Sept 4, 2019 – Austria, Vienna
One of the things in Europe that we miss in India are the wide sidewalks. I have been contemplating on starting a campaign to reclaim the sidewalks in India …. we also have wide sidewalks, but they are filled with small vendors, pushcarts, cycles, bikes and the small cars leaving no room to walk safely. The wide sidewalks in Europe encourage walking and cycling, and low pollution levels makes it enjoyable to walk anywhere.
After we got back from enjoying the public gallery of Yves Netzhammer’s work on the Altes Landgut metro station walls, we had lunch, slept for a while and then got out in the evening for a long stroll.
The twilight is so magical and the broad sidewalks makes it enjoyable as you can just stop anywhere and take pictures without worrying about a motorbike running into you or a car trying to park next to you :). We walked all the way till the Military Museum and on the way back sat at a tram station on the bench for 10 minutes or so. It was so much fun doing that !
The multicoloured building that you see in the picture below is my favourite building on the road opposite the Hauptbahnhof.
Earlier in the day we had booked our train tickets to Bratislava so we decided to head into Hbf’s OBB office to get a printout of the tickets to Bratislava. Got those and then went in search of a hot chocolate. The weather in the evening was nippy and I love hot chocolate. Found it in Back Werk, a store in the ICON mall that is adjacent to the Hbf and has an entrance through Hbf. As luck would have it an Afghani young man was at the cash counter. Spoke to us in Hindi and when I said we like Afghans he said they also liked Indians. YES !
That comment made us enjoy the hot chocolate a bit more :).