Day 39. Saturday 9 May.

A herd of elephants (perhaps one child) invaded the apartment above us at around 0530 – chance of going back to sleep: zero. Struggled along to a cup of tea at 0630 then time to decide what to do with the day. Hop on, Hop off Bus to get an overview was the decision. D was surprised that the red Ho/Ho bus seemed booked out online for the 48 hours we wanted, so Yellow was the go.

After breakfast got down to Yellow Bus Stop 9, waiting patiently for the bus that comes every twenty minutes. One did – and completely ignored us. There was a sign attached to the stop, only in German, which we then interpreted was telling us something like ‘this stop is not in use’. We walked down to Stop 10 and in due course a bus arrived and stopped for us. So we spent two hours or so listening to the audio, taking in the sights, trying to map read, and changing seats to either get better protection from the wind or to get a better view. As we’ve found previously it is an easy way to get a feel for a new place, even if not in any depth. Views of the palatial inner circle are indeed sumptuous and then it was across the Danube (it branches into 4 sections to mitigate the flow) the modern tower landmarks, the gardens (Prater), past the UN complex and we were back at our start point.

Having done the Blue Route, we got off at Stop 10 – and yes, the bus bypassed Stop 9, although the commentary promised great things if we got off, primarily the Wiener  Kriminalmuseum (Vienna Crime Museum) with assurances of gory exhibits.

A quiet afternoon, with some research into our next stay – likely Prague (now confirmed). Looking for a stand-alone place to avoid elephants above.

An evening stroll to the Danube – not particularly blue, and full of huge cruise vessels, which strangely seemed empty, with buses alongside.

Back through community areas: Mexikogedenkstein (Mexico Park), so named in honour of Mexico being the only country that opposed officially the Anschluss in 1938. Where were you Australia: was a pattern emerging? The church of Hl. Franz von Assisi is right on, or in, the park, which had lots of families doing normal things, and a few old men on benches having a quiet tipple.

We commented on the prevalence of women in hijabs and wonder at the ethnic mix here in Vienna. We had earlier been in the old Jewish quarter (but, as the bus commentary had mentioned, Austrian Jews were dispossessed & then killed during WWII (65,000). Then back through Venediger-au-park, another community/family space, to arrive at a ‘street party’ not far from home organised by, we assume, the local Turkish community. Again, great atmosphere.

 Impressions of the area we are in…immigrant workers(?), lower socio-demographic, very little personal glamour, tired, daggy, apartment blocks… but traffic is very quiet, making for easy flat walking. A warm day, cloud building…

Dinner: frittata, with a purple onion & broccoli (sourced after much angst about not needing the quantity they come packaged in). Seems you can’t just buy 1 onion or a small head of broccoli…so, there might be some waste.