Tuesday 20 September: Vienna to Salzburg

Our agent had booked a car for us, to be picked up at the Vienna airport. "That's their only depot", we were told. After having been told the same story about the same company in Johannesburg, we discovered they had a downtown depot as well. So a quick phone call revealed that there was indeed a downtown Vienna depot, and we duly set off on the u-bahn to collect our vehicle.

It was a Mitsubishi Colt - the smallest car we've had to date, and the least satisfactory. Although it was (as promised) a four/five door with air conditioning, the boot was too small to take more than one suit case. As we were travelling with two large cases, two camera bags and various odds and sods we didn't want to pack away into the suitcase, this meant having luggage on the back seat.

After a brief tussle with Vienna traffic (it was seriously congested, and a number of ambulances cames past, suggesting there may have been a serious crash) we were away. There is a motorway all the way from the outskirts of Vienna to Salzburg (and beyond), and we kept to it the whole way. Apart from some fairly extensive roadworks the trip was fast, smooth and uneventful. The scenery looked pretty good - what we could see of it. Noise walls have been completed, or are under construction, for probably 2/3 of the whole distance. This combined with fairly constant light rain to render the trip a non-event as far as sight-seeing went.

Salzburg is another city divided into old and new towns. Luckily our hotel (the Centro) was in a quiet part of the new town, and very easy to find. We were quite pleased with the Centro, and their very friendly, obliging staff. However, the architect should have been fired!

"Your room is on the 3rd floor"
"Is there an elevator?"
"Ja, it's up the stairs."

That's right - there was no way to get our luggage from the street to our room without lugging it up at least one flight of stairs. This may be acceptable in some 18th or 19th century house converted to a hotel, but it is not acceptable in a building less than 20 years old.

We found the local laundromat and got our washing done - rather expensive, but a very good service. While it was going through its cycle, we checked out the railway station and looked for a coffee shop.

"Hello, two cappucinos please."
"Sorry, I'm closing in 20 minutes, so I can't make a cappucino now." ??!!

This happened a number of times, and the only place that seemed to be actually serving coffee was so full of cigarette smoke we walked straight out. We ended up getting a bite to eat at the local Burger King. Austria may be a progressive go-ahead economic powerhouse, but its attitude to smoking in public places is definitely last-century.