TMS Austria 2000

Each autumn since 1987 I've joined the Tramway Museum Society's Annual trip to look at trams (as well as to do the odd bit of sightseeing). This is now operated by Timeline Travel, a firm for whom I do a fair bit of tour guiding work. As has become something of a tradition now, I compile a daily diary of what I (or sometimes we) do, as a way of letting people know that we're not a group of Thermos flask-toting, anorak-wearing, notebook carrying hairies with rucksacks full of pens and discarded Mars Bar wrappers. Mostly.......

Friday 29 September 2000

I rise early (0430) to drive over to Richard's place near Wolverhampton. A Taxi (driven by a lady who's done this for at least three years and knows us well!) takes us to Hilton Park services where we join the coach bang on time at 0740. With a very brief pause at Rothersthorpe, we're soon at Dover where we manage the earlier (1245) ferry. This is the "Aquitaine", formerly the Belgian RMT's "Prinz Philippe". It is very crowded with coach groups going over for the "Prix de l'arc de triomphe" horse race in Paris.

After a quick bite to eat, we're soon speeding along the French motorway system. We cross the border into Belgium at around 1700 local time.

We take an unscheduled detour into Ghent to ride on the new tram route extension to Zwijnaardebrug. We leave the coach in the centre of Ghent near the Sint Peter's Station; after some photographs (and the chance to chat to some old friends from the other coach), we catch car 3, one of the older PCC cars from the new tram stop beneath the station bridge. New equipment, presumably to indicate departures and the progress o the tram, s in evidence on the platforms and on board the tram.

The extension is surprisingly long. At the far end we meet the coaches and continue on to Antwerp.

Entering by the new route under construction beyond Linkerover, we arrive at our hotel, the Holiday Inn, around 1900.

The check in procedures are a bit "problematic": there are two TMS coaches, which arrive more or less simultaneously, as well as two coaches from Lees of Durham. Needless to say, this puts extreme pressure on the hotel's lifts! We end up using the stairs (which the receptionist has to unlock specially!). I ponder how pleasant it is not to be working and having to actually sort out these problems!

Dinner consists of something indeterminate but at least it's nice and isn't the Chicken Kiev we've enjoyed on our two previous visits to this hotel!

We decide to put in a bit of tram riding before going to bed. On the way out of the hotel there's a minor drama as one of the ladies from the Lee's coaches collapses. I summon help from reception; she blames the heat in the restaurant.

TMS people suddenly descending on the tram system, all wanting to buy tickets, puts quite a strain on the system. Indeed, some of us walk one stop back to minimise this. Eventually a PCC car on route 12 (which doesn't normally come this way: we are expecting a 24) comes along. The lady driver I quite pleased with herself, dealing with this "large queue" of foreigners relatively quickly. Then at the next stop she encounters the majority of the party. Oh dear! The delay lasts several minutes; some locals even get off and walk!

At Station Astrid we change onto a 10 to Melkmarkt, enjoy a beer on the market square and then return to the hotel on an 11 and a 24 before turning in for the night.

Saturday 30 September 2000

An alarm call at 0600 alerts Alistair and myself. After a swift shower and breakfast we're soon off on the longest single leg of our journey: 900km to Linz in Austria.

After passing briefly through Holland, we have a brief pause at the Aachner Land services just inside Germany before hitting some serious traffic delays south of Cologne. All the time we're entertained with the video of the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies". Predictable but fun!

Lunch (Schnitzel and Kartoffeln) is taken at the Speissart Service area. Very nice.

Unfortunately, the afternoon sees some pretty severe traffic delays (an unfortunate feature of Germany's predominantly two lane motorway system combined with roadworks).

With a very brief pause at Donautal Services, we finally arrive in Linz just after 2100, after some 13 hours on the road. Phew!

We hurry into dinner (Schnitzel!), down a couple of beer and it's off to bed.

Sunday 1 October 2000

Goodness, is it really October already?

The day dawns warm and sunny. After a quick (and not particularly inspiring) breakfast we set off by coach for this morning's destination, the Sankt Florian Museum, just to the south of Linz.

St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, was martyred here in the fourth century AD. The monastery built over the site of the martyrdom is also the burial place of the composer Anton Brückner.

The Club Florianerbahn Museum tramway runs on a short (4.6km) line north from St. Florian. This follows the line of a former interurban which connected with the Linz town system until 1973 when an unsafe bridge brought the connection to an end and caused traffic on the interurban to dwindle to nothing.

I'd been in two minds whether or not to do this line, but am very glad that I did. We ride out and back across a landscape of flat fields with hills in the distance. A "proper" old European interurban. (The tramway's pet dachshund accompanies us on the trip!

We ride on car 1 on 1913 and on ex-Gmunden car 7 of 1907. Both are very slow (or are driven in a "leisurely" fashion)! But the ride is a very pleasant experience. We're accompanied by what appears to be the Museum's resident Dachshund!

We return to Linz, glimpsing the first of our trolleybuses (the 45) en route.

Alighting near the Hauptbahnhof, we buy day tickets for the transport system (in my case using loads of small change which I've acquired on various trips!), before catching car 88 on route 3 from Hbf. to the southern end of Landstrasse.

From here, we walk up to the Market Square. This is a rather fine place, surrounded by pastel coloured buildings and pavement cafes and with one of those "Plague Columns", erected to give thanks for deliverance from the plague and quite common in Central Europe, right in the centre.

The old town hall (Altes Rathaus) lies opposite. It was from the (improbably-small)balcony here that Adolph Hitler once greeted the jubilant crowds in the square below, Hitler came from near Linz, regarded it as his "home town" and planned to retire and ultimately be buried here.

We continue by tram route 3 to the terminus, from where we enjoy a trip on the unusual Postlingbergbahn, a tramway to the summit of a nearby viewpoint and pilgrimage church. This is incredibly steep for an adhesion tramway and is unusual for having all its trams numbered with Roman numerals. We joke that in an emergency you have to dial "IX IX IX"! (An emergency seems eminently possible, too; we run all the way up sharing the rear platform of the crowded tram with an unfolded baby buggy and with the doors open!)

We take lunch (Wiener Schnitzel again!) up at the summit, then take some pictures of the slightly misty panorama below, before descending again and spending the afternoon sampling Linz's trams, buses and trolleybuses.

Firstly a 3 tram takes us south to Blumauerplatz, right in the centre of town. A quick change onto a 1 take us one stop on to Unionkreuzung where we had intended to catch a 43 trolleybus. This, however, turns out to be operate by motorbuses today, so we instead take a 41 trolleybus (quiet and with excellent acceleration) to Salzburger Strasse. A short walk in what has by now become steady rain takes us motorbus 11, which in turn takes us on to the 1 tram at the interchange at Simonystrasse.

Throughout this journey, Linz's excellent GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) based vehicle tracking system informs us of waiting times at stops and the names of stops on the vehicles, as they (even motorbuses), procede. Excellent, we all agree.

We do an "out and back" at the southern end of the 1 for some quick photographs before returning to our hotel (itself located near the curiously-named "WIFI" tram stop).

After a rest at the hotel, a group of six of us head out to find an evening meal (this not being included at the hotel tonight).

We begin by taking a tram to Hauptplatz, walk around a bit of the surprising pleasant Aldstadt and finally settle on a local type restaurant on the Landstrasse. There we enjoy an excellent meal, aided by a particularly friendly waiter who at one point asks if we're Irish!

Afterwards we walk part of way back to hotel before boarding our last tram of the day. Our AUS 40 day tickets were good value! Once back at the hotel, it's straight to bed!

Monday 2 October 2000

We awake to an alarm clock before 0600. This is supposed to be a holiday?!

Today we are to explore the whole of the Stern & Hafferl light railway system in Upper Austria. This is no mean feat as it nowadays consists of several separate lines, the remnants of a once much larger network. Stern & Hafferl is a private company which also operates rural buses and provides electricity supplies.

We take a quick breakfast before boarding the coach to the Salzkammergut, one of Austria's prettiest lakeland regions. We end up at the attractive lakeside resort of Attersee from where we take the 0948 Stern & Hafferl tram to Vocklamarkt. This is car 23 108, a 1949 ex Montreux (AONC) car. Our group comes as something of a surprise to the locals, whom we outnumber considerably!

We pass through a pleasant landscape of fields and fine country houses, even getting glimpses of a kestrel and several chamois shyly galloping away from the unexpectedly large train.

Slightly ahead of schedule we arrive in Vocklmarkt, rejoining the coach and heading on for Gmunden.

Gmunden occupies a pleasant situation on the northern end of the Traunsee, Austria's deepest lake. The town is served by a single line tram route operated by curious double-ended but single sided trams. The unsuspecting driver of the tram at the Hauptbahnhof manages to get "jumped" by 60+ tram enthusiasts all demanding tickets. He fails to do so with good grace (apparently; I go off taking photographs!).

We eventually join the service at the depot (on car 8), buying one of the curious "Day Tickets for Two" at AUS 36 and returning to the Hauptbahnhof. From there we run back the other way, doing the length of the system to the Lakeside.

We enjoy a slightly boozy lunch (Wurst und Senf) before walking to the Seebahnhof to catch the 1345 Stern & Hafferl service to Vochdorf. En route I rake some video of the lakefront, only to be interrupted by a curious German, impressed at the tiny "English technology" of my camera! I saw no reason to enlighten him about Panasonic!

The light railway to Vochdorf passes through surprisingly suburban bits of Gmunden before finally emerging in the countryside through a landscape of fields and fine "chalet" type housing on its thirty minute journey to Vochdorf. Our carriage is shared by three teenage showgirls, somewhat amused by the presence of so many camera toting Britons!

We're a little late arriving at Vochdorf, necessitating a quick trot (across the running lines) to the waiting 1425 service to Lambach operated by car ET 20.110.

The Vochdorf - Lammbach journey is accomplished very quickly and in some comfort. The fact that this is standard gauge (the other lines were meter gauge) makes a difference.

At Lambach, the S&H line runs right into the (sizeable) Austrian Federal Railways (OBB) station. A change of platforms through the subway brings us to our connection: the 1515 to Haag am Hausruck. This is a real treat, a three car train towing a "substation on wheels" to convert 15Kv a/c down to the Stern & Hafferl's dc. We ride in ET 24.001.

We arrive at Haag more than 15 minutes late, so there follows a quick dash by coach to the Neumarkt terminus of the Linz Lokalbahn (LILO). At 1637 there is an unscheduled through working to Linz, using smart modern car 22 52, apparently laid on just for us. We negotiate a group booking for the 46 people on board (AUS 80 each), with yours truly ending up collecting the fare (or most of them at any rate!). Well, I always wanted to be a conductor, I suppose…….

The ride on the LILO goes through countryside and then through moderately built up areas. We pass one of the former KFBE cars from Cologne en route, going in the opposite direction. Despite the excellent acceleration, the journey is a relatively long one, arriving at Linz at around 1815.

It's then straight back to the hotel on a 1 tram for the evening meal, followed by a quick beer and an early night. I'm exhausted!

Tuesday 3 October 2000

We awake to heavy rain. After an early(ish) breakfast, we set off at 0900 for our next destination, Graz, Austria's second city.

The route takes us through some quite mountainous scenery, though much of this is hidden today by the rain clouds. At one point we're held up by wide load coming in the other direction. The 5km Pyrrhn tunnel is negotiated, then we arrive in Graz.

It's still late morning and the hotel rooms aren't available until 1600. However, as Baldrick would say, "we have a cunning plan"! We're dropped off by tram just south of the centre. We walk up to Jakominiplatz, the centre of the tramway system. What a place! Smart green and cream trams seem to be coming from all directions at once! The square has only recently been redeveloped, we discover and very smart it looks too. We enjoy a quick lunch (wurst und senf again!) at a street stall; I venture into the transport undertaking's shop to invest in a book about the Graz trams and then we head off exploring.

We take tram 274 south to Puntigam, to investigate the single track at the end of the route. We thought that this would be something of a rural backwater, but it turns out to be a busy suburban interchange.

We return to the centre, getting off at the delightful Hauptplatz, surrounded by fine buildings and with a lovely little market in the centre. Next we have to catch a service car on route 1 to the terminus at Maria Trost, where we have an appointment at the Tramwaymuseum Graz. Here we begin with a tour of the depot, where I end up doing some translation. At one point the guide is trying to explain the English word for "Asbestos". I know what he means but can't remember the English word. I lamely try to explain that it's something that can be white or blue and crumbles.

"Cheese?" someone suggests!

The Museum boasts a collection of trams built in Graz for systems all over the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy. An inspector's uniform is on display, looking too us more like that of an admiral!

Then it's time for our organised group vintage tram tour. We take a ride on vintage tram 117, built for the Graz Tramways company (GTG) in 1909.

Although the tram belongs to the Tramwaymuseum Graz, whenever it or any the other vehicle from the museum fleet ventures onto the town system it has to be crewed by an official driver and conductor.

The conductor on our trip is quite charming. I get squeezed onto the rear platform where I have quite a detailed and pleasant chat with him. We discuss schools, the importance of learning English in Austria and how good Graz's public transport is. He's just bought a new house on the edge of the countryside, but it's still convenient for public transport. Few if any places in Graz are more than ten minutes from public transport, he explains.

Ou tour proceeds via line 1 of the Graz system, and includes a photo stop and run past a very photogenic bridge.

Route 1 was built as a separate line to the town system, to serve the nearby Maria Trost pilgrimage church. It was, in fact, the first electric railway in Styria and was originally meter gauge, rather than the standard gauge of the town system, having been converted in 1940.

The route still retains many of its "different" characteristics: single track, private right of way, woodland stretches with small houses, wayside stops and a delightful wooden tram shelter at one point.

After touring part of the town system, we leave the tour car at the very near the hotel at the St. Peter's Friedhof stop. While checking the hotel's position on a map one of our number remarks accidentally that it's "near the 'F' in 'Friedhof'!". Oops!

Having checked in, we then go out to sample some more of this delightful tramway system. First we take route 6 up to the Main Station (Hauptbahnhof). The driver reminds us of Brunhilde!

As dusk falls we then take a quick peek at one of the depots, Remise III. The Austrians, at least in Graz, seem to use the French term Remise for depot, rather than the German Betriebshof. Other distinctly Austrian words include Paradisen for tomato and Erdapfel (literally "earth apple") for potato.

We then take route 1 back to Jakominiplatz. After dark, the street lighting here is he best I've ever seen. The quality of light is amazing and I make the most of it with the camcorder.

Departures from the square seem to be co-ordinated between routes to ease interchange.

We return to the hotel by tram in time for dinner which, although delightful, takes almost an hour for even the starter to arrive. I end up being called in to do translation duty while the kitchen are moaned at. It's like being at work!

We then have an evening discussing some pretty strange subjects, including alien life forms and a parallel universe in with the LCC tramways used only overhead current collection! Not surprisingly, bed soon follows!

Wednesday 4 October 2000

We are due to leave he hotel at 1100 this morning, so we have the morning until then free.

Accordingly, after breakfast we walk from the hotel to the terminus of the 3 tram at Krenngasse, a nice single line loop in a an area surprisingly well provided with trees.

Tram number 529 comes into view. Judging by the number of people waiting for it and the expressions on their faces there had been a gap in the service. We catch it to Hauptplatz, then walk north through a pleasant street to the terminus of the Schlossbergbahn, the funicular railway climbing to the town's viewpoint and where its castle once stood. Curiously, there's a clock tower up there (the Uhrturm) where the longer hand points to the hours. That must look awfully confusing!

We're not able to ascend to the summit, though, as the funicular (one of the steepest I've ever seen) doesn't open until 1000.

We take a 4 tram to the northern terminus of Andritz, before returning to Hauptplatz on an old Duewag tram.

We walk to the town's bridge (over the River Mur), to take some nice photographs from before returning to the Hauptplatz. From here we strolled back to Jakominiplatz, visiting the Landhaus on the way. This is the seat of regional government and is a splendid old building with a courtyard, surrounded by arcades adorned with flower boxes. Wonderful.

Then it's back (calling at a small model shop on the way!) to the hotel for our 1100 departure for Vienna. The journey is - like most of the long journeys on this holiday - accompanied by very heavy rain. Just short of Vienna we stop at a motorway service area which seems a bit unprepared for a frontal assault by 70 odd Britons. However, they cope admirably and the food there (I have Gulaschsuppe) is wonderful.

We arrive at the Vienna Hotel (the Ibis on Mariahilfengürtel), by 1500.

After checking in, we walk a short distance up the road to the Westbahnhof (West Railway Station) to get some of the excellent value (AUS 150) 72 hour public transport tickets.

Then it's off on the U6 underground line (formerly the Wiener Stadtbahn and still operated by tramway type vehicles) to its northern terminus at Floridsdorf. Most of the trains on this line have one of the new "Croydon type" low floor cars in the centre, which looks a bit incongruous among the older stock. The line runs for much of its length on viaduct and is very reminiscent of Paris or parts of the Berlin Hochbahn.

At Floridsdrof's excellent (but staircase infested) interchange we change to a 26 tram (of very old E types) and journey out through some very workaday areas and past the Bombardier works where we see the first Graz Cityrunner low floor trams under wraps.

At the junction just south of Kagran Friedhof we change to a 25 tram up to the northern terminus at to Leopoldau. This journey is accomplished in an even older trailer (of 1954 vintage), but with a lovely wooden finish. Rumour has it that this route is to be scrapped when U1 underground line is extended but there are no signs of this. Indeed, we're unsure of why they would want to extend the underground line out to what appears to be only a medium density area. However, all becomes clear when we reach the terminus: a large high rise housing estate built in the early nineties.

We return to Kagran to join the U1 back to Schwedenplatz where we take a 2 to go round the Ring to Dr Karl Renner Ring to pick up the 49 back to the hotel. Routes 1 and 2 serve only the Ringstrasse and give some of the best sightseeing in Vienna.

Somewhat repetitively, dinner back at the hotel is pork and the service very slow. Again!

Afterwards we decide to take the U3 to the very hear of the Innere Stadt (Inner City) at Stephansplatz underground station, right next to Saint Stephen's Cathedral. This building always looks spectacular, by day or by night. The tower is topped by a soaring spire and the roof has wonderful "zig-zag" patters in the tiles.

We walk around the corner into the Graben, a street running along the course of the mediaeval city defences (Graben means "ditch" in German). Nowadays this is a wide, pedestrianised thoroughfare with pavement cafés and the inevitable Plague Column.

We stop at one of the cafés for a beer and then walk back through the Hofburg palace. My colleagues appear suitably impressed!

Then it's back to the hotel on the 49 tram from the Ring and fairly quickly off to bed.

Thursday 5 October 2000

After breakfast today we have a visit arranged to the Wiener Strassenbahnmuseum (Vienna tramway Museum) at Erdberg. To get there, we take an 18 tram from opposite the hotel directly to its terminus where we find the former tramways depot converted by the Transport Department to a Museum. Although supported by volunteer tramway enthusiasts, the Museum is emphatically a Transport Department enterprise, more akin to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden than, say, Crich, but with the advantage of being able to take exhibits out on the City's Tramway system.

The deport is surrounded by rather stark looking apartment blocks of the type erected in vast numbers in Vienna between the wars to house the city's then burgeoning population. Indeed, on the tram en route to the museum, a local told us that some 40% of the city's population lives in public housing.

The housing around the Museum appears to be in poorer repair than most.

I get asked to do some translating, along with David Gibbs, but this isn't very necessary, to be honest.

Then Museum site actually consists of four separate depot buildings absolutely full of vehicles, including 10 (!) 10 M class cars, some lovely early articulated cars, "two rooms and a bath" and Nachlaufer types.

After a quick (but busy!) visit to the shop (I buy books, a low floor car model and a tie!) we board our waiting M class tram with 2 trailers for a tour. We proceed via a little of the 18 route, then into town via the 71 and onto the Ring, which we take clockwise to Schwedenplatz and then follow the N and O routes to Praterstern for a photostop with the famous Vienna "Big Wheel" behind. The mammoth tour then proceeds via the "belt route" 5 route right round to the J to Ottakring (for another photo stop)and Hietzing with a view of the Habsburgs' spectacular Schönbrunn.

The tour ends at the Rudolfsheim depot, part of which also appears to be full of museum fleet cars! Municipal ownership has distinct advantages in preservation!

Several of us then decide to return briefly to the hotel to drop off our purchases from the Museum Shop. We then head into the Innere Stadt initially with the intention of lunching on one of the traditional Torts at the Café Sache, where they were allegedly invented. However, this place looks terrifyingly expensive so we head over the road instead to the equally pleasant Café Sirk. I enjoy a lovely thick potato soup here, followed by an "Imperial Tort", a sickeningly fattening multi-layered cream and chocolate affair.

We then walk up to the Stepahnsplatz and through the Hofburg by day, just to see the difference. From the night-time view. The Volksgarten ("People's Garden") is looking particularly lovely.

Austria, with a population of around 10 million, hardly justifies a capital so vast, so grand and so "imperial". But this was, of course, once the capital of the Austrian Empire, and from here was governed a vast territory, a mosaic of nations, including Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenes, Slovenians, Bosnians, Poles and Croats. It is (or was) in the same league as London or Paris and, in its day was far more important than Berlin, for example.

The Ring is also home, we noticed earlier, to a model shop. This is our next port of call, although it turns out to be rather disappointing. Nothing to do with tramways and the railway stuff they have being of fairly poor quality.

And so it's back to the hotel. At this point I notice that the destination on the 6 tram route is the slightly comical Simmering Grillgasse. It sounds like a cookery instruction!

The meal in the hotel is Schnitzel(!) and service is rather better than we've been used to of late. It has to be tonight as we are having a tour of the Wien-Baden line and the Ring on vintage tram 223 of the Wiener Lokalbahn.

We head down to the Opera on the tram and U-Bahn. Unfortunately, in Karlsplatz U-Bahn station we witness a fight. Frightening.

Anyway, at the Opera, just before the scheduled time of 2100, car 223 of 1927 vintage glides into view. I become so engrossed in filming it I almost miss it!

The journey on the car is very atmospheric. Although somewhat modernised from its original condition, it still boasts wooden seats and a phenomenal turn of speed, up to 75 km/h!

The journey to Baden takes just short of an hour, with a short photo stop en route that appears to upset the station manager there! The line is a lot more built up that we'd expected.

We have only a brief pause in Baden, though there's enough time to get a glimpse of the elegant town centre with its fountains and one of the bathing houses to which the town owes its existence (Baden means "bath" or "spa").

Upon returning to Vienna we travel clockwise around the Ring, with some truly magical views of the great public buildings: the Opera House, the Parliament Building, the Hofburg and Hofburg Theatre and, perhaps most wonderful of all, the Rathaus or City Hall.

Having completed one circuit, we then have to do quite a bit for a second time in order to turn the tram around near Börse. That done, we proceed Eichenstrasse in the subway section to catch a late service tram on the 18 back to the hotel.

Needless to say and even by our recent standards, this has been a long day and we go to bed very quickly upon returning to the hotel. Even I, an inveterate reader in bed, can only manage a few minutes of poring over the guide to the Vienna Tramway Museum before I hit the sack…….

Friday 6 October 2000

Today a small group of us have a very special tour booked for the morning. We're going to Baden and back (again!) but this time on the former Habsburg Royal Saloon tram on which the Emperor used to travel to and from Baden. (The town was a favourite retreat of the Habsburg monarchs "taking the waters" and was also where they used to review troops during the First World War.) The tram is very elegant, with armchairs and fine fittings.

Unlike last night, we begin with a circuit (and a half!) of the Ring before setting off southwards to Baden.

Although still built up for most of its length, the Wien-Baden line somehow does look more rural in daylight, at least at the southern end where we pass through village streets and by vineyards and rolling fields. Not like the Linz Lokalbahn by any means but pleasant nonetheless.

This morning we have a lady driver with a incomprehensible accent,. We wonder if she comes from a non-German speaking country, but I subsequently discover that she's from Baden, less than an hour from Vienna! Obviously rapidly changing dialects are not confined to Birmingham and the Black Country! At one point she becomes quite agitated as there's a driver training tram on the line ahead which is holding us up and we have a schedule to maintain! Accordingly we have only time for a very quick stop in Baden for loo and photos before we return to Vienna.

I head immediately off up the Kärntnerstarsse in search of a Viennese coffee shop. I find one where I treat myself to another Tort and an Einspänger coffee (strong coffee with whipped cream heaped on top!).

I stroll through the Graben to the Hofburg to buy some presents before, on something of an impulse, taking a 38 tram from the underground turning circle at Schottentor to the wine producing village of Grinsing, on the edge of Vienna. This turns out to be photogenic and "quaint" (I word I detest when visitors use it about Britain!) but rather dead in the mid afternoon.

So, on another whim, I take a 38A bus to Heiligenstadt to see the famous Karl Marx Hof housing complex built in the late 1920s. This is more than 1 km long, very typical of its time with peach coloured walls, vast arches and courtyards and rather forbidding-looking iron gates. The socialists were accused of building complexes like this for their voters as fortresses. However, when civil war broke out in Austria in 1934, the artillery of the Austro-Fascist right government reduced much of the Hof to rubble in a few hours. Still this is hardly evident from the scene there today. After sitting in one of the courtyards for a few moments, I head back into the City Centre on a D tram to the Opera, changing there to a Wiener Lokalbahn tram.

Despite two trips on this in the last 24 hours, this is the first time I've sampled one of their service cars. I'm slightly taken aback by its provision of tables and by the recorded message heartily welcoming passengers aboard.

I change at Eichenstrasse underground for a 6 back to the hotel.

There's no meal included at the hotel tonight, so a group of four of us head into town again for one last Schnitzel. We get there on the by now well-trodden path of a 6 then the WLB to the Opera. We walk up to the Graben, pick a restaurant and enjoy!

The (Indian?) waiter mixes up the order a bit; his German and English are a bit limited. However, the Schnitzel and ice cream to follow are delicious.

Conversation tonight become slightly insane (again!) Discussing how TMS groups suddenly descend "en masse" on unsuspecting tram systems, confounding drivers and ticketing systems alike. We compare ourselves to the Spanish inquisition, as described in that old Monty Python sketch "No-one expects the TMS!"! Then a discussion about tortoises follows, in which they're described as "Self Propelled Rockery"! It's that kind of evening.

We then walk to the Hofburg and the Ring to catch a 49 back to the hotel through narrow streets (an odd feature to Vienna), changing onto a 6 for the last few stops to the hotel.

Then it's back to the hotel and go straight to bed, tomorrow being the first of two long day on the road.

Saturday 7 October 2000

So, at last it's time to leave Vienna an begin our long journey home. Today we're to drive across Austria an Germany to an overnight stop at Köningswinter on the banks of the Rhine just south of Bonn. At 0745 we pull away from the hotel, negotiate Vienna's traffic system and had out past Schönbrunn to the motorway leading to Linz and the German border.

En route we catch a glimpse of Melk Abbey, where I took a group only a few weeks ago. Even in the bad weather (it's raining today) it looks spectacular.

In due course we pass into Germany at Passau. At the lunch stop I manage to pay for everything using the stock of German coins I've amassed since I don't know when. I still have loads of them, but at least the amount is reducing gradually. Once again en route we encounter some fairly serious traffic jams. This is becoming more and more of a problem in Germany.

Then near disaster strikes. While editing this account of the trip on my Psion, a fault develops in the programme and I completely lose the last three days' details!

Happily, I'm able to retrieve the situation by a combination of an Infra-red download from Brian's account on his Psion Revo (many thanks Brian!) and studying my video recording of the event. I vow to keep separate daily files in future!

The journey is very long and tiring, relieved somewhat by a video of Wallace and Gromit in A Grand Day Out!

Just before 2000 we arrive at the hotel in Köningswinter. (Our arrival was slightly delayed by the local fire brigade using their turntable ladder to put a banner across a nearby street advertising an event at the hotel in November!)

Several of us find that water has seeped into suitcases held in the hold of the coach (it has rained very heavily today). Fortunately, my suitcase was only slightly affected.

Our overnight hotel, the Martim in Köningswinter is fantastic, sited right on the banks of the Rhine. The meal, too, is delicious and is served with a flourish by waiting staff who deliver food to tables under silver tureens which are then simultaneously lifted to reveal the fayre beneath. Wonderful!

Some people then go out tram riding; I enjoy a nightcap and retire to bed!

Sunday 8 October 2000

I awake in the night choking. Quite frightening. Still, I soon doze off again and finally stir to the alarm at 0600.

As we have to be up very early for an 0745 departure, I'm still a bit tired as I do some filming out of the hotel window in the early morning light.

The contents of my suitcase have now dried out!

The coaches come down in front of the hotel for the loading of luggage. We don't expect any of the trams to be running so early, but one Stadtbahn unit makes a return journey while we're there, the driver no doubt being somewhat bemused on a Sunday morning by the number of people photographing his vehicle!

At last we set off (at 0748 to be precise, having waited for the tram to come past!).

En route, the traditional coach quiz takes place. Brian and I win on our coach but are beaten by someone on the other coach gets a higher score.

After crossing into Belgium, we make a brief pause at the St. Ghislain service area near Mons, crossing into France at midday we catch the 1345 ferry from Calais to Dover. This is the "Burgundy", one of the nicest of the P&O Stena fleet.

As last year, I celebrate my return to British jurisdiction by partaking of a curry on board!

Once across, we're entertained by yet another Thunderbirds video on the M2 (unfortunately the video runs out before the end of the episode!).

There is much talk on board about next year's trip, which is to be the most adventurous yet, to the tramways of Australia. I've been looking forward to this for years and now it's shaping up top reality. Not only is it a country with some splendid tramways and museums, but it's also a place I've long wanted to see anyway and I've managed through the Internet to make several really good friends there, only some of whom I've ever met. I look forward to the day when I'll be compiling this account of happy times in Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo and Bylands. Until then, I've been amusing myself with a series of books loaned to me for the trip by my friend and travelling companion this time, Brian. I can't wait…….

Things are going so well, when, just before junction 4 of the M6 traffic comes to a standstill. The matrix indicators inform us that the motorway is closed (!) and suggest a long diversion via the M42 south and the M5. This sounds very suspicious. I help divert the coach through east and north Birmingham (A446, Collector Road, Castle Bromwich, the Heartlands Spine Road, Bromford Lane and Tyburn Road to rejoin the motorway at junction 6 (Spaghetti Junction). Before long, I'm leaving with a friend at Hilton Park Services for a lift back to his home nearby where my car is waiting.

Driving home, I hear on the radio that the cause of the delay was a suspect package beneath one of the motorway bridges which has turned out to be harmless.

Oh well…….

© Ian Jelf 9 October 2000