolutely divine and highly recommended and James reported the fish and chips to also be worth every penny. With stomachs fed, we later headed to the Shell petrol station for some soft drinks, and later collapse into a deep sleep. I was quite happy, as usual, with the single bed as I prefer them to the Hypnos beds Premier Inn use.
18/11/2016 - Tech's in Vienna, Day 5
Ah this was nice, waking up in the UK again! Proper good sleep had until about 0745, and we have a slow prep morning before we take a stroll with very full and weighty cases to North Terminal. The cases had the same amount of stuff as yesterday in them but seem much more difficult to have re-packed! A very busy shuttle to South Terminal gets us there with 55 minutes to spare before the 1103 to Reading. So we try some plane spotting, with no success, and head to the platforms. Just as well we did at that point, as the 1103 was cancelled! We're advised to get the 1052 to London Bridge as far as Redhill, which we do and it's double duds 377105+377467, Southern coming to the rescue. Yes I did just praise Southern, it must be the first time in at least a year! It was assumed the Reading train would simply start here instead, but is actually cancelled throughout.
Gatwick Airport (South Terminal) all Christmas-y! 18th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Class 700 and Class 387/2s at Gatwick Airport, 18th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
66115 passes Redhill on a Crawley to Acton stone train, 18th November 2016 by
Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Announcements tell us it's now the 1134 to Reading, and would be 10 minutes late. After a leg stretch, I get a coffee from Puccinos. A real coffee and a proper size coffee, at long last, Europe you need to take note and improve your coffee and size of the cups! I've never found an acceptable size coffee cup in Europe, and doubt I ever will. Maybe in Italy, world famous for coffee as well as pizza? All of a sudden as I type this on the way to Reading I'm formulating a plan! Anyway, all of a sudden Super Dud 166208 rolls in, and we get on board to find seats and just about have room on the luggage rack for our cases. People putting soft bags that would easily fit on the overhead racks is most frustrating! We have seats quite easily to my surprise, although I suspect the rear two coaches will have been very busy as there were big crowds on the platform. It's very lucky we didn't rely on that 10 minute delay to get anything from the town centre eh? Bang on time we leave, so we'd have been stuffed!
Kite informs me it's Standard Class only on the stoppers, but it was too much effort to move for no real increase in comfort, and with luggage as well it wasn't worth it. I spend the time to North Camp finishing off the trip report for this trip to that point, although as you'll see the finished article on the forum has had photos added. Arrival is at 1253 into Reading, and Burger King is visited for a combined breakfast and lunch, although I'm still annoyed she processed my meal as a regular one not the supersize one requested. At least it saved me a bit of dosh I suppose. It had gone surprisingly cold now with the wind, so we made our way to the waiting room on platform 9 to get out of it. It wasn't warm there either, but a darn sight better than on the platform! 43018+43129 take us to Worcester Foregate Street and it's hardly a quick run to begin with, getting held up before Didcot Parkway.
Eventually we got moving, and the time passes by finishing off the updates to the notebooks. Until I wrote them all down off my memo files, I didn't realise I hadn't marked some of them off in my books, or just how many trams I'd spotted! Arrival is 9 minutes late at Worcester Foregate Street, which would have been less if we hadn't had to wait for a pair of 172s to get out of the way.
A quick supply raid in Tesco later, and our last train of the trip is late, not welcome in the very cold weather! The PIS said it was to be only two carriages, which was not welcome news. Thankfully it eventually rolled in with 170516 and 153364, but it was very busy indeed as it arrived and we only just managed to cram into the 170. We left 10 minutes late, but also glad to be finally in the warm. The train finally tips out enough for us to get seats at Ledbury, by which point we were glad to sit down.
I say farewell to James as he gets a lift home, meanwhile I join one of my colleagues for a pint in Spoons before the bus home.
What an excellent trip this was, although I'm sorry but New York was better! Photos for Days 3-5 will go live in a bit, once I've had a coffee and now I've had some food I'll be finishing the job. There is still the big moves book update to do yet, and the New Sights and Red Pen updates will be dealt with soon!
British Airways G-VIIU at London Gatwick Airport (North Terminal), 14th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
British Airways Airbus A319 G-DBCD at London Gatwick Airport (North Terminal, gate 574), on BA2658 1410 London Gatwick to Vienna, 14th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
OBB 4744-502 at Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport), 14th November. I love these trains, so nice compared to the 4020s! by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
OBB's impressive Westbahnhof station, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
The western end of one of Vienna's main shopping streets, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
I can't find the name of this cathedral, but WOW! to the architecture! It's a 4 minute walk from Westbahnhof. Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Wiener Linen tram 1485 on line 71, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Rathaus Christkindel Markt from across the road, Rathaus, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Wiener Linen tram 773 on line 1 at Rathausplatz, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Rathaus Christkindel Markt, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
Inside Vienna City Hall, Rathaus, Vienna, 15th November 2016 by Julian Whitby, on Flickr
