Early departure from our room and we walk from our accommodation to the ferry departure point on a mystically foggy and drizzly morning. We therefore derive another visual perspective for this spectacular lake and village. Don't think we have mentioned that the railway station is on the opposite side of the lake so a ferry links with arriving and departing trains. Today, we are travelling to Vienna, which is actually called Wien (pronounced vien) if you are Austrian.

We meet a lovely Austrian lady on the train and she responds with 'Japanese' when we mention Hallstatt. When we declare that Japanese tourists were prolific, she explains that the Japanese have built a replica city in Japan, thereby making it a must see destination for Japanese travellers.

We arrive at Vienna Westbanhof and find our hotel with a minimum of fuss: the hotel is only a 5 minute walk on one of the railway exit roads. Hôtel room is 4 star accommodation and enormous,with huge French windows opening up to a courtyard. Take note that we paid less than 40 euro a night for this one. We hit the streets immediately, exploring our district and then making our way towards the main city centre, which is alive with nightlife. Actually it is not night, the sun is now setting around 4.15pm. We walk as far as the Museum platz, which is precisely that: multiple HUGE museums/ art galleries located around three or four blocks, with a massive Parliament House framing the northern end of the precinct. We walk back to eat the best Lebanese meal ever before settling in early to recharge for a busy day of exploring tomorrow.

We start our second day by purchasing a two day subway pass and beginning the process of exploring the Wiennese subway system. Again, everything runs like clockwork with all light rail trains in the underground rail system departing every 4 minutes......awesome!!!! We make our way to the gothic St. Stephan's cathedral and take the lift up to the bell tower for a sweeping view of Vienna. We were actually hoping to climb stairs, as we hate to take contemporary technological options when experiencing ancient and medieval settings. We then reboard subway to go and see the 'romantic' Danube, which from our vantage point, turns out being anything but romantic or blue. We decide against a boat cruise because services only focus on the city and we don't wish to repeat our Frankfurt cruise error. There is a full day trip to Bratislava which heads into the countryside however we opt not to spend the whole day for something that may compare to our Heidelberg cruise . We utilise the subway to explore other areas of the city and are generally enchanted by what Vienna has to offer. In the evening, we go to an English speaking theatre to see Argo, Ben Afflecks's latest film which retells the amazing escape of six Americans from the 1979 Iranian US hostage crisis in Iran.

Day 3 ends up being a bit of a disaster. We head to Vienna's amusement park which compares to the enchanting Luna Park of the 1960s, but five times the size. Where we go wrong is deciding to go on a ride that resembles the old cha cha, but turns out to be a front end loader spin sensation. We are genuinely traumatised by the experience and the physical and psychological impact necessitates making our way back to our hotel to deal with the incessant head spinning and nausea. Rest provides relief as we sort out our travel to Prague tomorrow where we will spend the next five days. We would have liked a few more days in Vienna as we really enjoyed the city's pace, though we have one reservation.

Smoking is more prolific than anywhere else in Europe and is impossible to avoid. The city smells like a giant ashtray and you start to taste ash in every breath you take. That is where Australia is way more evolved than Europe, with most Australians now accepting that smoking is an often fatal health hazard and often an indicator of an anxiety disorder, better serviced by cipramil or other. In Austria, Europe, around 4500 people die of smoking-related lung cancer annually.