And now we wait.

Seems like this is getting to be a "weekly blog",  since there's bugger all to talk about most of the time.   Hey,  life goes on.  There's enough crap on the internet,  you don't need me to add to it.
I haven't really made mention of this yet,  but we basically have guests stacked up in a holding pattern.
 A sister-in-law and her troupe are coming in from Slovenia on Thursday night.   Oldest daughter and her troupe are coming in on the 20th,  and an old friend and her sister are coming in some time in September.    Don't remember the date for that one,  and I'd have to rummage through some emails to find it.

Maybe later.

 So,  this morning's activities have consisted of lining up hotel rooms and picking up concert tickets.

I don't want to make this more convoluted than necessary,  but these tickets and hotel rooms have nothing to do with the first group.  Those arrangements have been sorted out.   We're working on the second group,  who will first come here for a couple days and then head off to Slovenia.   We're going to meet them in Bled for some pastry. (OK,  there might be a glass of Union in there too)


The first group are already in Slovenia.  But you knew that.

Just on a side note,  one of the group made reservations for them at a place in Ljublana,  and was all excited that they knew how to spell her name! (it's a Slovenian name)
Kind of nice once in a while when you don't have to laboriously spell out your name every single time,  like I always have to here in Wienerland.


 Thanks to a very nice young chap on the phone at Vienna Concert Tickets,  I had my little story all ready in case they gave me a hard time at the ticket office,  since they would prefer to have you pick up the tickets just before the performance.
 
 Now,  we've been to the State Opera,  which is where this gig is happening,  and that place confuses the hell outta me,  so I really wanted to have our tickets in my hot little hands ahead of time.  Plus I just told the guy that I really didn't want to line up with all the tourists.
He understood completely.

Sorry if that sounds snobbish,  but you have no idea just how mobbed some of these places can be.  

It's not like I'm coming in from out of town,  but that was the little story I eluded to,  by way of getting around the 'lining up on the night of' routine.
The slight consideration was,  it's the summer time,  and all of these places are overrun with summer students.  Thankfully there was an "adult" passing by,  who pretty much took over and got the situation sorted out.  I now know how their system works,  since all the tickets are sitting in these large folder type things inside a credenza.  They simply take them across the street to Opera house on the day of the performance.  (or to the Musikverein,  or where ever).
There's no mystery,  so all he had to do (the student)  was go to the folder,   bring it back to his desk,  look at what I paid for the tickets,  and ask which ones in that section I wanted.   That was too complicated for him.

Now that I think on it,  I'm not really sure what he and his other young associate were doing.   Keeping their seats warm I guess.


The other part of today's agenda was to pick up a watch that belongs to my travelling companion that was in need of a battery.



 I guess it's kind of like when you want to do a tune up on certain car brands.   Not everyone wants to touch them.  The watch happens to be a Gucci.  Now before you get all "la-dee-da" on me and start rolling your eyes,  it was a Christmas present a number of years ago for my travelling companion,  and it's quite nice.  It wasn't crazy expensive but,  perhaps in the range of what I paid for my first used car,  but has up to this point,  lasted considerably longer.
 So fine,  there's a Gucci location in Vienna on their website,  it's just too bad that the phone number is wrong.
*sigh*
 I'm willing to go to a train station for some "recon",  but I wasn't quite willing to jump on the subway and head down to the first district to try and find some mysterious Gucci store.  I just figured I'd go out here on Mariahilfer and go into the first jeweller store I came across and ask them if there was in fact a Gucci outlet on Kohlmarkt.

 Turns out there is.

 Very nice people.   Even the door man.  (um...ya,   places like Louis Vuitton and Gucci have door men)  Only thing was,  they would have to send it to German to get a battery put in.
Hm....welcome to "Absurdistan".

 Instead,  the very kind young lady told me to simply go down the street towards Michaelerplatz to a place called Shullin

where they would probably be able to change it that day.   I decided to leave it over night.



This time around though I thought I'd take the bike,  just to try and keep my arteries from hardening.  It just makes it heaps easier to make multiple stops.   Once again,  the slight consideration is....wait for it....it's summer time,  and the number of tourists in that area is truly amazing.  Oh.. my.. goodness.

I probably should have just taken a picture of all the tourists,  but you'll have to use your imagination.


I think if we get any more activities lined up,  I'll need a bigger notice board.

Have you noticed that Mozart is kind of a prominent theme in Vienna?







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