Day 6 - Vienna

August 22

We all got up early to catch our cab to the airport - Bailey can hardly hold 4 people much less 5 or 6. The cabs, however, get a little lost and are a bit late. We endure what was definitely the slowest cab ride in all of Montenegro all the while worried about the 45 min check-in cut off. Turns out the 45 min cut off is for check in - which we make with about 5 min to spare - and we had plenty of time to get through security and passport control. The Montenegro Air plane is only about a year old and is, quite pleasantly, a full size jet - no propellers! We parted ways with Liz and Joe G in Vienna as we left to continue our travels and they headed home.

Vienna has a very nice express train into the city center from the airport. So convenient - even the fact that we had to wait a bit to catch one because it afforded Will some time to run back to the grocery store in the airport for a snack. We grabbed a cab to our hotel on the other end of the train. It was a Chevy Malibu but we didn't catch what they called it there.

Our hotel is amazing - Le Méridien Vienna - so modern and funky. There were commissioned modern art pieces in the public areas of the hotel, the elevators had blue lights and played different sounds depending on the hour of the day, and our room was just amazing. And it was right in the center of town. Thank you priceline!

A peek as there will be a post about the hotel

We were pleased with the weather even though it was overcast, cool and had the occasional rain shower. It was so welcome after the heat we'd endured through most of Montenegro. So we wandered around the Hofburg palace, the pedestrian zones (fußgänger) just looking at the sights and shops.

We did what we do best out of the country - buying nothing except food and candy. We even found a Steiff store with an 8' bear outside which a Russian woman inquired about purchasing for her restaurant - it would be 4,000 euro! We walked along the green Danube, and it started to rain so we found a café to have beer.

We ended up catching a streetcar back to our hotel where we rested for a bit before heading out in the rain (thanks to Le Méridien for the umbrella) for a yummy dinner at Restaurant Führich and a cache in Austria.

The Opera on our way back to the hotel after dinner