As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to spend a night in Vienna rather than travel directly from Prague to Munich. This is because I wanted Ann to get a glimpse of the Austrian countryside, and the Alps in particular. An added bonus to this plan is that we got to meet our good friends David and Catherine for dinner. They’re wrapping up a vacation in Slovenia and offered to meet us for an evening on their way back to Linz.

Everything went according to plan. Our train arrived in Vienna a tad late, but we made it to our hotel in the city center with no problems. And an e-mail from David was awaiting our arrival. They booked a hotel right around the corner from ours. So we freshened up a bit and drifted down the street a couple blocks to meet up.

They had a restaurant recommendation, so we chatted as we strolled through the busy Vienna city center. Dinner consisted of Austrian specialties: wiener schnitzel and potatoes. Ann had a fried chicken dinner (which looked exactly like my wiener schnitzel, but I’ll let it pass). We also imbibed some fine beers and wine, and David & Catherine even tried some fine apple strudel.

After dinner we drifted back toward our hotels and found a cafe bar with sidewalk seating. We chatted and laughed through another round of drinks before calling it a night. Catherine is flying back to the U.S. on Monday, so they had to head out early for the Linz airport.

So now Ann and I are on the train headed for Munich. It’s amazing how much difference there is between rail travel quality compared to the journeys earlier in our trip. Whereas we had modest luxuries in our first-class travel in Hungary and the Czech Republic, we’re now on a super-modern OBB Railjet train hurtling toward Germany at nearly 200 km/hr. A brand new coach, video displays of arrival/departure info, and power plugs for my laptop. We even have waiters bringing us fresh juice and cappuccinos.

Yes sir, I’ll have another. Bitte.