We stumbled across Vienna's prime schnitzel place, Figlmuller's and ordered the house speciality for lunch. It more than covered the plate and was only about 3mm thick. It tasted like those breaded turkey burgers I used to eat when I was young, which was a little disconcerting. It was basically nice, but became a bit of a chore.
A cavalcade of beer today! But drunk last weekend in Vienna in holiday mood, with cold wintery weather outside.
First, a warm bar called Centimeter, where many things (including sandwiches) were available by the centimeter. A Paulaner in its correct glass on the right, and I can't remember what the dunkel beer was on the left, other than this wasn't the correct glass for it. Both were delicious!
I've just spent a pleasant long weekend in Vienna, Austria. A scenic detour through Belgium was required, to get us back to Blighty, EasyJet having forsaken us, but we did manage to get back whilst there's still some snow on the ground. I'm still going through the photographs (which are generally disappointing frankly) but I thought I'd stick this one up as a comedy teaser.
This is a tight crop of the front of the 'cable car' that runs up the hill in Wellington, New Zealand. It was absolutely bucketing it down, and windy too, so we never got to walk back down through the botanical gardens as we planned.
Another miscellaneous photo from a walk in Sherwood forest in the autumn, to remind us of days when the sky wasn't just dull and grey.
Oh dear. Look what they've put right in the middle of platform 4 at St Albans. Right where everybody walks to get to and from the exit. Right where people will smack into it amid a bustling crowd, or whilst walking along looking at the display boards just out of shot on the right. And all packaged up in dull grey for maximum "don't see it till you've walked into it" effect.
In my last post I complained about just a few of the many terrible failings of First Capital Connect Thameslink. One of my bugbears was the 5-across nature of the trains – a thoroughly uncivilised way to pack people into a tin can. What do you know, the very next day the 0842 from St Albans was comprised of old Southern rolling stock (still, probably newer than all the other TL stuff) with 4 seats across, armrests, tables and even a funky coffee bar type area with rounded armchairs and stand-up tables. It was just a teaser though, with normal cramped service resumed today.
It's always a worrying time when the train timetables change and I find out whether my commute is going to get better or worse. First Capital Connect have been promising a lot since they bought the franchise into London (I commute from St Albans to Kentish Town) but delivering little from my point of view. Today new timetables came into effect and I longed to see those "more trains", "longer trains", "disco carriage in every train" promises fulfilled. Actually I made up one of those. Actually I'd might as well have made up all of them.
I really like this photo – even though there's really not much to it. It's the atmospheric sense of space and wild ocean I think. Taken on honeymoon in New Zealand.
Spotted on the streets of Lisbon, Portugal.
