Weekend in Vienna

[Fifa]

Why have I only just found your TR???
You are such an engaging writer - thank you for sharing your trip.

 

[Paddy55]

Love the TR so far.
Looking forward to hearing of your time in Vienna as will likely be there next year for the first time.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[Skyring]

Weekend in Vienna - SIN

I watched Driver and Patton on the plane. Both dealing with violence in different ways, both excellent movies and just a tiny fraction of the list available.

In comparison, SIN was its usual bustling self, even in the middle of the night. I remember I found it so exotic there the first time around, but now it looks pretty much like any international Airside. I've never actually left the terminal here, even though I've lost count of the number of transits and even spent a couple of nights at the airside hotel. Got to sleep somewhere, you see...

I have seen the actual Singapore once, on a day tour off a cruise in 2008, but realistically, Changi is so good you could have a perfectly fine time there, never leaving the terminal. I had to chuckle to myself as Qantas pushed their InSky duty free an hour or so before we landed, telling us that the terminal had limited shopping facilities. What rubbish. The shops were open and well-stocked.

We left the plane and scuttled along to the Qantas/BA lounge. No First privileges this time, but I wasn't interested in cold champagne so much as a hot shower and a chance to shave. There is nothing that sets you up between long haul flights quite so much as a good tub.

Teeth clean, face smooth, hair damp, I had a few minutes left before we had to return to reboard, and I logged onto the free wifi with the iPad to upload the file I'd worked on during the flight.

Kerri was getting antsy and the internet was terrible slow, but at last we were done and we left the land of the Lounge Lizards for those long corridors back to Bertie at Gate 23A, waiting patiently for us.

I really should have stopped to top up the melatonin supplies. It ages and gets stale, and my last tablet was almost a year old by now, bought in some DC drugstore along with blue hair dye. But Kerri was worried the plane would leave without us, and so we went through security and a passport inspection, and then sat around and around and around while all the other classes and rows were loaded ahead of us.

And even then we had to shuffle along the air bridge when we were finally called.