Happy birthday Gerard .... have a great day 
Another foray into Europe on many wheels!
- Thread starter gerarddwatts
- Start date
Happy Birthday Gerard
Happy birthday Gerard 
Have a great day.
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday
We've seen the Lippizaner horses in Lipica, Slovenia, so off to see a demonstration at the Spanish Riding School ..
Magnificent beasts..how they train them to do the things they do I have no idea..
Magnificent beasts..how they train them to do the things they do I have no idea..
What next?
Oh...I know...
Oh...I know...
Thence to Karlskirche, a beautiful Catholic church.
It is beautiful inside..
It is also currently home to an art installation by a fellow called Cerith Wyn Evans...wonder where he might be from?...
This is a classic 'emporers new clothes' jobbie....everyone saying what a marvellous piece of work it is, whereas in reality, it's a piece of Welsh pish, obscuring real art.
IMHO obviously.
The Vienna card got us in for half price, so a good deal..
It is beautiful inside..
It is also currently home to an art installation by a fellow called Cerith Wyn Evans...wonder where he might be from?...
This is a classic 'emporers new clothes' jobbie....everyone saying what a marvellous piece of work it is, whereas in reality, it's a piece of Welsh pish, obscuring real art.
IMHO obviously.
The Vienna card got us in for half price, so a good deal..
The front desk of the hotel was quiet so cunningly picking the cheeriest looking geezer, I explained the issue with the trains, and that we would have to cancel a night...without a blink he issued a refund, and joined in the general abuse of the German railway system.
I also discover that the refund is more than I have paid for the night in Cologne on the way...helpful!
The dBahn email cancelling my initial trains gives me a get out of jail card in as much that it gives carte blanche to travel on any train as an alternative to the cancelled one.
Slightly less stress!
I also discover that the refund is more than I have paid for the night in Cologne on the way...helpful!
The dBahn email cancelling my initial trains gives me a get out of jail card in as much that it gives carte blanche to travel on any train as an alternative to the cancelled one.
Slightly less stress!
After the triumphs...disaster!
I checked the trains I had found to get to Cologne on Sunday and they've disappeared.
Whoever is running dBahn needs sacking.
We can still do it but an earlier start and more dodgy transfers.
I am never going to do a journey revolving round German railways again.
I had read in rail publications of an operator(Eurosleeper) trying to set up long distance sleeper services in Europe who had given up due to German railway incompetence.
I can well believe it.
When I first planned this trip it was easy..1 train from Brussels to Frankfurt at a civilised time with an easy transfer to train to Vienna and the same back...its all unravelled day by day!
Bunch of kunts!
I checked the trains I had found to get to Cologne on Sunday and they've disappeared.
Whoever is running dBahn needs sacking.
We can still do it but an earlier start and more dodgy transfers.
I am never going to do a journey revolving round German railways again.
I had read in rail publications of an operator(Eurosleeper) trying to set up long distance sleeper services in Europe who had given up due to German railway incompetence.
I can well believe it.
When I first planned this trip it was easy..1 train from Brussels to Frankfurt at a civilised time with an easy transfer to train to Vienna and the same back...its all unravelled day by day!
Bunch of kunts!
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It's awful and cruel the way they train them. Sue's daughter who has horses (not Lippizaner's) took her to see them training .... Sue got up and left!
I can see the track of your drone, surprised you were allowed to fly it in there
Hmm.It's awful and cruel the way they train them. Sue's daughter who has horses (not Lippizaner's) took her to see them training .... Sue got up and left!
Are you suggesting they do awful and cruel things to them during a public training display? Find that hard to believe to be honest.
After your post I checked as far as I could, via Google etc, and there has never been any reported cruelty.
Lots of coverage of personalities, politics and finance, but no mention of cruelty.
My experience with horses is that it's difficult to get them to do anything they don't want to do. The Spanish Riding School philosophy is that their stallions do what horses do naturally but in a structured way.
I suspect that any cruelty would soon attract much adverse publicity and there just doesn't appear to be any.
Last night we took the advice of 'the man in seat 61' and went just a short way up the street to a restaurant...'Der Ringsmuth'...initially told full if no reservation and then given a table for an hour.
Constant stream of folk being turned away....a good sign...as it turned out.
Delicious grub..
A super meal and easily within our time!
Proper Schnitzel!
Cherries was chicken stuffed with corn and mushrooms. Cheese and a couple of beers...good birthday grub!
Constant stream of folk being turned away....a good sign...as it turned out.
Delicious grub..
A super meal and easily within our time!
Proper Schnitzel!
Cherries was chicken stuffed with corn and mushrooms. Cheese and a couple of beers...good birthday grub!
It wasn't a public display Gerard. Sue's daughter Sam is in the horsey circle and was invited to the training session, not open to the public. I'll get some details from Sue.
Edit ... from Sue
"They whip the horses legs
The British champion Charlotte dujanay? Was taken off the Olympic team for excessive use of the whip xx"
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Yes ....I saw the publicity at the time.It wasn't a public display Gerard. Sue's daughter Sam is in the horsey circle and was invited to the training session, not open to the public. I'll get some details from Sue.
Edit ... from Sue
"They whip the horses legs
The British champion Charlotte dujanay? Was taken off the Olympic team for excessive use of the whip xx"
Luckily the Spanish Riding School and the Lippizaners both here and Lipica appear to have attracted no such notoriety.
But whatever...
Plan today was for a boat trip on the Danube.
Tubed to the river to see a notice...at the far end....that the Danube was impassable and that trips were cancelled...why the useless hoors couldn't have put the notice at the beginning of the hike instead of the end is beyond me.
Back onto the tube, detubed half way over a bridge,
and then dondered across a park tother Donauturm..Danube tower..
A very speedy lift to the observation platform gave us good views of most of Vienna
Tubed to the river to see a notice...at the far end....that the Danube was impassable and that trips were cancelled...why the useless hoors couldn't have put the notice at the beginning of the hike instead of the end is beyond me.
Back onto the tube, detubed half way over a bridge,
and then dondered across a park tother Donauturm..Danube tower..
A very speedy lift to the observation platform gave us good views of most of Vienna
Pictures went out of order!
They obviously take sport very seriously here..
Whilst up the tower the Austrian authorities were practising their emergency alert system..our phones made a dreadful noise, as did everyone else's, a bright red text came up advising us it was a test, and all the cities sirens sounded..not what you want to hear when you are several hundred meters up in the air!
I experienced that in a city in Portugal, very disconcerting, but the sirens were epic and went on for a fair while...We were in the Castle, so in a safe place high up and still on the ground.
If I had been in a tower like that, my arse would have fallen out!
Lot of water about it would seem.
Enjoying this.
