Austria 2010: Day 2 - Wien

Monday 16th August 2010.

Awake far too early, but then again sometimes that can be a bonus, On this occasion it was ... tiring. Down in the Kraml they have such a wonderful selection for breakfast (Frühstück) and David made the most of it with repeatedly visiting the breakfast bar and eating as much as he could! Kayleigh managed the learn some German "ein Apfelsaft bitte" which is "And apple juice please". In fact that was her first German and the one thing she used the most!

Walking up from the Kraml, we headed for the U-Bahn on line U3 to Volkstheatre then the U4 line to Praterstern. the to the world famous Prater. As kids are, ours wanted to go on everything they saw, but we took them round first to see what they wanted to REALLY do! Before we let them have their rides, we took them on the Prater Wheel (Riesenrad). It was featured in the 1949 film 'The Third Man' starring Orsen Wells. The wheel takes some time to complete a full circuit and is ornate and classic (or old as kids call it now). After plenty of oohhhs and ahhs from Kayleigh, we alighted and made our way round the huge funfair.

Of course Kayleigh found what she dreamed of The Horse Riding arena. She took to it so naturally and was not in the least scared. In fact the other children we had seen were all given extra straps, but Kay was allowed not to. (see the photo). Usually I worry about the state of the horses at this sort of place, but these were very well cared for and seemed pretty happy. After a few rounds of the arena, the dismounted and we looked for something for David to do. Go Karts was his choice and he and I queued together but no... Denied! Too short apparently. So the hunt was on for another one, round the corner was another set of karts and off we went. He did well and came second out of two! LOL. On to the next ride which happened to be a "fun House". Sarah and I grabbed a seat and David being the loving brother he is took her round it 'For Safetly' he said! Then on to The Bash Cars! aka Dodgems. Kayleigh joined me and I was instructed to "get David"!!!!!

We headed to one of the Schnell Imbiss in the Prater and a couple of Frankfurters each and a beer :) went down well. Following the food we alked round and jumped on the Lilliputbahn that runs up to the Stadion and back again. After catching the U-bahn back to Westbahnhof to look up the trains to Salzburg we sought out evening meal and then decided an early night would be in order.

Tuesday would be the last day for our Weinkarte so we wanted to use it some more.

Austria 2010: Day 1 - Wien

Hello Austria, Hello Vienna.

Sunday 15th August 2010.

We came down for breakfast and Kayleigh's eyes almost popped out of her head! She took one look at the Meats, Rolls, Apfelsaft, yoghurt, breads and pickles and fell in love with Austrian Breakfasts. David had been before, but he was only 2 ½ so this was also a new experience. After his five trips to the food bar, he finally gave up and we were allowed to start off on our day trips.

Walking down Mariahilfer Straße we arrived at the Burgring and the Burg Garten where there is a statue of Mozart. We walked round the garden and round to Albertini Platz, and bought ourselves the Wien Karte and it was well worth the price. Round the corner from the Albatini Platz is Kärtner Straße. This is a lovely road that has the high end shops on it, but it also has

Stephansdom, the main Cathedral of Vienna. We all went inside and The children lit a candle for my Dad, Erich Thaler who was killed in 1990. The sun was shining and we wanted to make the most of our day. Sarah suggested to go out of town a little and visit the beautiful and picturesque Schloss Schönbrunn. We took the U-Bahn there, and it was a short walk from the station to the Palace. The Schloss is stunning and the inside is beautiful, but with the children we haven't ventured round it yet. Maybe one day.

The gardens were alive with the smell of the colourful flowers, the throng of tourists and the chatter and shouting of children enjoying the space to run in. Oh No! you may think, how loud! How dreadful! But it wasn't. It sort of fitted perfectly. Along the path towards the main water feature and both Kayleigh and David thought it was lovely, we walked round and up behind it (see the photo here) and snapped a few shots from up here too.

Then we walked up to the Gloriette. It was hot, it was steep but it was fun. At the top, Sarah got the ice creams in :)

After leaving the Schloss Schönbrunn we wanted to do more. so the U-Bhan back to Karlsplatz and jumped onto a #2 tram that takes you round the ring to get the views of the lovely buildings. We changed on to a #1 and continued round the ring.

On the way up Mariahilfer Straße we grabbed a McDonalds, and then it was a slow walk up to the Kraml and a well earned rest.

Day 2 coming soon.

Austria 2010: Day 0 - The Trip

Well after a break of four years we decided to finally have a holiday.

Saturday 14th August 2010

We took a chance and flew from London Gatwick to Vienna via Easyjet. Having heard the horror stories from other people over the years I was somewhat worried it would a nightmare. But we were pleasantly surprised.
Flight EZY5355 took off from Gatwick from Gate 16 45 minutes late, but they kept us informed so it helps. On the flight Sarah and Kayleigh sat in one place, and David and I sat elsewhere. The flight was peppered with David's impression of characters from the high Life TV Show http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Life_(TV_series) with the comment 'oh Deary Me' how annoying! ! ! ! !

Once at Wien Schwechat Airport, we got off the plane and on to the bus to the terminal building. Then through customs and out to the Vienna Airport Lines bus to Wien Westbahnhof. Travelling in we were pretty shocked at the total obliteration of Wien Südbahnhof that we always used to travel from to Klagenfurt.
Once at Westbahnhof, we took the short walk to the Kraml Pension. Rarely would I recommend somewhere to stay, but this holiday showed us how great some places arehttp://www.pensionkraml.at/EN/index.html . The Kraml is perfectly placed and is very well run by a lovely family.

Once checked in and in to our room we were all a little tired, but in true tradition we didn't want to waste a moment. On Otto Bauer Gasse is the Schnitzelhaus, so in we went and a nice meal was had by all.

We walked up to the Westbahnhof again to get the national timetable, and have a look about. The station, once lovely by modern standards, is now a building site.

By 7pm, we were all unpacked and and by 9pm we were all in bed and almost asleep.

Day 1 will be about our first day in Vienna and is coming soon.

Cardiff and Doctor Who.

Hello a chroesawa at Cymru
Or
Hello and welcome to Wales.

In Cardiff is the Doctor Who exhibition at the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay. The missus, Junior and our lass are all Doctor Who fans, although our lass only likes it if it is not too scarey. Me? It's not my cup of tea, but each to their own.

Paddington to Cardiff is just over 145 miles and about 2 hours away, so we decided to have a day out on Bank Holiday Monday. Catching the 08:45, we travelled down with the kids making every effort to crack the code on the TV screens on the backs of the chairs. They never managed to 'hack' them anyway. Arriving in Cardiff at 10:45 we were able to nip across platforms to get onto the 10:15 service to Coryton which stops at Cardiff Queen Street. Changing again we caught the shuttle to Cardiff Bay. It wasn't very well sign posted to the Red Dragon centre, but we eventually found out way in and located the exhibition. The Family ticket was £20.00 for the four of us. In side it is a maze of costumes, replicas of the baddies, and a host of other bits and pieces. Having said that it only took us a matter of 20 minutes to walk round, to we backtracked and did it all again to make sure that we never missed anything. The Dalek exhibit was amazing and it was nice to see Kylie Minogues French Maid's outfir there complete with fishnets. (we interrupt this blog to give the author a cold shower). www.doctorwhoexhibition.com/cardiff.html
Having worked through a large number of photos in there we headed out. To be honest, there is very little in the Red Dragon Centre other than the exhibition, and could be a bit of a white elephant.

We walked further down and ended up by the Wales Millennium Centre, which is very impressive, opposite to this is a large waterfall/fountain that is featured in Torchwood. (allegedly Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who). It is in front of this fountain that is the entrance to Torchwood. Of course a little posing was done and it was to the waters edge next. Now a little warning. We looked for somewhere to eat here, but the costs were pretty high, and if I was going to spend a lot of money on food I would want to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We thought about a snack and then hit the HRC later, but even the snacks were priced over the top.
Back at Cardiff Bay station, we caught the train up to Queen Street and then on to Central. The HRC is not far from the station so we made a B-line for it and managed to get a table immediately. Of course the kids love eating here, they always have since it the chance to spend Mum and Dad's money. Ribs were ordered and the faces of the two young Thalers were covered in BBQ sauce! A pin was obtained (as it is a new location) and will be added in due course to the collection.

We then decided to walk up to Cardiff Castle with the intention of going in and having a nice walk round it. NOT A CHANCE! Firstly there was no Family ticket, 2which forces you to buy two adults and two children tickets. At £10.50 per adult and £7.95 a child this is extremely extortionate to pay. Having since looked at their website I do find it amusing that they consider themselves a "A family friendly visit" place. Maybe it should be added 'If you happen to be a Premiership football player'
http://www.cardiffcastle.com/content.asp?nav=4%2C14&parent_directory_id=1 Still it looked ok from the outside, and at £36.90 it can stay as a nice outside view.

The St. David's centre is where nearly all the shops are so we had a nice browse round there before heading back towards the station for the 16:25 back to Paddington.

All in all it was a good day out for all.

Football In Austria

The football season starts in July in Austria, and there are two divisons the Bundesliga (premier division) and the Ersten Liga (First Division). Like some other countries in Europe, Austria have a winters break from almost the end of November (sometimes later) to March. The Bundesliga was founded in 1974, but there has been football in Austria with First Vienna being the earliest team formed in 1894.

Below the First two divisons there are regional leagues Regionalliga Ost (east), Regionalliga Mitte (Middle) and Regionalliga West. In addition to these there are feeders that are the County leagues (much like London, Surrey, Hertfordshire etc.) There is also the Austrian equivilent of the FA Cup the ÖFB-Stiegl-Cup.

Champions Of Austria:
32 Titles
Rapid Wien
23 Titles
Austria Wien
10 Titles
FC Wacker Innsbruck (5) / FC Swarovski Tirol (2) / FC Tirol Innsbruck (3) - all teams are continuation of the other.
9 Titles
SK Admira Wien
6 Titles
First Vienna
5 Titles
Austria/Red Bull Salzburg
3 Titles
Wiener Sport-Club
2 Titles
Sturm Graz
1 Title
Wiener AF, Wiener AC, Floridsdorfer AC, SC Hakoah Wien, SC Wacker Wien, Linzer ASK, SK VÖEST Linz, Grazer AK
The Austrian League website: http://www.bundesliga.at/home/index.php?SID

Vienna Teams:
Austria Vienna:
FK Austria Wien play their home games at the Franz Horr Stadium which has a total capacity of 12,500 with the new East-Stand. Tt is on U1 (red line) to station Reumannplatz, Straßenbahn: Line 67 to Altes Landgut, Bus: Line 15A to station Altes Landgut

Rapid Veinna:
Rapid Wien now plays at the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium which was opened on 10 May 1977 in a game against FK Austria. The nearest station is Hütteldorf which is on the OBB servies and on the U-Bhan (Line U4).

First Vienna:
The club's home venue is the Hohe Warte Stadium built in 1921 and having a current capacity of 5,000 spectators. at the end of the U-Bhan (line U4) at Heiligenstadt.

Klagenfurt Team:
SK Austria Kelag Kärnten:
Austria Kärnten plays its home games at Hypo-Arena in the south-west end of Klagenfurt.

Stats and info in this article have been found on both Wikipedia and RSSSF websites.

EDIT: The new season fixtures are out on June 25th 2010. :)

Ruislip Lido and Woods walk (11th April 2010).

To the West of London is Ruislip. It's a small compact area, but part of the sprawl that is London. Junior had been bought a book on a discount book shop last year on 'Walks in the South East' by the AA. Armed with the book, and a packed lunch we headed off by car to do this walk (it's also on the web here:
http://www.theaa.com/walks/the-woods-and-lido-of-ruislip-420768

We parked in the free car park adjacent to Mad Bess Wood. Ok maybe that should have given us an idea how the day would be going ...

After changing into walking boots (preferable in muddy or wetter weather) and locking the car doors, we walked along the little path in Young’s Wood until we crossed Ducks Hill Road (A4180) in into Copse Wood and followed the signpost for the 'Hillingdon Trail'. The map and directions in the book (and on that link above) are superb. I have no need to replicate them. So if I refer to a number like (2) you will need to look at the link and go to number 2. As it happens at (2) we were over taken by some lads on mountain bikes, which seems to be a rather sad thing now. Walking routes are being used as mountain bikers trying to a) break the land speed record on a bike b) have a total disrespect for anyone on two legs not on a bike. This trio did at least shout excuse me before they raced past.

Dog walkers seem to like these woods, and they are good dog owners making sure their pets do not foul the footpaths which is a real change. It was while walking along the track leading to (3) that a lady passed by with a friendly little pooch and when they came to a bench, she sat on it as did poochy. The lady then got him/her a little bag of water to drink. It was very cute to say the least. We continued on and (3) we turned right. This is a public bridleway so where as the poochy's of the world are cleaned up after, Dobbin isn't. There are some lovely houses bordering the woodland and I would imagine at a hefty price too. As we walked along, the good lady noticed a colourful patch of yellow flowers in a small clearing. On closer inspection they turned out to be Wild primrose (Primula vulgaris). Which I am told are quite rare now. A couple of photos of those and the little bees on them and we set back off along the path. Little Miss T. was doing a good impression of Usain Bolt hare off ahead at every opportunity. This was pretty much testing our patience as the wild life were taking one earful of her and heading into hiding.

We carried on and followed the path to the right and down to the little kissing gate. We needed to be this side of the gate rather than walk through it. But just the other side of the gate is a small pond that is just lovely. It was (due to a recent heavy rainfall and being at the bottom of a small hill) pretty much flooded. Following the path to the left as per the guide we continued to the golf course. and followed round the edge until we re-entered the woods (4).

Birds tweeted, the breeze rustled the trees and parts of this section opf path by the nature reserve were muddy. Walking along towards the Lido we stopped and sat on some logs for our picnic. Some pasta, some sandwiches, and crisps all went down well. The crust of sandwiches were left for the local wildlife, but we didn't envisage Daisy the West Highland Terrier rush past and scoff all the crusts. ha ha ha ha.

Off we went to the bottom of Northwood Hills (5) and alongside the miniature railway line (other side of the fence) until we got down to the lido itself.

[Extract from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruislip_Lido)

Ruislip Lido is a Victorian reservoir with an artificial sand beach, surrounded
by woodlands through which runs the Ruislip Lido Railway, a miniature 12" gauge
railway with diesel and steam locomotives. Ruislip Lido was established as a
reservoir to feed the Grand Union Canal by damming and flooding the lower part
of the valley between Park Wood and Copse Wood, including the hamlet of Park
Hearn. Work began in 1811; the reservoir began feeding the Canal in 1816.

The kids went on the 'beach' and played on the climbing frames and the other things. On the water were some lovely swans. But my gosh they were BIG. We let them play for a while before we decided that rather than take the route round to the 'Water's Edge' we would take the miniature railway. A family single ticket was only £6.00 which in today’s climate a really good deal. When we alighted at the end of the line, we discovered we'd mislaid the book and directions. Junior was really upset as it was his book, understandably so. but it took the shine off the day for him and he had a rather miserable afternoon from there on in. We located one of the boards on route and managed to work our way back.

The walk back took an unfortunate turn when we ended up between (3) and (4). The maps had all said the path bears to the left. And NOT once had it done so. But we ae a resourceful and are made of better things. We just walked the whole bridleway back to Ducks Hill Road and before we got to the road we turned left and walk in line with the road.

It was along here that Little MissT really blotted her copybook. The Good lady Wife was ahead of us all, when she spied a young deer in the woodland. It was just about 15 feet from the path just sitting there, quietly she put her arms out to stop us all but Little MissT decided to race past making a noise which startled the deer that then rushed off and out of sight.

Heading along the path we then got accross the road and into the car park and Started our trip home.

Despite everything it was a nice walk, and maybe we could take another go at it sometime.

Lessons learnt:
Take a copy of your map/directions.

Kelsey Park, Beckenham (5th April 2010)

On Monday 5th April 2010 (Easter Monday) we needed to get out. The say before my wife had been pretty ill with a stomach bug
and needed to get out and get some fresh air. Someone had mentioned Kelsey Park over in Beckenham a while ago but
like most things in life we had managed to forget or just plain do something else. So it was decided that we would all
take our cameras to see what we could see.

On the internet Kelsey Park is well covered by 'The Friend's Of Kelsey Park (FOKP) There are some nice little leaflets on their wildfowl, Wildlife and Tress etc. Even a kids leaflet on 'what birds can
I see' so they can tick off if they see them.

Taking off in the car we found Kelsey Park quite easily. The FOKP website has maps and directions there. We managed to park on Manor Way which just off Beckenham High Street, and got ready to go. Batteries in Cameras, Warm coats and leaflets and pencil for Little Miss T. There is an old lodge style building at the North and in front is a small bridge which we crossed and walked south. The path is well kept and Dogs are (sadly) allowed off leads. We walked down to the first small waterfall that is pretty much obscured by the bushes and trees, but taking the little bridge over and turning left there were a few Mallard Ducks on one side. Through the gate (to the area where Dogs must be on a lead) and we followed the lake line South.

There is a notice (actually there are a few about) regarding the feeding of the webbed feeted flyers ... Apparently White bread is not good for them (everyone say awwwww). Wholemeal bread is better for them ... Lightly Toasted daffy and would you like some butter?

It's not far along until you come to the main waterfall. Admittedly it is only about 15 feet height, but from the little wooden bridge it is lovely in a busy bustling world. We spent a good ten minutes here (Junior and I competing to take the best milky effect shot of the water) and when we moved on, there sitting on a fence nibble on a nut was a squirrel.

I have to put this in here, Squirrels are considered vermin by many people, kids love them, as does my wife and camera. I think they make great subjects for a picture, and they certainly hone your skills at taking photos on the move!

Little Miss T spied the Ice cream van, so that was the next port of call. Camera, Cider Lolly and Little Miss’s camera in hand we strolled along the lake. Here is where you will see most of the Ducks and Herons etc. In the middle of the main lake is Heron Island, aptly named due to the large numbers of Herons nest on there. These large birds really do make a spectacular sight when in flight (see the photo below). Continuing on we came to the 'Rose Garden, which in summer, is probably lovely, at the moment it's pretty much bare!

A bit further on is a small weir but this is just too close to the bridge so that it makes for less of a photo, but the other side of the is the kids playground ... Yep in they went and were everywhere.

After sometime we left can carried on walking North head back along the other side from which we came. a little way up a squirrel (or two) were rather pleased with the nuts we had brought and posed nicely for the camera. Luckily Squirrel's don't have agents.

We came across Heron Island which is closer this side, The good lady wife wanted to have a few minutes to take some shots, but the foliage is pretty dense and getting a good shot is not easy. (this is the best I could get http://www.thedigitalsite.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6213 )

We headed up to where the waterfall is and passed by this to a bench. The little information portakabin is filled with some lovely things and you really should pay a visit there. I bought some nice information cards in colour of birds, butterflies etc. so the kids can use them. It's staffed by volunteers and the two ladies in there that day were very nice and helpful.

Then it was back to the car.

Can I recommend Kelsey Park to people? I sure can.

If you want a quiet walk - It's lovely.
If you want to go on a photo shoot - Perfect.
If you want the kids to get close to nature - Ideal.

Kelsey Park - Defiantly one to revisit in the summer when the flowers (especially the roses) are in bloom. I might even take a spin over there next winter and see what it's like with snow.