Austria

From Bratislava, we went the short distance across to Vienna. I drove and the ladies went by train. In the time before they arrived, I managed to walk around the major sites of the city before it got too hot.

I started at the Opera and went past palaces, government buildings and monuments, as well as churches, the famous riding school and much more. It was good to be ahead of the heat and the crowds.

I had previously visited Salzburg (see below) almost thirty years earlier. This time, it was warmer and we had a really nice time looking around the old town and the palace grounds. We visited markets and Mozart's birth house. We even made a point of finding some of the locations for the filming of 'The Sound of Music'. Once back in London a few months later, we saw a sixtieth anniversary screening of the film and could recognise several of the places we had been.

When on a European roadtrip with a friend in 1996, we visited the south of Austria, particularly Salzburg which is a charming city.Unfortunately it was winter when we were there, which means bloody cold. I remember the Austrians being surprisingly helpful and friendly despite my friend and I insulting them at every inadvertent opportunity.These are the only decent photos I could find from my brief visit to Austria, they are both in Salzburg, the first shows the largest remaining fort in Central Europe and I can't remember what the second was, I think it may have been a church.