We arrived mid-afternoon and took an uber to our hotel. Vienna is where we splurged on a high-end hotel for our three nights. The hotel was, of course, nearly 200 years old, and in the Innere Stadt, which is the city center where most of the sights are. While Vienna is very walkable, we also had a tram stop and a subway stop within a few blocks of our hotel. The hotel breakfast was amazing. Service was very good. They had a nice spa where we spent a few hours one evening. Despite all that, the room furniture was a bit shabby, and the couch cushions were frayed. Also handy within a few blocks was a Hofer. Apparently, Aldi in Austria is called Hofer. Same Aldi symbol, the stores seem to be the same, but the store is a Hofer.
This was Cindy’s third time in Austria, and my second time, but it was the first time for either of us in Vienna. Cindy’s first time in Austria was on a trip many years ago where she took her dad on his first and only trip to Europe. Vienna is full of history. People like Mozart, Sigmund Freud and others are from Vienna. But it was also where Adolph Hitler grew up. The history is pretty amazing, and the city is full of grand and glorious buildings and churches. But wow, it was also full of tourists even though it is off season. Even though the main pedestrian zone in the city is quite wide, it was hard to make it down the street with all the people. And that famous song, the Blue Danube? It is really the Brown Danube.
And what did we have for our first dinner in Vienna? Wrong-it was not the wiener schnitzel. We had a hamburger at Mel’s Craft Beer and Diner.
On Saturday, we used the Wien Mobil app to buy a 48-hour pass for all trams, bus and subways. We took a tram around the entire Ringstrasse route (the loop around the Innere Stadt) while listening to the Rick Steve’s commentary on his app. We then had lunch at a fun, untouristy place where we had, of course, wiener schnitzel (and beer). We then used the Rick Steve’s app to follow along on a walking tour. We had an active day and saw most of the major sights in the city.
On Sunday, we took the subway out of town a bit to see the Schonbrunn Palace. It was interesting, but, having seen Versailles outside Paris (eons ago), this was not as impressive. For dinner Sunday, Cindy did some research and found an interesting café. Turns out it was right next door to Mel’s Diner! I guess we have a favorite part of town for restaurants.
Vienna is really known for its coffee culture and there are typically a few small cafes on every block with people at tables with coffee. But since we had really good coffee at our hotel in the morning, and all the cafes looked to be crowded, we actually never went into one, even though the guidebooks say that is a must while in Vienna.
After breakfast Monday morning, we packed up and headed back to the Vienna hauptbahnhof for our train to Bratislava.
Leave a Reply