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| When art and architecture combine |
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| Funky colors, who cares about square corners! |
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| Generous foliage and roof top trees |
Our flight did not leave
until late afternoon, and with the remaining time on the hop on hop off bus,
kindly donated by the McGuire’s we headed downtown again. The heat wave in
Europe continues and the subway was filled with folks headed for the
recreational island formed when the Danube was partially redirected to form the
“new Danube”. It is basically parkland and bike paths, a finger of land
surrounded by 2 arms of the Danube. Obviously popular for sunning and swimming.
We visited the Hundertwasser
House, a public housing project with unique architecture. It was designed by a
local artist to make fun of the drab buildings which surround the neighbourhood
and are generally publicly funded. The pictures tell the story of uneven
borders and walkways, funky colours and trees on rooftops. We could not see the
apartments as they are private residences, and appear to be all occupied.
Coincidently there was a
Linda McCartney photo exhibit; powerful for all the images she captured as a
professional photographer before marrying Paul, a little disappointing, as I am
sure with more resources the exhibit could have world class.
The hop on /off bus did not
appear as scheduled. For those who
have traveled with me, I fuss about being on time so we set out to walk to the
subway. We were back at the hotel in 20 mins, well in time for our late
checkout.
The Vienna airport is unique,
it has miles of check in counters, all well staffed, and all that was missing
were the passengers! We went through duty free on 2 levels as we made our way
to the get, there was no wait in security do to staff redundancies. We are
truly blessed in Vancouver to have an airport that is more beautiful and
functional.
We watched the Open on the
Pope’s TV until departure. We would miss the Mikelson victory as the flight
took 2 hours just as the leaders had finished the front 9. Luck was with us as
our plane landed just in front of a large contingent from asia and customs was
quick. As we made our way to the carousel our luggage started to circulate and
Carol and Brian said their good byes as they went to meet their Brighton
friends and start the next part of their tour. It had been a wonderful trip,
great memories and easy companionship.
Meanwhile at special baggage
a German couple’s stroller blocked the belt. I hate to rant but who the hell
invented these things! They barely fit on a sidewalk; they can carry more than
homeless man’s possessions, and you need an engineering degree to put them
together and worst of all the designers fail to take into account the
limitations of travel!
The blockage had to wait for
an “engineer”, this was the guy who had a key to disable the belt and give the
offending stroller a nudge.
My golf clubs have cost me a
fortune, multiple extra charges by gouging airlines, a transportation fee on
the bike trip and now a storage fee at Heathrow (by far the most reasonable
price at 9 pounds a day)
I had in fact queried the
Austrian airlines representative and got a bit of a discount. I asked what if
my clubs were skis; she quickly replied that they would be free! Next rip the
clubs are in a ski bag.
We took the tube to Charring
cross and with the help of Tom Tom eventually found our address. Problem. No
key.
In record time and with a little
luck I had a new sim card, and with even more luck a lady came with a key,
purely by coincidence. Marital peace does not allow me to divulge the details
of how the confusion came about regarding the key transfer.
The apartment is adjacent to
where Benjamin Franklin lived while in London. Walter Isaacson wrote an
extensive biography of Franklin, which I highly recommend. Franklin lived in
England from 1771-1775, as he spent and extended period out of the colonies
trying to maintain funding for the revolution from the French and to make peace
with Great Britain.
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