Klosterneuburg to Vienna (bus, underground, walking)

 Today has been another sunny, warm day under blue skies. The downside of no rain is that the ground is hard to which my back can testify this morning. But a quick shower (what a difference no shaving makes) and by 09.00 I was on the 400 bus from Klosterneuburg bus station (2 mins from the campingplatz ) to Helligenstadt at the edge of Vienna where I boarded the Underground 4 ( direction Hutteldorf) to Schwedenplatz from which it was a short walk into the heart of historic Vienna. Very joined up.

My fellow French randonneur informed me that he was planning to have a day of "repos" When I met him upon my return about 14.30 he was off to have a siesta. I guess the miles have caught up with him as they have myself. As I climbed the stairs from the underground my legs were in protest mode.

I had maybe an hour of relative quiet (for a city of 2 million people) before everybody and his brother realised that it was a beautiful day and descended in their hordes. There was the very unedyfying sight of hundreds of people crowded into half of St Stephen's cathedral taking pictures and selfies WHILST A MASS WAS IN PROGRESS. 

A great surprise was that all of the shops were open and people were out in the main strasses shopping for clothes and handbags not just tourist type things. Another observation is that the Chinese are back in huge numbers. The other thing I noticed was just how spread out the main sights are. The centre of Vienna is on the grandest scale. It reminded me of Madrid. Each building seemingly even grander than its neighbour.

But there are only so many pictures to be taken and my legs were beginning to protest that it was time for coffee or beer but I wasn't going to be settled until I had visited the main railway station to book my ticket to Budapest. Because I was crossing a border with a bike on a train my trip  could not be booked online. I took my queue ticket and after a wait of around 15 minutes  a very helpful young lady sorted my trip to Budapest. I have a ticket for me, a ticket for my bike and a ticket reserving a particular space on the 12.52 to Budapest tomorrow arriving at 15.19 for the princely sum of 69 euros. A sum I am happy to pay to rescue my newly found "smell the roses" approach.

Amazingly you are allowed to take your bike on the underground in Vienna so my plan is to cycle into the edge of Vienna following the Danube path the underground train to the train station which is on the South East side of Vienna.

Pictures to follow the campingplatz w-lan (vlan) is down this afternoon. It has taken me two weeks to figure why my questions about wifi meet with mystified looks. Germans and Austrians call it w-lan pronounced v-lan. (wireless local area network)