Vienna; Friday, 18 November, 2005

After having landed and got through the airport, I caught the train into the centre of town. From there I caught the U-Bahn out to Gasometer (and yes that means exactly the same in English) where the hotel is located. The gasometers in question are of the Austrian brick built variety and not the decaying steel structures so favoured by British Gas!

I walked the short distance to the hotel and after checking in and settling in I headed back into town.

First stop was the cathedral in the very centre of the old town. From there I walked around the centre for a while before ending up at the Hofburg, the imperial palace, which covers a massive site in the centre of town and shows how powerful the city once was.

Attracted by its lights I wandered over to the Rathaus, which, despite it still being over 6 weeks until Christmas was fully decked out with the Christmas market in full swing. This being central Europe of course meant that people were wandering round with large mugs of hot wine, so not to feel left out…

After spending about an hour wandering through the stalls I hopped on one of the trams that run around the ring road that encircles the centre of the city. The tram offers about the cheapest sightseeing tour taking in most of the main sites in the centre.

With the effect of the hot wine wearing off, and the effects of the cold night starting to be felt I headed back to the hotel.