After that Christmas spent with Ingo and Silvia, we took it real easy. I had planned to go to the office on the 27th, but then that morning, I decided - last minute - to take a day off after all. What's a one day week worth after all?!! So at 7.45 am or so, I called Nelli, one of our receptionists, and asked her to switch on my "out of office" message. And I took the right decision! I threw in a couple of washes so that Orange and I could bring our favorite clothes with us, went to the gym and then prepared dinner - a.k.a. call the pizza delivery ;) . We were really looking forward to this trip and went to bed at a decent time.
The alarm rang at 6.30 am and we snoozed until 7 am (the usual), had breakfast (2 coffees), showered and packed. Orange started getting nervous at 9 - our flight was at 10.50 and I still had to dry my hair and do a 4.5 minute make-up and we left at 9.30 sharp for the Basel Airport.
Orange-X had received a message - a picture - on his cell phone from Pinki, our host for the coming days, but couldn't read it. Once we got to the airport, .... BIG surprise! The flight was cancelled. 30 cm of snow had fallen in Vienna during the night and no flight was going in or out at that moment. We ran to the ticket counter and they offered us a flight via Frankfurt to Vienna. By that time, and with maybe a bit of delay, the flights should be running again. Whew! We finally got to Vienna around 3.30pm and Pinki and Andrea were there to welcome us. Since it was still snowing, Pinki decided to take B-roads instead of the motorway. It took a bit longer, but we arrived at our destination - Bad Fischau (about 45 km south of Vienna - safe and sound.
We had a drink or two before Pinki's ex-wife brought their dog Embers, a beautiful, sweet golden retriever, and then we went out for dinner at hobl und scher (sorry, website in German only) , a very nice restaurant and wine bar in Wiener Neustadt. The food was great, Orange-X and I were tired - that's an understatement! - but so-o-o happy to be there.
Meet Embers (photos of our two legged friends to follow in my next post)
Once we got home, Andrea, Orange and I went for a short walk with Embers in the snow. He just loves it! Once we got to the front entrance - which hadn't been cleared from the 10-15cm of snow that had fallen, I took a step on what I thought was stairs (just 2-3-steps) to the front door. To my surprise, it was Pinki's ramp - I must add that Pinki's in a wheelchair - so I slipped as if I had stepped on butter. No injuries at all - just good fun. Then Embers joined in for a snow fight.
Stay tuned for my next blog - Vienna part 2 - ... Sorry guys, I do work during the day, so bare with me ;)
4 comments:
Happy New Year! Looks like you had a fun time.
We sure did. More to come soon.
Looks fun to me. And nothing is wrong with being able to work. ;-)
Gosh, Expat: Do you always get up that early? You must be something like 9 hours back! But you're right. It is nice to be able to work. I'd get bored otherwise ;)
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