Chris, Dave, the Danube and me
Currently in a Viennese bar overlooking the Danube.
Three hours ago I was in another bar, in a hotel some kilometres outside Vienna, with a certain Dave Atherton. Chris Snowdon - another name familiar to readers of this blog - was in the vicinity too, threatening to visit the hotel sauna.
What are we doing in Austria? I will reveal all on Wednesday when I get back. I have invited Dave to write a guest post, and Chris will be blogging too, I'm sure.
I should mention that people are smoking (shock horror) in the bar where I am currently sitting, just as they were in the hotel restaurant last night. Writing as a non-smoker, I genuinely consider it to be the height of civility and quite wonderful to behold. I can't understand why Britain doesn't try it.
Sadly, if the tobacco control movement has its way, the unsuspecting Austrians around me could lose this precious freedom in the near future if a referendum goes against them. We must do everything we can to stop it happening.
Dinner at Griechenbeisl, "the historic old Viennese inn since 1447" whose walls have been signed by, among others, Richard Wagner, Mark Twain, Johnny Cash, Ludwig v. Beethoven and a certain W A Mozart. Beef and onion soup followed by lamb chops, medium rare. Delicious.
Back to the hotel and there, in a shop window, I see a poster that reads: 'Lucky Strike Loves Austria'. I'm beginning to think that I do too.