Dispatch from Vienna

I haven't been writing much about Lisa's trip because parts of it were not that great, but as we head into the last couple of weeks, I'm happy to report that something has gone well. Lisa asked if I could get her a hotel reservation in Vienna, which is convenient to Munich. It turns out that IHG has two hotels in their Garner brand (relatively new brand, Europe only, and I think they're using it for their acquisition of existing hotels unlike the new-builds like Holiday Inn Express). After some study, I found that I could book a room at the Garner across the street from Vienna HBF for a lot fewer points than the ill-starred HIX in Lucerne. (IHG thankfully refunded me the points from that stay.) Lisa reports the hotel is nice — much nicer, including nicer staff, than that one in Switzerland. She's visiting a local railroad museum and other attractions, and sounds happy.

She may do one more trip before flying home in a couple of weeks. She has an ambition to visit the smallest country in the world that does not have a railway station — at least an active station attached to the rest of the adjacent railway network. We'll let you know if that turns out. Meanwhile, I'll leave you to puzzle over which country we're talking about.