Happy birthday to me...

Playlist
Killers – Day and Age
Harmonia – Deluxe
Frank Zappa – Waka Jawaka
Bob Marley – Legend
Laura Pausini – Primavera in Anticipo
J R Monterose – J R Monterose
Horace Silver – Blowin’ the Blues Away
Muffat – Concerti Grossi
Fehlfarben – Glucksmaschinen
Fehlfarben – Handbuch der Welt



Happy birthday to me, 51 year old Old Codger – overweight, bald, dodgy knees, dodgy eyes – ha! all the things I might have expected to be if I managed to reach this day...

Up at six and nice and sunny outside – to the kitchen to write up yesterday’s shenanigans and continue with my Blue Note reading and listening...

Breakfast at home then out and to the tram stop to the main station for a train to Vienna...

An hour’s journey and we were at the Sudbahnhof, from where a rather more expensive tram trip took us to the city centre at the Opera House by eleven...

We walked down the main shopping thoroughfare to St Stephen’s Cathedral and, after wondering at its outside and taking a look inside, we explored the pedestrianised area around it watching the Ankersuhr at midday and also taking in the Town Hall and Judenplatz before enjoying a Wienerwurstel for lunch...

We made our way down to the Danube canal – the actual river is some distance away from the old town – and, from there, took a tourist tram around the “ring”, which fired our imagination as to what to see on our planned next visit...

Having completed the full circle, we made our way through the back streets, past Mozart’s house, to the Cathedral again where we sat outside at a café and enjoyed apple strudel and coffee before a brief shopping expedition which ended in a new dress for Anne and the latest CD by my favourite German band, Fehlfarben, for me – although at over £18 for 34 minutes, it did make my eyes water...

Then up to the Hofburg, the complex of palaces and museums which was at the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Empire for around 600 years, walking through the gardens and back on to the “ring”, this time on foot, and enjoying the sites of the Schottenturm and the Freywille before returning once again to the Cathedral at the heart of the old town and back to the opera house, enjoying a very expensive birthday beer nearby...

The rain started just as we sat outside with our beers and continued for the journey home to Bratislava...

After a brief rest at the flat, we went out in to the rain again and to the Ashoka Indian Restaurant we’d finally found last night – a very tasty and extremely hot lamb madras was enjoyed by your birthday boy before we headed back home to put our feet up, watch some telly and reflect on a good day – and the reports that all Scottish Airports are closed...

Highlight of the Day : Birthday trip to Vienna...