I was stationed at Royal Air Force Schwechat, near Vienna, from 1951 to 1954. Austria was still split into four sections - British, French, US and, to the east, Russian. We were 140 miles behind the Iron Curtain.

The Army used to organise a historical course twice a year which lasted a week and would invite one airman from the airfield.

My turn came in the summer of 1953. I stayed in the YWCA in the city and was picked up each morning in an Army truck with a guide, who was a very learned Australian lady.

She would take us all to the theatres, the opera house, the five or six palaces and, of course, the homes of some of the famous writers, composers and musicians such as Franz Schubert and, most interesting of all, Ludwig van Beethoven.

At his former house, you could see the bush hanging outside the door denoting that new wine had been made.

We were taken inside the courtyard for a sample and I took this picture of the building.

-Gerald Spicer, North Road, Upper Portslade