I walked around some more on Saturday. There are of course huge crowds in the City centre, with tour groups everywhere, easily identified by a sheep-like group of people led by someone carrying a flag, stick, inflatable cactus (I kid you not!) So I decided to walk away from Stephansplatz, and found the Donau Kanal, a canal on the west side of the actual Donau (Danube). Not sure why it was built, as it is quite curvy, and has no obvious maritime use. No tourists there, they all seem to stay within a few blocks of St Stephan catherdral and the museums. I walked along the bank of the canal, and had to laugh when I saw workers setting up for the summer season: they were building up fake tiki-bars, with plywood walls covered in bamboo and rattan. Beside these were areas covered in less than 30 cm of sand, all carefully contained within low wooden structures. Piles of beach chairs were ready to be set out. I'd heard about Paris setting up fake beaches, but this is the first time I've actually seen one!
I was thinking of walking on to the actual Donau river, another 30 minutes further maybe, but then I saw a big dark cloud coming, so I decided to walk back instead. In anticipation of Monday morning, I took the U-bahn (metro) to the Vienna Inernational Centre, just to see how long it takes to get there. Boy, is that place ever big! I better go a bit early on Monday morning, to be sure I find the right building and the right gate on time. Of course, by the time I got to the VIC it was raining, so I took the U-bahn right back. The U-bahn stations were clean, uncluttered and bright, with a train about every 4 minutes, no worries at all. I then went to a supermarket to pick up somehting for dinner (and food to carry me through to Monday as almost everything is closed on Sundays). Of course, once I was back in my apartment, the sun was out again!
