Leaving the lovely Czech Republic behind, we headed back to Austria for a couple of days, and in the cheesiest of entries, we drove into Vienna with Ultravox blaring ‘ahhh….Vienna’ on the stereo.  Made us giggle at least.  After popping into a camping store to buy some new levelling chocks (our current  chocks cracked under the weight of all the good food I have been eating I think), we settled into our campsite beside the Danube and headed straight to the u-bahn station to go to town for our first activity in this culturally inspired town – the Opera!

I can hear you all saying – how do poor travellers afford the Opera?  The answer….it was FREE!!!  Every summer the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) shows the opera from inside to the peasants outside on a 50 square metre LED video wall on the side of the building.  The building itself is a glorious Neo-Renaissance building dating from the 19^th century – though it was so unpopular with the public at the time of building that one of the architects committed suicide!  Personally I think the public was being a bit harsh, as it is quite a stunning building with elaborate decoration.

We had specifically come back to Vienna for this date to see Mozart’s The Magic Flute as a continuation of our learning about Mozart’s life and music.  Those that have been paying attention will know that we went to his birthplace and residence in Salzburg, and Deane has been studiously munching Mozart chocolates in an attempt to channel the dead composer’s tastebuds.  Will had watched a simplified version on-line the day before and we downloaded a study guide so we knew what was going on, and although a small person’s attention did waver a little during the 3hour German performance, we all thoroughly enjoyed it and marvelled at the power of the voices.  It was surprising the Opera House windows survived the Queen of the Night’s high notes!

Back into Vienna the next day, we opted for a ride on the trams, a visit to the Cathedral and the Albertina museum – all good choices, but particularly the museum.  Named for Duke Albert, in whose palace the museum is housed and whose epic collection of prints makes up a major part of the works (including Durer, Michelangelo and DaVinci), the Albertina also holds an impressive collection of classical modern art which was given to the museum by the Rita und Herbert Batliner Foundation.  This collection contains some stunning pieces by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Modigliani, Matisse, Picasso and many many more.   Although late in the day, and a little weary, we spent several hours admiring these beautiful pieces of art before heading home for dinner in the van.

On the Sunday we decided to join the locals in Prater Park – a huge green expanse that has been a public park since the 1700’s.  We rode our bikes across the Danube (on special bridges hooked underneath motorway bridges), and into the park, enjoying the sun and dappled shade on the way to Wurstelprater – a permanent fun fair, where we balanced the culture of the previous two days with good old fashioned silliness.

We are all fans of fun fair swings (you know the ones that are like swings on a merry-go-round), and this park has the mother of all swings – rising 117m up into the air above Vienna.  Deane and I both reassured William that he would be perfectly safe, and we all clambered on board excitedly.  William was indeed perfectly safe and had a ball stretching his arms out to fly – while Deane and I held on for dear life, me squealing and gripping the chains so tightly that I had imprints in my palms for ages afterwards, and Deane chanting ‘I am perfectly safe’ out loud for the whole ride.  After sampling more local pastry goods – this time actually a Hungarian street food called Lángos which is deep fried bread with garlic butter and salt (or other toppings), the final ride of the day was dodgems, where there was very little dodging going on.  Will and Deane still sport the bruises and I realised I should have done more pelvic floor exercises after Will was born.  Note to self – candy floss, ice cream and rollercoasters don’t mix!

The next morning it was a final auf wiedersehen to Austria and we headed further east through Slovakia to Hungary.