Paws for thought
Hello everyone! I've just got back from Vienna, the capital of Austria.
I went to a conference there with the editor. I had to spend most of the time in a hotel room as she was in meetings, but I did manage to nag her into taking me out to see some sights in this awesome city.
But first let me say something about the food. Here goes:
Why do I love Vienna most? Two words: sacher torte. It's a layered chocolate cake with chocolate coating and is tail-wagging delicious.
I had it with a coffee that broke the worldwide legal limit for cream.
Yet that was for dessert. For lunch I ordered the famous Vienna Schnitzel - fried thin meat coated in bread crumbs. To be honest, I found it to be a bit dry and didn't like the potatoes much, either.
Never mind: there was the sacher torte! I even smuggled a whole big one back home for my friends in the office. They loved it!
So now the sights: Vienna is quite a pointy city. It doesn't have many tall buildings, like Hong Kong. The tallest I saw was about five storeys. But the buildings have a lot of pointy things on them, making them look spiked up like a goth rocker's hair. You can see what I mean in my Facebook album.
Susan, the editor, loves horses - and cute pups like me, of course, hee hee hee - so off we darted to the city's world-famous Spanish riding school with its Lipizzaner horses. These horses are born black but turn snowy white as they get older. Me, I was born pretty much the same colour I am now, so imagine my surprise.
The horses do these awesome acrobatic moves and . . . zzzzz . . . to be honest, it's pretty boring if you're not so into horses as Susan is.
Yet I did love the horse-drawn carriage ride we took around the city afterwards. It made me feel like a prince. I made sure to practice my 'royal wave' at passing locals. Some tourists even asked me to pose for their photos. I royally consented.
Ah, and did I say I loved the sacher torte? The gentle rocking of the carriage lulled me to sleep and I began dreaming of the cake again.
On the last night I sneaked into the editor's purse and stowed away as she was heading out. I ended up at a gala dinner in the Konzerthaus (German for concert hall).
I was in a most beautiful room. The ceiling had a lot of gold on it, and the walls were very ornate.
I began to have visions of elegant ladies and well-dressed gentlemen waltzing to the music of Mozart.
So, yes, Vienna is like a fairytale place with a long and colourful history. . . and sacher torte!
