Oh, Vienna

 It was an early morning flight from Heathrow which delivered us to Vienna. By the time we had retrieved our suitcases and exited customs our driver had just about given up on us. Luckily he hadn't quite left so we were delivered to our hotel in plenty of time.

We were staying pretty much in the centre of Vienna - a block from St Stephens and within easy reach of all the shops and Christmas Markets.

The weather was okay (it didn't snow <sad face>); it was brisk, oh so brisk. 

Our visit to Swarovski certainly stimulated the Austrian economy (we both had birthday money to spend, & spend it we did.

The Christmas markets were fantastic - a lot more crafts than we'd seen in the UK.

I am addicted to chimney cake and many different varieties of potato dishes now

London Town

 From London we managed a daytrip to a wet and dismal Windsor (weather wise). It was all a bit gray...

 

Windsor was also one of the few places where we didn't spot a Christmas Market.

We more than made up for it the next day when we arrived in Vienna

london calling...

The UK is in the midst of transport strikes ( & postal strikes, & border security strikes) but we've been pretty lucky. Our (train) travel days had luckily been non -strike days so we weren't too affected. We'd planned to use Manchester as a base for day trips but due to the strike action we managed a day trip to York and spent the rest of the time exploring Manchester.

Our train trip from Manchester to London Euston fell victim to the flow on effects of 2 days of strikes coupled with a points/signal problem near Euston.

Normally trains run every 20 minutes and the journey takes 2 and a bit hours. Not this time. Several trains were cancelled and the train we eventually caught was late leaving because it didn't have a driver, then it didn't have a chef, then it had more toasted sangers but still no driver. Eventually they found a driver and off we went. We made it to Euston where there was still snow on the ground, then off to Paddington  to check into our hotel - a smidge later than anticipated.

Again while in London the rail strikes had minimal impact - other than the difficulty of day trips. 

Actually the main impact was our brother's plan to come to London to see us - due to buses replacing trains and train strikes he didn't get to London til mid afternoon (3pm) and we had theatre tix at 6pm.

Still it was great to have some time with him.

We didn't have a lot of time in London but we managed to fit in the musical theatre exhibition at the V&A museum.

We also found the theatre Cafe- which was so absolutely us. Everything was theatre themed even the signs in the restrooms.

Theatre wise we saw Newsies (about the early 20th century newsboys strike in New York.

 

We also saw Back to the future the musical. It was good but the lead actors were playing Michael j Fox & Christopher Lloyd rather than Marty McFly & doc. (A minor thing but it niggled).

 

To be continued...

Manchester, England, England

Our 4 hour train journey from Southampton to Manchester brought with it our first glimpses (flurries) of snow. 

Our maternal grandfather lived in Manchester as a lad and it turned out we were staying not far from his childhood address so, of course, a visit was in order. The shop (they lived above it) is long gone, the building has long been demolished, & a medical centre occupies the site. 

Still we could walk the streets he would have walked and imagine how things might have been.

We also caught up with a distant cousin while in Manchester.

of course we managed to stumble across a library or 2 in Manchester...

and some cool notices. And some Christmas jokes scattered around the city...

more litfest

Sometimes it doesn't matter how many times you've seen an author being interviewed, or 'in conversation' their stories are always different or the interviewer takes a different approach and it is all fresh and new again.

One day I'll total up how many times I've seen Ian Rankin being interviewed 'in person' and then i'll probably wonder why there isn't a restraining order in place...

Once again it was a great session; he is taking 2023 off and then will tour in 2024. He hasn't ruled out visiting the Ath in 2024 and re-signing his hand print - he said to nag his publisher to organise it...

Ian also did a festive reading of John Julius Norwich's reply to the 12 days of xmas which, if you don't know it, is worth checking out on youtube...

Tuesday 6 December

Our morning highlight today was Ed Balls (ex British MP, contestant on Strictly come dancing etc etc etc). An interesting bloke. He has just written a book about food - which was the main topic of his talk; however during question time, an audience member asked him why he (& the govt) hadn't done more for aged care in the UK. 

He gave a very considered and honest reply which earned both him and the questioner a round of applause.

15 minutes after finishing the Ed Balls session, Julia Wheeler had regrouped, refocused, and headed to the Illuminations theatre to be in conversation with spy writer Charles Cumming.

This proved Julia's ability as an interviewer, she was ready and prepared to talk spies with the British author tipped to take over John Le Carre's mantle as Britain's best spy thriller writer. (Mick Herron is also vying for that title...)

Later that day it was Mick Herron's turn to be captured by the Ath library bag and not refuse to visit the Ath library in 2024 (Mick says he likes libraries) which I think counts as a binding contract...?)

Monday 5 December

Day 2 of the Lit fest started with the ever brilliant Julia Wheeler hosting an 'in conversation' with Simon Winchester who has previously written a book about the Atlantic. Although he was supposed to be talking about his newest book Land he also covered Atlantic, and The surgeon of crowthorne/professor and the madman (he didn't like the film).

After lunch (and we were ready for the clocks to go forward an hour) it was time to see Mark Billingham & Mick Herron in conversation. 

They are clearly fans of each other's work so there was some good humoured ribbing of each other along the way.

Then it was off to the first book signings of the cruise - Rachel Joyce, Alexander McCall Smith, JoJo Moyes, and Simon Winchester.

Another great day at sea.