The next day Glen’s slightly sore throat had developed into a bad cold and he had to stay in bed.

Luckily we had rented a 'business apartment' at the Hotel Am Domplatz and they allowed us to extend for the three nights we needed. It had a small kitchennette and was quite comfortable.

We took the train to Krems where we stayed overnight. We had to change at St Polten and due to track works the train had been replaced by a bus that didn’t take bicycles. Margaret was furious and, despite their insistence that it was impossible and out of the question, browbeat the staff into loading our bicycles into the luggage compartment.

The ride from Krems to Vienna was pleasant until we entered the built up area with its rubbish and graffiti. Our apartment was in a shabby part of Vienna but the apartment itself was large, clean, comfortable and well furnished. From our third floor window we could see a pleasant park but it contained a horrible monstorous “Flak Tower”. One of originally six built by the Nazis to protect Vienna from aircraft attack.

It was massive, ugly and dirty reminder of a time best forgotten, made even worse by a failed demolition attempt. We can’t imagine why they don’t remove it.

The touristy bits of Vienna are nice but the rest seemed rather run down and seedy, more Harry Lime than Strauss.

Schonbrunn is famous mainly as the palace of Emperor Franz Joseph.