You probably know this already, but Wien Austria is Vienna Austria to English speaking people. First I will try not to gush about Wien, but it was a beautiful place. We left Füssen and drove to the train station in München (Munich). We got on board the train for Austria. It all sounds very complicated. Trust me. It was not.

My mother-in-law could not believe we were going to make this trip. "You don't know the language!" she admonished. "We have a little translation book, and we'll figure it out!" my wife told her. At least that was the plan. Come to find out, the translation book stayed buried in our bag for the entire trip. We really forgot all about it after we left Füssen and never looked for it or at it until we unpacked back in the States. It was something we could have left home and probably will when we go next time.

We got on the train (ah the train) in München and it pulled out of the station. The day was bright and clear. The sun was out. There was snow here and there but for the most part, the snow we experienced overnight in Füssen was gone quickly and we never saw it again.

We sat back and talked about the trip we had taken that far. It was Monday and we had arrived in München on Friday. Looking back we decided that renting the car was a good idea. We rented it from Hertz and the rental office was located at the train station.

We had arrived in München on Friday and rented the car on Saturday. The plan was to have the car over the weekend and bring it back and board the train. Since we were leaving on the train to go to Wien, why not rent the car from the rental office at the train station? It was perfect. Also, getting back into München was not as difficult as getting out of town. Maybe it was because the signs were more clearly marked going into München than they were when we left. I am not sure.

The signs at the train station were clearly marked and it was clear what track we had to be on and when the train left. We had plenty of time. On the way to Wien we stopped briefly at Salzburg to drop off and pick up passengers. I was sorry that we did not plan a day there as the city looked very nice from the train station.

Once we got to Wien we got off the train and started looking for a place to stay. There are many places to stay in Wien. I would recommend Pension Suzanne . They have a nice double room with a breakfast buffet for $155 per night and all rooms have bath, toilet, hairdryers, satellite TV and safety boxes. They also provide wireless internet. This was a good choice since they take credit cards and had an elevator.

I was really sorry I did not bring my laptop, since lots of places we went had free Internet, but I thought having a laptop on vacation might be too much. As it turned out, I was fine without it. But I will consider it on my next trip.

Another place we considered because it was close to the train station was Hotel Fürstenhof . They had big rooms and Internet access and accepted credit cards. We decided against it because we were afraid that being so close to the train station, it might be noisy.

We only stayed one night in Wien and took a night train from Wien to Venice on the next leg of our trip.