The Roast- Fresh Coffee

The Roast-Vienna Airport

The Roast near our departure gate No 44 was serving coffee with freshly roasted and crushed coffee beans and the smell of coffee was refreshing after the disturbed sleep on the flight and the cool temperature of the airport lounge. The crowd at Vienna Airport was about 10% of what we see at our own T3 at IGI, but probably because it was Saturday morning. After a hearty breakfast topped with freshly roasted/crushed coffee we were ready to board the aircraft for Salzburg.

 Austria has a very small population of 18 Million people and it was evident because there was nobody to check our boarding passes. The process was fully automated with machines reading our boarding passes. We boarded a bus which took us to the aircraft parked about 500 M away. The temperature of 7 deg C was slightly chilling. Remember there is no such thing as bad or good weather. We are simply improperly dressed.

Vienna-Airest

AIREST at Vienna Airport

The Danube runs through the middle of Vienna city. It was initially set up by the Romans as a fortification against the Germanic Tribes. One year the winter was acutely severe and the Danube froze over. The tribes crossed the river and within 40 days Rome was burning. Austria and its capital Vienna saw many a political ups and downs until the Habsburgs built an empire in the 1700s in which the sun never set. But World War One and Two severely affected the country till 1950 when it was set free as an independent nation once again. During the cold war Austria was the buffer between the free Europe and the Soviet dominated countries.


Anyways the hot steaming cup of tea at 7AM in the morning chill at the Airest was extremely welcome and refreshing after the night long flight.

A Hot Cup Of Tea At Vienna Airport 7 AM

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The flight to Vienna, Austrian Airways OS34 took off at 150 AM ,dot on time. It was a comfortable flight with full service of Food and Drinks throughout the 7 hours and landed at 6 AM at Vienna International Airport . There was a queue for immigration but moving extremely fast and before we could say phew we were enjoying a hot cup of morning tea at AIREST restaurant. It was a typical coffee house type restaurant with Self Service and you could sit comfortably for as long as desired which is the true Austrian Coffee House culture. We then searched our departure gate for Salzburg which was the closest airport to our final destination Bad Gastein. Bad Gastein is the third important destination in Austria after Vienna and Salzburg and is one of the most popular Ski Areas in Europe.There is an excellent video of Bad Gastein in winter on You Tube and which  gives a real feel about the place in winter.