Frohe Weihnachten! Christmas in Vienna.

With the festive period fast approaching, last week we found ourselves enjoying a taste of next year in a very cold Vienna. For various reasons, we had to finish off the year with one last holiday, and Vienna seemed a natural choice. (Well it would I suppose!). So on a very foggy Sunday, we arrived, friend in tow, at Vienna for a little Christmas break. 

It's often said that the Americans know how to 'do Christmas' and there's a lot of truth to that. The Austrians however, really go to town for Christmas and it wasn't to long until we found ourselves enjoying a Christmas market. In recent years, German style Christmas markets have been all the rage in the UK. So much so that two years ago, there was a lot of concern in Germany that they didn't have enough stall holders to fill their markets as most were heading to the UK. In Vienna however, there are markets everywhere. Food and drink go hand in hand with traditional gifts, Christmas decorations and plenty of music to boot. 

Christmas punch is the first thing you'll find and every market has a stall that will offer you a hot cup of punch, Glühwein or just a hot chocolate (with optional rum of course). These stalls litter Vienna and you'll find many of them run by the Rotary club or other charitable foundations. You buy your drink of choice, which comes in a lovely Christmas mug that you can keep, or return for your deposit back. 

From drink to food, or more correctly, sugar. Sweet treats are everywhere and delicious. From Giant gingerbread hearts with iced slogans to the deliciously deadly 'Krapfen' or giant doughnut, or even the huge shortbread delights, giant pretzels and slabs of strudel, if you like sugar, come and get it. For something more savoury, try the various Wursts in bread or my favourite, some gulash soup, served in a whole hollowed out loaf of bread. 

If food and drink aren't your thing , then you'lol enjoy the various gifts and things on offer. Here though, it depends on what 'type' of market you visit. The first Christmas market we visited was set around St. Stephan's cathedral in the centre of Vienna. It was filled with tradional style gifts, like wooden toys, hand made leather bound journals (I small fetish of mine), beautiful Christmas decorations from Salzburg, Vienna and the Tirol and so much more. 

In contrast, the huge market at the Rathaus was very commercial, with everything from perfumes to watches, music to skiing holidays in sale. Somehow the first market felt so much better.  

The trip also featured a few visits to some new sights, like the beautiful State hall library and the revolving restaurant near the United Nations, the Danube tower. The trip was only spoiled slightly when on the last day, our lift broke down, meaning we had to carry our luggage from the 6th floor (the 8th for Lynda as she hadn't managed to get in to the lift in the first place. Then the lockers at Wien Mitte were out of order, meaning we had nowhere to put our luggage and explore the city on the last day. Still the trip was worth it and it provided us an opportunity to meet an estate agent, ready for next year. More on that in the new year, for now, merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, and a happy new year to everyone.

Winding down for Christmas.

It's that time of year where thoughts turn to family, food and festiveness. Following the horrific attacks in Paris, maybe this year we'll hold those loved ones a little closer than normal and perhaps be that little more thankful for what we have.

Christmas also marks a winding down for us. Lynda's work comes to a stop by the second week of December whilst I usually work over the Christmas period as magazine deadlines come early in the new year. This year however, that winding down process is a little more pronounced than normal. 

With the moving date now set in stone, a strange malaise has settled over the house. We've started 'considering' purchases. Things we'd have picked up or repaired previously suddenly become a source of much soul searching and discussion. Having that fixed date has changed everything. 

Here's a great example. In our bedroom, we have a nice candlelight style ceiling light. It takes five energy saver bulbs. At the moment, two of those bulbs have stopped working. Now normally we'd pop to IKEA, pick up a pack of two replacement bulbs and change out the broken ones. However, now we question 'whether it's worth it'. The three working bulbs still provide enough light when we need it, so why bother replacing them? The same goes for poor Harley. A rusty wheel arch now stand no chance of getting repaired. 

Even Christmas isn't safe, with both Lynda and Myself asking for some types of gift not to be given, to save packing them up later in the year. It's very strange. Another great example happened just this Sunday. It was our 15th wedding anniversary and I got a cracking little gift from Lynda. A collectors figure from the Watchmen. (The 15th anniversary says its the crystal/watch anniversary.). The figure is great, but with the move coming , I'm leaving the figure in its box and it'll be packed up this week into a bigger box. 

It's not just physical things that are getting short shrift. We're under a year away from moving so no new contracts for phones or Internet or anything else being taking out. It's weird. It's almost like we've 'checked out' already. The body may be in the UK, but our heads are firmly in Vienna. 

Next year promises to be interesting. Certainly it'll be different. Keeping with our winding down theme, there's the planning of next years summer holiday. Christmas is traditionally the time when I book the summer holiday, sort out hotels and all that. Obviously, the big summer holiday isn't happening as cash and resources are diverted to van hire and crazy stuff. So like everything else, the wind down is changing everything. 

With the clock ticking down, the amount of crazy will only increase. Fortunately, we have a little break booked just before Christmas to unwind and prepare for the year ahead. And where are we going? Vienna, where else? 

Jess 

Flights of fantasy.

I love planning to travel. As I've mentioned in previous posts, logistics are my thing and travel logistics are my idea of heaven. Maybe it's because I'm a travel agents daughter, who spent many a weekend growing up, sat with her father, learning the ropes. Or maybe I'm not right in the head. Either way, this move is like Christmas and birthdays combined.  

So far, there have been bookings for hotels and bookings for vans. But there is without a doubt, one area that drives me nuts. Booking a flight. Nowhere in this entire trip can so much difference be found in something as simple as getting from A to B. Booking a flight can turn into the proverbial 'omnishambles'.

First up, Aviation is in my blood. I love it. My job revolves around it, and if I had the money, I'd be flying right now rather than typing this. Commercial aviation is my passion, that's Airliners like the 747 and the A320. So the act of booking a flight is a pure pleasure. Or it should be. 

The whole mad trip across Europe comes to an end after 6 days of travel. I return the van to Cardiff, having covered over 2000 miles. That leaves me stranded in Wales with my new home a 1000 miles away. So I need a flight. Here's where the fun begins. 

To simplify things, I'm traveling with just hand luggage, because if it didn't get in the van to Vienna in the first place, I'm sure as hell not dragging it through the airport myself. I need just a single flight, from my nearest airport to Vienna. Simple? No! 

First up, not all airlines offer single flights. More correctly, not all airlines offer single flights in the same way. Let's start at the beginning. 

I'm in Cardiff. So naturally, my closest airport it Cardiff Airport. Travel time from the van hire place to the airport, and bare in mind this is public transport since I just gave the van back and hav no car, is 48 minutes by train. Ok it could be worse, but it's just 11 miles from the van place if I drove. Hmmmm. 

Flights from Cardiff aren't exactly in abundance and several larger carriers offer small linking flights to their hub from Cardiff, where I can transfer to a Vienna bound flight. Ideally I don't want to spend more than £100 on a one way flight.  

Ok so searching for a flight on the right date produces some weird results. 

First up and cheapest is Aer Lingus. Ireland's national airline has a link service to Dublin and a flight on from there. The cost £178. Ok it's not exactly what I want to see, but it could be worse. The cost isn't the biggest issue though. The total flight time is 17h and 15 minutes! It's just a 2h 30m flight direct. Indeed Aer Lingus has me departing Cardiff at 2100, that's twelve hours after I've dropped the van off,

Spend 13h 20m in Dublin before I get to board my flight to Vienna, at 11.30 the next day! Next indeed. 

My next option gets worse. For just £220, I can leave on KLM for Amsterdam, then change onto Baltic Airlines for Riga, before changing at Riga for Vienna. Amazingly this is a shorter day than Aer Lingus at just 12 hours travel time and I get to arrive on the same day I left. But the 6.05 departure time from Cardiff is way to early. 

My next choices are London Heathrow and London Gatwick. After the nonsense of connecting flights from Cardiff, both these airports offer direct flights to Vienna. I first Check Heathrow. It's an airport I'm really familiar with. The journey time from Cardiff to the airport is around 3 hours with a change of trains at Paddington. Not the cheapest option, but not the worst. I can expect to catch a flight mid afternoon at least. 

The cheapest flights come back, and there are many of them, with British Airways surprising me. For just £92 I can get a direct flight at just before 3 in the aftenoon. I'd be home early early evening. Still,given the cost of travelling to Heathrow, I had hoped I could do better. It makes it to the maybe pile though. 

My next option was Air France that offered me the chance to spend my evening waiting at Paris for an early morning flight the next day. Eh, no. 

On to Gatwick. Gatwick is nearly 4 hours away, so I'd arrive after lunch. It avoids London city centre however with a change at Reading. Things turn weird again however when it comes to the flight. My cheapest option is just £71.56. Cheaper than Heathrow. But it relies on my taking Ukraine Airlines. The flight, of which there are three at that price could take anywhere between 10h 30m to a staggering 21h and 30m. As Lynda would say, Fluffy Fat Nope! British Airways come to the rescue again though and for just £73, I can get a direct flight with a late afternoon departure. That's definitely hitting the maybe pile. 

Return to sender

You may notice that neither Lufthansa or Austrian have made an appearance so far. There's a good reason for that. The return flight. As I mentioned earlier, not all airlines offer one way tickets in the same way. For Aunty Lufty and Austrian, the rules are a little old fashioned. Here goes. A singe flight for my choosen dates with either airline costs a whopping £450. The cheapest I found was £394 and that had a change at Frankfurt. 

Change that to a return flight however and things look way different. 

The same flight, leaving on the same day, but with a return booked for just one week later costs just £165! This is the same aircraft you'd fly on, the same route and the same seat, but you have the option of returning. There's no other word for it than nonsense. Hell with a Return booked it's actually cheaper to fly business class at £400 than it is to fly economy on a one way ticket. 

And the winner is!

In the end, the winner was in no doubt. Easyjet. Yes, that's right, the UK's number one budget airline stole the whole show. In a perfect storm, Easyjet announced brand new direct flights to Vienna from Bristol airport, starting in a few weeks. This twice weekly flight goes on the day I need to travel. 

With a journey time of just 1h 30m from Cardiff, changing at Bristol Temple Meads station for a bus, the journey is much cheaper than heading to either of the London airports. 

It was Easyjet's fares being available as one way tickets and priced at just £63.99 it was a no brainer. The flight itself departs just before 2pm and I can be home, ready to start a new life before supper. Hell, I'm even paying for a front row seat and it's still cheaper than BA. 

That ticket is far more symbolic though. It's now a fixed point. To change that booking will cost me extra money. So the date of the move is fixed. With Eurotunnel coming through with summer bookings as well, we're all set.  The dye is cast. Woo Hoo.

It's the little things that pass the time.

Logistics are my thing. It's a weird little talent that gives me a great deal of pleasure. Give me destination and I can run the numbers and find five different ways to get there, the costs, the pros and the cons of each. So planning a move across Europe is like my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. So I know several ways to get to Vienna, the cost of each and so on.

 However, with many months to go, the main details are sorted and booked. So that leaves me twiddling my thumbs, hoping to keep busy to pass the time. Right now though, I've hit the most important job of the whole trip. Making the Playlist for the journey. With two days in a van and many, many miles to cover, music is essential. But what music? 

Playlist mania.

Obviously, if your moving home, you'll need a sense of humour. So the playlist, which needs to cover nearly 20 hours of travel, needs your favourites and should be sprinkled with a few 'themed' songs. So scattered amounsgt the Queen songs, the odd soundtracks and the just plain weird tracks, there's the 'moving' themed songs to make the journey more fun. 

Now if you're planning a playlist, the first song is important. Given the early hour, and the vast choice of songs out there, I've settled with 'The Great Escape'. It sums up the mood. At 6 in the morning, with the rest of country mostly sleeping, 'the Great Escape' is perfect to sneak away from our old home. 

So playlist 1 (I've split the list into two, one for each day.) starts with 'The great Escape'. From there it's full of upbeat moving songs to help us wipe the sleep from our eyes. Here's a few that will brighten our first day heading to Frankfurt and our Halfway point. 

Eastbound and Down - from smokey and the bandit. 

On the road again - Willie Nelson 

National Express - The Devine comedy 

I've been everywhere man - Jonny Cash. 

For day 2, with us feeling pretty knackered after the first day, we're starting the day with Pharnell Williams's 'Happy'.  Throw in 'Everything is awesome' from the Lego movie to lift our spirits and we'll be on our way from Frankfurt to Vienna. Obviously 'The Blue Danube' will feature, as will a little Beethoven and the 9th symphony which doubles as the European Union's national anthem and the whole thing takes up an hour of airtime. (Filling 20 hours of playlists isn't easy.). 

The whole thing has gotten me thinking though, how many great moving/traveling songs are there out there. If anyone reads this blog. (And I don't actually care if no one does, Lynda and I are having fun just writing it!) and you think of a great song or songs, leave a comment and I'll add it to the list. 

In the meantime , I'm off to find room for the table we unexpectedly bought. That's a story for another blog post though.  

Jess 

When three became one!

You have to love the way your mind works, well, the way my mind works at any rate. A fleeting encounter yesterday has changed our plans once again, and this time it's for the better. 

Ok so it's going to be huge. We're not moving earlier than expected. Nor have we come into a tonne of money. Instead, our mad cap adventure has been simplified and streamlined. 

Harley the Saab 9000, and our transport to Vienna?

So, yesterday, having dropped Lynda off for work, I happened to pass Enterprise car rental. Now many years ago, whilst working out the logistics of moving in the first place, I looked into hiring a big van and loading up everything into it. The costs at the time were high, and the thought of carrying all those heavy items (our bed for example) up several flights of stairs didn't appeal.

Since then of course, we've streamlined our plans, cut the amount we're planning to take with us and we've gotten the plan sorted on the cheap. Or so we thought. 

As much as I love Harley, my faithful Saab 9000, it's difficult to work out what you can fit into the old girl. She's not really built for it. That's where Enterprise came it. Whilst the costs of hiring a big van were expensive, what about something like a ford transit connect? It's basically nothing more than a small car type van. Well I thought I'd check out the price. The van would allow for us to carry much more than Harley, potentially swapping three trips across Europe to just two or even one. 

 Checking the price, I wasn't expecting good things. However, I was wrong. Hertz offers a small van for just £120 for the week! Checking around with a few others, the price is similar. Then things got weird. For £175, we could get a standard transit which would allow us to do the whole move in one. At this point we were starting to foam at the mouth. A quick check of the T&C's though told us the van wasn't allowed out of the country. Sigh. Europcar however does offer out for the country rentals. However, it comes with a catch. There was an extra fee on top of the rental cost. That was fine since there are extra items required to take the van on to the continent, and it wasn't a great deal on top. It was the limited mileage that really chaffed though. Adding nearly £200 extra because we'd exceed the mileage limit of 90 miles a day didn't seem fair. Hertz had unlimited mileage. So, hopeful that the website T&C's were wrong, we rang hertz. It turns out that we just had to tell hertz that we wanted to take the van out onto the continent, pay the extra fee an that was that. 

Head buzzing, we ran the numbers. With the van, eurotunnel costs and bits and pieces, the cost of the single trip would be just around £800, or the cost of two trips in the car. So it's a no brainer. The van wins. So it's booked.

There is a downside. Originally , I had around a month to relax after arriving in Vienna before I had to take Harley back to the UK to load up for the return trip. That's not going to happen now and the leisurely three day journey from home to Vienna has now become a two day trip, and that all down to us bringing the star of the show, Geri the parrot. In order to minimise his discomfort we're doing the trip In two days. I also only get one day's rest before I have to set off and get he van back to Cardiff. So I'm going to be knackered. Oh and then I have to get back to Vienna. 

The van presents us with new issues though. So far, with the three trips originally planned, we've been itemising our possessions for either the first, second or third run. This has made it easy to pack up the things we need on arrival and earmark the items we're still using to be packed up wished we started the first run. That's all gone by the by now and it'll be a case of 'pack it all'. So next year, a month before we leave, we'll be packing it all up. It's going to be manic. 

Public Transport showdown

This week, Harley, our beloved Saab 9000 decided to finally get that gastric bypass she's always wanted, sucking her fuel tank out of shape due to a very blocked breather pipe. The fuel tank is just a mess.  

Harley, prior to corsetting her own petrol tank. 

So with Harley getting sorted by the garage, we've been left at the whim of Welsh public transport, and that isn't a good thing. 

One of the great things about Vienna is it's fantastic public transport system. Buses, trams, trains and the U-bahn all combine to get you almost anywhere in the city in under an hour, and cheaply at that.  

The Welsh system is somewhat, different.

Picking up the car.

So with Harley in a garage some 20 miles away in the beautiful little village of Taff's Well, it falls on public transport to get us to her location for pickup. Here goes. 

Step 1 - The bus. 

Ok, our first job is to get the bus down to the nearest train station. Taff's Well has its train station just two minutes from the garage, but for now we need to walk to the bus stop. The time is 15.10. 

The walk to the bus stop takes just two minutes. Home has two bus routes. The main route passes through the heart of the village half a mile away. The second route connects Merthyr Tydfil to Aberdare and passes along the road near to us. So we choose that. This route has a bus to and from Aberdare every 20 minutes, until 18.00. Then it stops all together, leaving just the main service from the village which goes once an hour after 18.00. 

For now, the bus is due at 15.20. Our train goes 15.52 and we've just 5 miles to go. This should be a slam dunk. 

Waiting for the bus.

The bus arrives two minutes late. Great. Lynda checks with the driver what time he's due to reach town. 15.45 comes the reply. That leaves us 7 minutes to get to the train station from the bus station. 

Of course the Bus doesn't stop at the actual train station, that up would be easy. 

Arriving at the bus station at 15.46 (pretty in time for the bus) we have to run to get the train. Missing this train will mean we'll miss the garage's closing time. With 30 seconds to spare, we make the train.

Step 2 - the Train

The train pulls out slightly early at 15.51. The journey is due to take 40 or so minutes. The train itself is comfortable but very tired. Built in 1984, the sprinter is still considered a fairly modern train for the Valleys commuter lines. 

The sprinter is still considered new for the Valley's lines. 

It's loud, diesel powered and definitely showing its age. Fortunately it's not the other type of train that runs along the lines. The class 143 trains are literally buses that have been mounted on a train chassis, and should have been retired several years ago. We cough and splutter our way to Taff's Well and arrive on time. 

Step 3 - returning home. 

Harley's not ready so we're left to wait until the repair is finished, and that'll be tomorrow. It's rush hour so we head into Cardiff, a further twenty minute train ride and grab a meal out. But with the time getting on we need to head home. After six, like the buses, the trains home become, infrequent, with a mix of one and and two and hour services available. We've just missed one train and the next one is in an hour. At 18.41 we get the train back to Aberdare, ironically it's the same train we started our journey  on. We reach Aberdare one hour and five minutes later, fortunately avoiding the drunk guy who thought he'd regale his fellow travellers with his singing (he was heading to Rhymney and needed a different train.)

We have hopes of catching the next bus, but as we reach the station and see, well nothing. We have no idea when the next bus is, and with the time approaching 19.50, we decide to grab a taxi from the rank. When I say 'a taxi' I mean 'The Taxi'. 

The bus station at 19.50 in the evening. 

Step 4 - The Taxi

Our taxi driver forgot to start the meter for the first half a mile, however the quick 8 minute journey still costs us a 'steep' £9. Our taxi driver is a pleasant chap but his seatbelt remains unfastened for the trip. Either way, just before 20.00, we get in and reflect in the public transport system. Lynda's mother informs us that the next bus would have been at 2030 from town, meaning we'd have gotten home around 21.00, a whopping 2 hours and 19 minutes since we got on the train in Cardiff. 

The rough cost.

 All told. It's cost us nearly £25 for the round trip,though if we'd just gone to Cardif and back, we could probably get that down to under £20. The same trip in the car would be around £10 rising to £16 if we've parked for a long time. Compared to Vienna where €15.70 will get you a weeks pass on every form of transport within the city and its no wonder Vienna looks more appealing by the minute. It is hoped however that by 2020, we'll have a more integrated transport system from the Valleys along with new electrified trains. However, the plans are already running behind. Hope springs eternal though. By then though, we'll be sipping coffee in Cafe Central. 

Of Cabbages and Kings

"The time has come" The Walrus said, "to talk of many things.

Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and Kings."

Lewis Carroll

The words from Lewis Carroll's poem from Alice Through the Looking Glass, are in my mind this morning as I type this post. It could be that Vienna seems more like wonderland than normal today, or more likely, I've fallen down the rabbit hole and I'm about to take a most awesome adventure. And Yes I know a little 'Bill and Ted' sneaked in there, It's that kind of morning. 

Of cabbages and Kings seems oddly poignant, because it sums up the highs and lows of trying to plan a move to another country. Cabbages represent the bad, whilst the Kings represent the good. So let's get the bad out of the way first. 

Of Cabbages.

Our cabbage for today is of course work and money. There's not enough of either, and the lack of work has yet again knocked our leaving date back. So its bye bye February 29th 2016, and hello, well a few months later. The date is a secret for now. Why? Given the fact that the damn thing moves almost as soon as Lynda and I can pick 'em, we're trying a new strategy of not announcing the date, so we can sneak up on it and catch the bugger.  There is a cut off though, and this move has to happen next year, or it won't happen at all. By the end of next year, there simply won't be enough work around to be able to save the money we need to move. At that point, Lynda will be looking for a new job, and the Welsh Valley's aren't exactly overflowing with high paying jobs for people as qualified as she is. It's no joke, Lynda is considered overqualified for the most abundant job type found in the Valley's, the factory worker/shop assistant. She was once fired from a bakery job 'for not being suited' to turn fruit cakes on their side! That's true. So one way or another, she'll be looking for a new job, so it may as well be in Vienna as here, as we'll have to move to find a good job anyway. 

And Kings.

The Kings of our piece are much more fun, and in keeping with the 'down the rabbit hole' feeling I have this morning. Last post I talked about the fact we won't be using a moving company to take our things to Vienna. In order to save a bit (Quiet a lot actually)  of money, We'll be doing the trip with the bare minimum of stuff required to start a new life in Vienna. Harley. My trusty Saab 9000 (Yes she has a name.) will act as a life boat of sorts. With the rear seats removed, the old girl can carry a hell of a lot. She's designed to move heavy loads and that's what she's going to do. It's not going to be an easy trip, and for a car of Harley's age, it's potentially fatal. At 18 years old and with a total of 221000 miles on the clock, Harley has been around the block a bit. However, Saab's, especially the 9000, have a reputation for being sturdy, and 200000 miles on the clock is considered to be 'Just run in'. So with any luck she'll survive the first trip and hopefully at least another as well. 

The route itself is daunting. just take a look. 

It's a gruelling 1000 mile journey from home to Vienna, and the same back! And it can't be done in one go. Not safely at any rate. However, splitting it over three days would make things a lot easier. So the plan looks something like this. 

Day 1 - dep 1800Z for Dover

Travel to Dover for an overnight hotel stay in a local premier inn. 

Miles covered - 264 

Day 2 - Dep 0600Z for 0700Z ferry to Dunkirk.

Arrive Dunkirk at 0900Z then head East for Frankfurt Airport. 

Overnight hotel at Frankfurt. 

Miles Covered - 355 

Day 3 - Dep 0600Z for Vienna

Miles Covered - 450

Thats a total of 1069 miles!

Hopefully, and with traffic being nice to us, we should arrive in Vienna by 1400Z and be able to unload the car, do a quick bit of food shopping and then fall into bed and sleep, after we inflate the bed that is. The apartment won't be furnished. Don't worry, the kettle will be the first thing to be unpacked :)

The route could be squeezed into two days by driving straight to Frankfurt, but what kind of hell would that be. It's also not without its complications, all be it small. For example, before we enter Austria at Passau, We'll need to have an Austrian 'Vignette' This little treasure acts as a kind of Road Tax. Available in 10 day, two month and 12 month versions, Prices are quite cheap. A two month sticker will cost you just €25.70. It's important though that you stick the Vignette to the screen, or you'll be fined by the police, and at €280, its best to stick it and forget. 

Whilst planning the route, Google maps did amuse me by warning me that 'This route crosses through Belgium'. I don't know why Belgium comes with this warning, but it does. 

So that's the Journey. and the return is even more fun, as it may take two or three trips to get everything, including Geri, Who will travel with us, and gets to stay in a hotel in Frankfurt, for a small fee. All this must be complete by October 31st though, as from November 1st, snow tyres are mandatory in Austria, and we can't afford to fit four new tyres to Harley to use possibly once. So that's the cut off date for when everything must be moved. Oh and Harley can only stay in Austria for 30 days at a time before I have to register her as an Austrian car, and that will cost a fortune. 

Finally, and most positive of all, The first hotel has been booked. Frankfurt beckons, and its going to be a wild ride getting there. 

Until next time.

Jess.

2015 scorecard, nil points so far

There's simply no getting away from it, so far 2015 has been awful. With the first half done and dusted, 2015 has not been a good year. 

Nothing so far this year has gone well. Unexpected deaths, unwelcome bouts of illness and a unbelievable conservative victory in the general election have left us feeling battered and very bruised.

Even now as I write this, our planned summer trip to Austria isn't happening. It's just been one of those years so far. So what does it mean for our moving plans? Not a lot really, and yet everything.

Whilst deaths and illness have slowed us up, it's the new government that has really helped push us to get to Vienna. Just last week, we had the first conservative budget since the mid 1990's and as expected, there were winners and losers. Invariably, we were in the losers camp. It all comes down to work. Or more importantly, working tax credits. 

Working tax credits are a benefit paid to the lowest paid people to help 'top up' their wage to something survivable. At present, anyone earning £6400 or less a year after tax goe the full amount. The problem is that the system put in place back in 2004 has become bloated rising from a £3 million cost annually to a very large £30 million today. So something had to change. With over 98% of the working population eligible to came the benefit, I have to agree that change is needed. The problems begin when you start to look at the suggested change, and the idea behind it. 

The current thought process says 'paying tax credits to people allows businesses to have low wages and let the government top up the difference.' Solution, 'remove tax credits and businesses will have to increase their pay.' 

That's where the whole idea falls down though. If you run any business in the UK, by law, you must pay the minimum wage. This is set by the government and is mandatory. Removing the tax credits won't increase the minimum wage, and an employer isn't legally bound to increase an employee's wage if they are already paying the minimum. Let's face it, if you run a business, you want to make money, and whilst it's noble to say, 'yes, I will pay a better wage so the government doesn't have to' it's not likely. The thought tha businesses will act altruistically hasn't really been born out. 

As a way to tackle this, the chancellor announced the arrival of the new 'living wage' which will set a new minimum of £9 ph in 2020 as it rises from the current level of £6.80. The thing is, this rise doesn't compensate for the loss of the tax credits, so the most vunrable employees are the ones who are going to lose the most, and will find themselves anywhere between £800 and £2000 a year worse off. 

So what about us. The idea above is based on the principle of the employee at a firm. The thing is, tax credits are also there to help the self employed persons, like us. Now being self employed, we can't really raise our own wages, and the tax credits are often there to help keep us afloat whilst we wait for payment for jobs done, some of which can take 60 days to pay from the point of invoice. So with a lowering of the threshold from £6400 to £3895 in April, we're going to be £1200 worse off. Add to that the slow death of local services from the council and our time in the UK is up. 

So, we've sat down and drawn up a plan that will see us move for as little as possible. There'll be no moving company to help pack boxes, or to deliver them to us in Vienna. Instead it will be us, a loaded down car and a 1000 mile trip across Europe in three days. 

We've worked out what we need to survive and it'll all fit in one load in the car. So look out Vienna, we could be there sooner than you think. 

The year ahead.

Lots of things in life revolve around firsts. Your first steps, first drink, first kiss! They're all moments that mark a milestone in your life, and usually things to be celebrated. By contrast, lasts tend to be glum occasions. Last meals, last dance, last breath! All solomn occasions, often mourned more than celebrated. Well no more.

Whilst March the 1st next year offers us our own year of firsts, right now, we're looking at the year of lasts, and we intend to celebrate them as best we can. So of these moments are a bit daft rally.the very first 'last' starts today with the last MOT for our car. It's not normally a cause for celebration, but after 20000 miles a year, the last MOT represents Jess's retirement from daily driving. It's also going to save around £200 a year just on the MOT and repairs, so yay.

There'll be lots of others to, and some are likely to be more 'bitter sweet' than all out celebrations. With two birthdays, christmas, new year and countless other little moments the Year of Lasts will be a great way to countdown to the 29th of February. In honour of the event we've even started using #yearoflasts for use on facebook and Twitter. With 11 months and 8 days to go, join us in celebrating #yearoflasts. 

Jess. 

It's On!

Hot on the heels of our last post, things are all go. Yes suddenly after months of uncertainty, waiting and much pacing around, we're back on track to move. It won't be this year as hoped, but we have a date picked, flights priced up and a small degree of panic has set in. 

The Date chosen is a bit special. On February 29th 2016 we'll be leaving the UK for Austria. Seen as we have an extra day, we thought we'd do something special, plus Lynda's mother turns 80 next year on February 21st, so we really needed to be here for that. 

So what's happening now? A little celebration is happening right now, but from Monday our timetable restarts. It's going to be a year of lasts, last British summer, last birthdays in the UK and even daft things like the last MOT for the car is likely to result in a bit of partying. If all goes according to plan, we'll have the movers in around November to quote for the move, and over the course of the next 10 months, we'll be boxing up what's not being used and discarding the stuff that just isn't coming.

As an extra treat this summer, we'll have another 'last'. Our last trip to Vienna before we move. Best of all, this final trip is being shared with a few friends. Taking in Salzburg then Vienna, we'll be enjoying a final trip, one last coffee and an slice of Sachertorte before it becomes home. 

That's the year coming up, and we're hoping to share it all with You guys reading it. In the meantime, you'll spot the a countdown timer on the right. In the words of Douglas Adams "Don't panic!"

Jess 

Home comforts and a tale of two airports.

We've been away this last week, and only one destination would do.  Yes, we've been living life in Vienna for a week. It was our first visit since May 2014, so we were really looking forward to experiencing the Viennese lifestyle, if only for a short time.

It wasn't all fun and games though, the main reason we booked the trip was to answer a few questions we had about living there, the most pressing of has to do with food.

Try as you might, it's a universal constant that the things you'll miss the most once you've moved, will be the comfort foods from home. For Jess , it's Twinning's English Breakfast tea from the UK. Twinning's do sell a English breakfast to the rest of the world, but it's blend is slightly different from the 

UK version. 

Lynda likes spicy foods, and the top of the tree for here is home made Nando's Peri-Peri chicken. This needs a bottle of marinade. The Austrians don't seem to like spicy foods in the same way, with many spicy foods seeming rather bland to our UK tastebuds. Finding these things in Vienna could be a challenge. Thank goodness for Bobby's. Bobby's is a Vienna institution and the home of lots of British and American foods. You'll find the store just a 5 minute walk from Karlsplatz station and a few steps from the Naschmarkt. Did they have what we wanted. Oh yes. With Tea sorted and the Peri Peri marinade found, we took around at the rest of the shop. It has everything from christmas puddings to PB&J in a jar and everything in between. birds custard brought a smile to our face and there's even British  style bacon and sausages in the freezer. Even popular beers are there. 

Having found the foods we'd miss, this move can really get going. 

A tale of two airports

The most common question we get asked when we say we're moving is "why Vienna?" Well, travelling home to the UK showed us why. An airport Is often a microcosm of the country you're visiting. That's why you can get a breakfast with a pint of larger at Cardiff airport! Anyway we had an early morning flight booked (the curse of a cheap ticket price) so, we left Vienna the day before to stay overnight at the airport hotel. Now travel to the airport is pretty cheap, around €6 from Wien Mitte on the regular S7 rail line. The journey time is about 20 mins. For a little more, you can use the City Airport Train or CAT express direct from Wien Mitte station. The trip is just 16 minutes but there aren't any stops. It also comes with the option of checking your bags in at the station if your flying certain airlines. So we checked the bags in after we left our apartment and spent the day looking around vienna one last time. The CAT station is really rather nice. The Green livery of the train is everywhere at the station, plus Wien Mitte offers you plenty of places to shop, bank and eat. At the airport, the Green theme continues with a beautifully looking platform, an escalator that leads you to the upper level. From there its just a gradual uphill ramp to the arrivals level of the Brilliant T3 Skylink terminal. Its all very nice. 

By mid afternoon, we left Vienna and checked in to the hotel at the airport, the rather nice NH Wien. Now as a rule, we try not to eat at the hotel. The food is often expensive, but more aptly, it's often a bit 'faffy'. The airport itself is just a short walk away, and there's more that a few places to eat. 

This is where the you begin to notice the differences. For most Europeans, the airport is something to be enjoyed whether your travelling or not. Vienna international offers tours, and observation deck and, hidden in the old Terminal two, was the World Market food stop. This little gem offers cheap food and drink as well as a huge window that overlooks the apron of the airport. You don't need to pass security to enjoy the view. 

There are other things that stand out to. There's a Billa supermarket in T1 and a rather nice Spar Gourmet in T3, plus a full size Billa in the grounds. So if you get home and need more than a few things to stock the fridge, it's covered. They're a great place to grab a bite too!

So Vienna International is a nice place to visit and fly from. Our Arrival at Heathrow was typically British. Our flight Arrived slightly early and thanks to the brand new T2 at Heathrow was brilliant. We were through passport control in the wink of an eye and at the baggage retrieval carousel. And there we stood, for 30 minutes. Amazingly, the brand spanking new T2's baggage system, Just for our flight by the way, broke. By the time we reached the arrivals area, we'd been on the ground for an hour. Still time to get some milk to make a very British cuppa later. Or not. Unlike Vienna, No supermarket was waiting to greet the weary traveller home. Instead, we had to make do with a WH Simths. For those of you not from the UK, WH Smith is a newsagent, bookstore and confectionary seller. At airports and train stations they offer very basic foodstuffs. Today however, no milk. Bare in mind this is a little before 09.30am. OK. No problem, as luck would have it, we had to leave T2 for T4. This meant having to use the Heathrow Express for a free transfer between terminals. Like the CAT, the Heathrow Express can whisk you into the city centre in under 15 minutes. It costs a lot more to travel from Heathrow to London Paddington then Vienna Airport to Vienna Mitte. The cheapest fare I could find was around £15 for a one way trip. Like for like, Vienna wins here. Further comparisons between the Heathrow Express and the CAT service prove unfavourable for the UK. The Station at Heathrow has none of the style of the CAT station. Admittedly, the station is much older, but still, its a rather drab and uninteresting place. Access to the platform is only via Lifts, and once you're on the platform, you see nothing but dull lighting tunnel walls. The transfer train arrives and we board. It's not pleasant. The seats look worn and dirty. Mine feels damp, like its been scrubbed or steamed clean. The results aren't inspiring. Fortunately, the journey is quick and we arrive a T4. Like the last station, there's no sense of style. Instead, as we make our way to the lifts, we're left to look at some unfinished looking tunnels. Laughably, someone has attempted to cover the drab concrete walls with what looks to be three white acrylic plastic sheets bolted to a wall here and there. There's not enough of it to make any impact though. Thank goodness we reach the surface and the hope of milk for that tea. Again though, there's only a WH Smith and no milk. We're two for two here. Arrivals halls at Heathrow feature little to entertain visitors or arriving passengers. The feel is very much 'Piss off'. Needing that milk, we try a hail Mary and head upstairs to departures. Its no use though. With the time reaching 10am, there's no milk in two terminals and we're getting annoyed. Defeated, we head back downstairs for the final leg of the journey, the bus back to our car.

The Bus goes from only one spot, and a nice chart that tells what buses go from where is located far away towards bus stop 13. Reaching it we see our bus goes from 3. Cursing under our breath, we head back, suitcases in tow to bus stop 3. Hurrah, there's a bus waiting and just 20 feet away, with a nicely dressed gentlemen in a suit in the lead ahead of us. Then the bastard bus driver, with us just feet away, pulls off. He saw us coming and yet, he chose to pull out rather than waiting 30 seconds for us to reach him. Its a further 15 minutes until the next bus arrives, featuring a bus driver that would make an Austrian waiter seem cheerful, sits, doesn't open the door or even offer to help with our bags.

In the end, it took two hours to get of the aircraft and reach our car, and all along our way, we met with the best of British hospitality and design. Depressing isn't it.

Happy New Year!

Ok, So its a bit late for an update, but with 2015 in full swing, its beginning to feel like thesis the year we'll actually move.

So whats been happening since my last post? The short answer is nothing. Or at least nothing that gets us closer to moving. That doesn't mean that we've stood still. We're still beavering away at learning German, Things are still being packed into boxes for use once we move, and above all, we've been running a few figures to see how much better or worse life could be for us in Vienna. More of that later. First though, Let's look at the German.

Language Confusion.

This summer, as a last hurrah for the summer holiday, we took a trip to Japan. The weather was a wee bit on the warm side and the food and culture just awesome, and all in all we enjoyed what was our last big holiday before moving. The thing is though, Even though we've been to Japan a few times before, Jess discovered a new problem. In the past, Jess spent some time learning Japanese. It's nothing fantastic, but enough to order food, drinks and ask where things are. However, this year she hit a new problem. Because she'd been learning German, parts of that language got mixed up with the Japanese. She found it very confusing. Where as a simple 'please' or 'O kudasai' was usual for Japanese, on more than one occasion she answered with 'Bitte' instead. She said it felt like her brain was in a panic, trying to find the correct response and it latched on to the first word in a foreign language she could find. 'Domo' would become 'Danke' without warning.
Lynda, already fluent in two languages, Welsh and English, didn't struggle to badly, although she occasionally has issues in Vienna with German as her head tends to go from English to Welsh, then french and then to German. The price of learning in Welsh I suppose. Either way, the holiday was enjoyed and to a certain extent the accidental German was useful. Especially as we were flying Lufthansa home.

A little eastern promise.

Living the good life.

As we've touched on in previous posts, Cuts to local government have meant less work for Lynda of late. So money has been in our minds throughout December. Now moving to another country is a scary process, and you'd have to be insane to not have the odd moment of doubt/freakout. Jess had one such moment this week. She was worried about the cost of living out in Vienna. Now there's a fantastic website called www.numbeo.com which happily lists the cost of living for cities all over the world. The figures are added by local people and as such, with enough data added, you can get a fair picture of the cost of living out in Vienna, or indeed any city. Reading the figures was a real eye opener. so we sat down and compared our current outgoings with known figures in Vienna, then we tried a like for like comparison. Wanna see the results? Of Course you do!

These are our average bills over the course of the year. We've only included the household bills as opposed to things like HP agreements because many of those will continue even after we've moved, thus not really changing anything.

Let's start with the easy bit.

RENT
Living in the Welsh valley's is fairly cheap, and the average rent on a three bedroom terrace house is around £450 per month. As it happens a friend has just rented such a property.

By contrast, rents in Vienna are a bit more, and for less. €650 will get you a fairly nice 60sqm 2 zimmer (One bedroom apartment) apartment. This is where it gets interesting though. Included in your €650 will usually be your water rates and what we call in the UK, Council tax.

The council tax is an extra £59.16 per month and water rates are an extra £50 per month. So now our UK home is actually costing £559.16 per month.

Over the Year the figures give us.

item PA.                                            Cost UK.                                  Cost Vienna. 

Council tax.                                       £710.                                       In rent
Water.                                                £600.                                       In rent
Rent.                                                 £5400.                                     €7800
                                                        ---------------------------------------------
                                                         £6710                                      €7800
                                                        (€8723)

Converting it to Euro's (@ €1.3 at time of writing) and things seem to be fairly good.

Transport

Transport is close to Jess's Heart. Through work, she sees an average of 15000 to 20000 miles a year. We joke that Jess see's more of the car than of our actual home. In fact, ditching the car is one of the main reasons to move.

So where does that put things. Well due to the mileage, Taxes and insurance, We spend £5500 a year for the pleasure of driving! Public transport isn't a solution as in many area's, buses stop at 6pm. Train services aren't much better, running at just one an hour after 7pm. In the Valley's, it really is a car or nothing.

Looking at Vienna though, and things get soon much better. Public transport is a dream, and since your in a city, cars aren't needed at all. So the cost of annual passes for Vienna are just €700 for the two of us. Needless to say, its a huge saving. Even venturing outside the city is cheap, and trains can be taken to Salzburg for example for as little as €38 each way for the two of us. Its a big plus for Vienna then.

Home Comforts.

With any home these days, we have to heat them, power them and of course, get the internet in. So looking at our bills here is a bit of an eye opener.

Starting with Gas and electricity. Well these were never going to be cheap. Our combined bill for the year comes to around £1600! Much of this has to do with the size of house we live in and the account holders reluctance to switch to direct debit. No taking the average in Vienna the bill falls to €1800. Its pretty much like for like with Vienna coming out slightly cheaper. Given we don't know what our actual consumption will be until we're there, the figures are likely to change.

Moving on to TV, Telephone and internet. No home is complete without any of these. Currently we're using Sky to provide all three. on our current packages the cost per month is £100 or £1200 for the year. Ok its on the higher end of things, but amazingly moving to sky broadband actually saved us money over using BT. In Vienna, The current big player is UPC (www.upc.at) Looking at they're pricing structure made our jaws drop. Cutting the cost in half to just €49 a month or just €720 a year was impressive. More so if you look at the internet speeds offered. Sky are currently pushing 20mb down and 1mb up here, basically a technological miracle. In contrast, UPC is offering 125mb down and 12.5mb up. And its not even they're fastest speed. Its a huge saving, and although the channels provided will be predominantly german language, somehow, it doesn't seem to matter (Jess is also a fan of Frauen Tauch on RTL 2)

The only spot where Vienna works our bad for TV's is the tv licence. The UK TV licence is £145.50 per year whilst the Austrian equivalent is somewhere around €300.

Food shopping 

Finally there's food shopping. on a quick calculation, our average food shop is around £40 a week. So we allowed for that to be £40 in both the uk and Vienna. So we spend around £2080 a year on groceries. looking for a more accurate gauge of things, we decided to do a direct comparison using Billa and Sainsbury's. So we hunted down a Billa promotional leaflet and set to work. The results were surprising.

Billa shop.                                                  Sainsburys 

Ham offer €5.99 kilo.                                  £10 kilo
Iglo 6 white fish fillets (400g) €5.49.           £4
Bacon €4.99 kilo.                                       £7.33
Crisps 150-175g €1.32.                             £1 on offer
Soup can 500g offer €1.66.                       £1.40                  
Pasta 500g offer  €1.06.                            £1.55
Iglo frozen veg mix offer 300-400g €1.99 £1.75
Can meals 400g €1.32.                             £1.80
Eggs free range 6 €2.59.                           £2.15
Cold meats 100g €0.99.                           £2 pack 100g
          €38.39.                                                 £32.98 (€42.87)

Its a little unscientific but Billa comes out slightly cheaper.

Totals

So what's the results. Take a look.

Food.                                                £2080.                                     €2080
Transport.                                         £5500(car).                              €730(public pass)
Gas.                                                  £800.                                      €1800 (both)
Electricity.                                         £800.                                       """""""""
Tv, broadband, phone.                     £1200.                                    €720
Tv license.                                        £145.50.                                 €300
                                                        £17,235.50.                            €13,430

By moving, our annual costs just on these few items drops dramatically, Just shy of saving £7000! Now much of that is down to a lack of car, but still the savings speak for themselves. Vienna will afford us a better quality of life and for a lot less than the equivalent UK lifestyle. Suddenly the moving isn't so scary at all.