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.

Sunday December 4

Literature Festival. Day 1.

After a decent breakfast we headed for the Royal Court Theatre & our first event of the festival Alexander McCall Smith ("call me Sandy") being interviewed by Julia Wheeler. 

Sandy was an absolute delight and Julia was the perfect interviewer. Topics discussed ranged from 'pushy mothers in edinburgh', ( young Bertie from 44 Scotland St is a fave), Botswana and the no 1 ladies detective agency, poetry, short stories and all points in between.

An absolute cracker of a first session.

The clocks are put forward an hour at noon which means lunch is eaten quite quickly if one wishes to attend an afternoon session.

The afternoon session was "watching the detectives" and was panel of 3 authors whose books had been turned into TV series: Ian Rankin (Rebus), Mark Billingham (Tom Thorne), and Mick Herron (Slough House). Another great session as all 3 had different experiences from selling the TV rights through to how involved they were in the productions, and whether they had watched the series'.

Saturday December 3, 2022

It was an extremely trepidatious  duo who approached pier 12 at Brooklyn cruise port. 

Some 48 hours earlier K had answered the health declaration honestly ( who says honesty is the best policy?) and as a result of her allergies/head cold has been told “do not turn up at the cruise terminal, do not pass go, do not collect $200, her cruise ticket had been cancelled”

Now the question was “have you had any of these symptoms in the last 10 days?” There followed a list of symptoms - no option to choose individual symptoms, it was one in all in. (no option to mention the negative rat tests etc)

She immediately rang the cruise line who told her to sort it out at the terminal. (Hence the trepidation)

Long story short, she was allowed to board and 72 hours later Cunard dropped the health declaration requirement from all there cruises.

Our cabin was on deck 6 towards the front of the ocean liner (fore).

Our cabin was small but meticulously laid out - we met our cabin steward Joanna, then went to check on at our muster station (in case of emergency, where we should gather if advised), we stood on the deck as we left New York, past Lady Liberty and on to new adventures. 

By this time K had added conjunctivitis to her repertoire and I was coming down with her cold so after dinner in the Brittania Restaurant it was back to our cabin and a planning session for day 1 of the literature festival.

Friday 2 december

our last day in NYC🙀

Started the day at The Rockefeller Centre and Top of the Rock. 

The tree has been lit a couple of days earlier so that was another thing ticked of our must see list. There was a longish queue for the ice skating rink so we moved on to Bryant Park Xmas markets and watched the ice skating there (with a hot apple cider in hand).

On to Grand Central Station (via NYPL - seriously all roads lead to the library).

A quick lunch then off to the Drama Bookshop where we had our first celebrity sighting of the trip - Lin Manuel Miranda (major squee) he was ordering coffee. Totally the highlight of the trip thus far.

After a quick lunch we headed for the museum of broadway, a comprehensive look at the history of broadway shows. It was great. It is set up like a Backstage tour plus some rooms dedicated to a particular musical or composer.

Definitely worthy of a return visit.

Tonight’s musical was ‘Some like it hot’ based on the film of the same name.

Thursday 1 December 2022

We started the day at the Empire State Building - weather was sunny but cold so visibility was good.

Then it was off to Strand books - the definition of so many books so little time.

Then we headed for the Brooklyn Bridge, Hudson Yards, then back to the hotel for a quick rest before our evening's theatre.

We'd entered broadway Roulette again & had scored tix to Hadestown.

It was really good - a variation on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial underworld to escape climate-change induced poverty before her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to rescue her, and together they show others the way to escape.

Very strong cast and well worth seeing.

New York 29/11/2022

Tuesday 29/11/2022 

 

Happy birthday to me. 

 

We started the day with a boat trip to the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. Lady Liberty is very impressive up close and the exhibition about how she was designed and built was fascinating to me. I love finding out ‘how things work’.

 

 

Ellis Island was equally as fascinating in its own way – “Give us your tired, your poor…” is inscribed on the pedestal at Statue of Liberty but applies very much to those who sought to enter America via Ellis Island.

 

The countries they came from; the states they were headed to; the personal letters of those trying to get to the U.S. – it was poignant and moving.

 

After Ellis Island we headed for the 9/11 memorial – an amazing oasis of calm in the middle of a busy city. 

 

The reflecting pools, surrounded by the names of those who died – some with flowers, or a photo, or an American flag tucked into the name – reminding of us what happened & how the world changed over 20 years ago.

 

Theatre that night was The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman & Sutton Foster. It was amazing, fantastic, brilliant. Hugh and Sutton kept trying (& oft succeeding) to make each other laugh.