Feeding the Otters

We arrived in Wien at about 10:30pm. Fortunately we were at another distant relative stop (great-uncle this time, no dog) and Reinhard very kindly picked us up from the station and took us to a luxurious apartment which they normally let out to famous opera singers in town. Back in Deutsch-sprechen-ville Tom was back in his element (having become an overnight fluent German speaker in München to everone's, including his, surprise).

Having basically no German speaking ability and consistently experiencing French interference I was struck by cultural exhaustion and cracked it in no uncertain terms. Fortunately it was shortlived and I have managed to learn a surprising number of nouns. Ordering coffee seemed always to be a challenge and I confused many baristas with my orders. Not to mention Capuccino in Bavaria seems to mean double macchiato with froth. Odd. Wien is huge. A much bigger city than I anticipated, and opera is a blood sport. There are spruikers for the opera every night and they chase you. We did see the ballet on our last night, but more of that later.

There were too many things to see in Wien. Our stay in Wien was the longest stop so far, and still we saw a fraction of the city. We did see the tiergarten though. In the freezing snow. Which wasn't so bad and many of the enclosures had inside bits to keep the animals and the tourists warm. The coolest (and warmest) place we saw was the rain-forest enclosure which also had a fledermaus haus. This involved walking through a dark tunnel where bats swooped you. Not for the faint of heart but it was pretty cool to be brushed by soft leathery wings that were too dark to see.

But the bit that made me overdoes with cute was the feeding of the otters. Schönbrunn tiergarten has a pair of otters that are possibly the cutest things I have ever encountered. Feeding them apparently involves a bucket of steak and mealworms while the otter sits on the zookeepers lap and squeaks. Tom has managed to capture video of this however I doubt we'll be able to upload it until we get home. I was too busy overdosing and squeaking and bouncing but I think he videoed about 2 minutes of otter-cuteness.

Reinhard took us to the ballet to see die Nüssknacker which was a pretty modern version including barbie a robot and a video game. It was still a very spectacular ballet and the orchestra was sensational. We also got to meet the conductor at the end, as he was an old friend of Reinhard's.

I wish we had spent more time in Vienna but sadly the show must go on! To Salzburg and Julie Andrew's-ville.