Today is a travel day. We are flying from Christchurch to Vienna, Austria. A van picks us up at 8:30am and we drive uneventfully to Heathrow. The men have a business meeting at the airport so we are early. I pick up some sundries and send a postcard to my mother and my children, then hang out in the business lounge with my coffee and work on the previous day's blog entry. I must say I am enjoying this process! I do stuff, photograph it, stop and take notes on my phone during lunch or at wine o'clock, and then go off and do more stuff. Wash, rinse, repeat.

When their meeting is over we go through security very quickly and head to the British Airways lounge. I write, they work. Time to board. The flight is 2.5 hours. Easy stuff. We land in the airport in Vienna. The first thing I see is a Johann Strauss Cafe. Now that's my kind of chain!

Bag pick-up is easy-breezy and we hail an Uber to our hotel, Do & Co, located in the heart of Vienna in an area called the Stephansplatz, with heart-stopping views of St. Stephen's Cathedral. St. Stephens is a Roman Catholic church and is the dominant feature in the main square of Vienna. Construction on the main building began in 1147 and finished in 1160, but additions and modifications continued through the 1500's. Maintenance has been constant since. Even today, they have 9 full time stoneworkers cleaning the outside and a major renovation both inside and out. The facade and roof have been completed, though, and it is absolutely specatcular. I've provided a link to their web site, but it is awful. The good news is you can get a horsie ride. http://www.stephanskirche.at.

After a quick walkabout, the guys head off to a business dinner and I do not. I eat at the hotel and stare at the wondrous structure through the window of the lounge on the 6th floor. The restaurant is unavailable, but I took a picture anyway. That guy in the purple radiation chamber is actually the wok station. PS, dinner is a tomato, arugula and parmesan salad with a light balsamic dressing, then wiener schnitzel with warm potato salad, savoy cabbage with poppy seed, and a cucumber salad with copious amounts of a mayo/yogurt based dressing. It is good, but I eat half the schnitzel and maybe two bites of each of the salads.

After dinner, I do a longer walk. Just a quick walk around the square, I say. A rectangle. I can't get lost if I walk in a rectangular fashion. Well, I do get lost, but take some wonderful architectural photos, including government buildings, retail, statuary, monuments and a museum. Here are a few samples.

The next morning, Bob and I have breakfast, then he goes off to his second meeting of the day while I head out a bit. We will meet up for a little shopping before pushing off to our next stop, Sofia, Bulgaria.

http://www.docohotel.com/en/