Dear Vienna, You Are Nice, But Burgenland Is So Much Nicer!

A half day in Vienna shows Bob and I how much we love our life in Burgenland.

Gosh, I bow my head in admiration for the weekend Pendlers of our village. A pendler is a person who works in Vienna during the week and only comes home on the weekends. Each weekend, I must say. Why? Of course the jobs do pay better up there but the children have different ( better ) childhoods in the country.

Bob needed to go to the Embassy in Vienna and we drove up yesterday morning. We look on these trips as adventures and mini holidays. Bob did the driving and I did the co-driving or as we say in the marriage business: the nagging.

I dutifully sat next to my darling with a handwritten sheet of instructions, which Bob had copied from Google Maps. If only these directions would have been spot on, the Mister and I wouldn't have gone through a vigours bout of name calling in our car. ( But, when we got home, we both decided that bickering and so forth are not a bad thing in a marriage and rather refeshing, now and then! )

Vienna is a great city and can offer many features and attractions. A tourist's delight no doubt and Vienna can read any wish from a shopper's lips and provide it. Sitting in traffic ( as one does in these places ) a Ferrari, and some other exotic vehicles passed us. The roads themselves are rather bumpy ( tram lines everywhere ) and the tyre shops must rub their hands in glee.

Getting into the city was a bit of a catastrophe as the navigator was on the blitz. How to read signs and road posts when they flash past at such speed? We got lost and eventually pulled over next to a row of shops. I hot footed it into a bakery with a cunning plan of buying a tasty morsel to eat. Well, the cakes on offer seemed very nice, but standing there for a minute, the server never bothered to greet me. Not even a nod or eye-contact! No, that wouldn't do.

I had remembered seeing a Bank two shops down. As soon as I entered, an assistant greeted me with a smile ( Banks do know about customer care... ). When I had explained my conundrum to her, she quickly printed out a new set of directions for me. While I was waiting at the counter, I couldn't help but notice a variety of cakes, cookies, orange juice and champagne standing on offer.

" Oh, that's nice. You offer food for your clients. Are you a Private Bank? "
" No indeed. Today is World Saving's day! "

Drat, now we had missed out on a free lunch back at our Bank in the village. Last year we even got some presents...maybe, just maybe they had saved something for us!

We got to the S.A. Embassy and everything was fine. Walking back to our car, Bob, the Big Chief, decided to throw caution to the wind and follow his innate sense of directions and not use the G.P.S. ( Girl Persistently Shouting ) Weeelll...of course we took a wrong turn but we both decided that it was our own unique way of doing a bit of sight seeing in Vienna. Tempers remained mostly calm.

Driving through Vienna made both of us realize how much we both love our part of Burgenland and the friendliness that goes along with it. We love the simpler living and it's far less stressful then trying to navigate the traffic beast in a big city.

This was a house that we drove passed because we were lost somewhere in the 19th district. Somehow, this type of building is how I imagined Vienna to be. History and charm.

Cars everywhere. For us it was crowded, but for Viennese standards it must seem empty. This was in a lovely part of town. Houses and villas abounded. Still in the 19th district.

Bob and I had a heated discussion of whether we were allowed to drive in the tram lanes. They are everywhere and Bob had visions of being crushed by an on coming tram!

A tram drives past. How surreal and kind of picturesque.

Driving back home on the highway, this was a most welcome sight. Still in Styria ( Steiermark ) but the open fields and emerald green grass were Panacea for our souls.

Biggi