First G and I had a lovely few hours in Vienna just walking around and we left the main thoroughfare, as usual, and went into a church that was built in 1616. It is one of my favourite churches in Europe. I believe it is way more beautiful than the one they insist you see which is on the ped walk and in the middle of the tourist area. Oh and by the way, the big one costs a bunch just to get in and mine costs, well, nothing, as it should be. We sat for about 20 mins and took no pictures - as it should be. I put some money into the collection box to help the church fund with their 3rd-world hunger project and then we left - paying also for a new rosary for me because I had given my large one to my Grandmother years ago after having it blessed by Pope John Paul II when he had visited Nova Scotia.
We mosied along the back roads and had a proper Austrian snack. We searched for a new pair of shorts and shirt for G as when you hand wash clothes every day, they become threadbare and ripped. Eventually we looked for a museum - what for?, to pee of course.
Our bus to Prague was something else. When first we got on today, we noticed that our side was leaning over and we had assumed that the two of us had put on so much weight -( there's a lot of sauces here you know. ) (actually, it's just G drinking too much beer - he does have to rate each one from each country.)
This problem came just after, the day before, we had lost our bus for a day because the air conditioning had failed. Well, when we went over the first bump in the road, G and I looked sideways at each other and we knew. We were in for it. The air compression valve for the shock system was a goner.
Our bus driver is something else, I'll tell you that, but that story is not for typing out here- more on that later when we get home. So when we were leaving Austria, we were stopped by the police. He had the driver get out, also our tour guide who was a bit frazzled by this time in the trip, and produce papers and stuff and he wanted us to empty all the luggage, about 86 bags so that he could even out the bus. I said to G, because I was on the window side of where things were getting heated, that the cop was doing a balance thingy with his hands and so out of the bus G goes as he was the only person who could speak German and who could get us out of a terrible and hot problem.
He went out and explained that it wasn't the bags or that our driver wasn't doing anything wrong but that he used to drive big vehicles and that there was a technical problem with the shock systems. G lay down under the bus, checked out the system and emerged assuring that there was nothing we could do until we got into the city. We still had an hour of driving to go.
The policeman was adorable and explained that he was worried for the passenger safety. Most of us were thankful as we were feeling a bit uncared for at about this point in the trip. He took the numbers etc. of our bus and assured the driver that he had better drive slowly and get it fixed as the cop was going to checks up on our progress.
When the bus was turned back on, something kind of righted itself and we were once again on the even as we started up the engine to drive on. We arrived late, (will explain later) and were totally rushed for the rest of the evening. This was our "welcome to the Czech Republic."
In the evening we went to a local pub by a monastery and had Prague black beer and watched a bit of entertainment.
Then we headed off to a 45 minute show which was in the fair grounds at the exhibition site and we watched a live show along with water works mixed with colored lights to "Tristan and Isolda." If you wanted to view where we were, you can check it out at www.krizikovafontana.cz.
For almost an hour we were totally captivated. We were told to sit in the middle and by the time we got there, the only seats left in the middle were the first two rows so we took a spot there. Even the middle seats way up in the audience were taken, so in the end, it turned out alright because all the acting and dancing was done right in front of us. It probably would have been better way up in the audience to see the water and colours mix for the show but worse for the rest, so I think we won out on that one.
We got to the hotel after midnight which was a late night for us, I fell into bed and slept like a log- even tho' the air conditioning (which if you remember, isn't really AC) wasn't working. We'll live, trust me.
