World Heritage Scenic Route, Semmering.

Monday 20 April, we managed to catch the train at Sudbanhof Station just in the nick of time before it rolled out of the platform. It took sometime for me to regain my composure because we almost missed it, and the lesson was well learnt that plenty of space must be given for the time taken from the hotel to the Station the next time we are going to take the train to Prague from the same station, as it's quite a distance from the main Westbanhof Station.

Nurul had taken the Eurail pass for three of us to be used for the train trip to Salzburg and Semmering, otherwise we had to pay a lot more. The train journey this time passes through one of the most scenic route in Europe and it had been declared as a World Heritage site. It's truly a beautiful sight to behold as we passed by along the valley looking at the the mountain slopes overlooking the valley.

Nasimah asked me to take the snapshots when we were nearing the Semmering Station, and I had to move over to the other side of the passenger seat where an old man is seated and he seemed to be unperturbed by my presence snapping away at the scenery as he was engrossed on going through a pile of newspapers taken from his briefcase and choosing the pages that he wanted to keep.The densely wooded mountain slopes interspersed by what looked like limestone cliffs and villages must have been a familiar sight to him, but not for this first time visitor.

We got down at Muzzulshlag Station at 12.29 pm to catch the train back to Vienna at 12.37 pm. As I was walking to the other platform, I found the place to be much colder than Salzburg. Perhaps it's due to the proximity of the mountain range near the station and the sun wasn't out like when we were in Salzburg.On this return journey I managed to catch a glimpse of the plaque near Semmering Station where the World Heritage Site is inscribed and tried to take a snapshot of it. This time we did not get down at Sudbanhof but one stop before it at about 2.05 pm and then took the Metro to the place where we were going to find a Halal Restaurant at Alser Strasse.It was quite a long walk to find the As-Sala Halal Restaurant but it was worth it because I had rice for lunch.After a late lunch we then walked towards Mariahilfer Strasse to catch the Metro at Neubaugasse and back to the hotel. So another day well spent in this historical city of Vienna.