Oh Vienna!
After so many gorgeous train journeys through amazing scenery the final leg of the trip into Vienna was fairly boring and not helped by the miserable weather. We know there will be lots of great things to see once we get there though so that spurred us on. We had decided to stay near to the station and use the local transport system to get around and had pre-purchased a 48 hour travel pass to start the following morning so once we had checked in we settled in for the night looking forward to a great day tomorrow.
We awoke to much better weather this morning with the prospect of two full days to explore Vienna. The tram stop to take us into the historic centre of Vienna is just a short walk from our hotel and we set off armed with a list of things to see today. First stop after getting off the tram outside the gorgeous opera house was coffee and breakfast. We managed to find a lovely little French cafe and enjoyed our first porridge since leaving home, it was delicious and set us up nicely for a day of exploring.
Next stop, St Stephen’s cathedral, a stunning building with two towers. As is sometimes the way, the outside with its Gothic architecture was more impressive than the inside but that is only our opinion. The tallest of the two towers is the south tower and we simply had to go up. We huffed our way up 343 steps to the top but it was definitely worth the effort and helped us orientate ourselves. You are surrounded by amazing buildings everywhere you look and they reminded us of old fashioned wedding cakes with pillars and intricate royal icing.
Next stop was the Hofburg Palace, the former principal imperial palace (winter residence) and since 1946 has been the official residence and offices of the Austrian president. The Hofburg is also the home of the Spanish Riding School and where the Lipizzaner horses are trained. We had missed their training session for the day so headed off to our next stops:
The Museum quarter
The Rathaus (city hall)
The Austrian Parliament
The Votive Church
By this stage we were peckish again and you simply cannot come to Vienna without having Sachertorte so we headed to Cafe Demel to sample some. It was delicious and eaten in this historic cafe made it all the more special. Apparently the original Sachertorte was invented by mistake after an apprentice chef came up with the cake after the pastry chef was taken ill and the Kaiser needed something special to end his meal. There has been much rivalry between the Hotel Sacher and Cafe Demel about the true origins of the famous cake as the current version was perfected by the grandson of the original chef and he worked for both places in his time. Eventually Hotel Sacher one a legal battle but both are famous for serving it and we weren’t really dressed for Hotel Sacher.
After our very indulgent cake and a quick siesta back at the hotel we didn’t really need dinner and Mark had a craving for a curry wurst and had done some research on the best curry wurst stands in Vienna. With our travel passes in hand we set off in search of the perfect curry wurst, apparently it was very good. I on the other hand stuck to a plain bratwurst with senf (German mustard) which was equally delicious. There is only one thing to do after a ‘bratty’ so we went in search of a watering hole stumbling into a book shop (Pickwick’s) that also serves as a bar/cafe. What a great idea!
After a good nights sleep we were ready to go again and had decided to visit the Schonbrunn and Belvedere palaces today.
The Schonbrunn palace is a little way out of the city so we decided to do that first returning to do the Belvedere later in the day. We are getting very used to the public transport system now and were soon on our way.
The Schonbrunn palace complex is huge but started out as a ‘humble’ hunting lodge eventually becoming the summer residence of the Imperial family. We spent a very happy couple of hours exploring the palace gardens and marvelling at the scale of it. Then it was back on the underground to find the statue of Mozart that we had failed to find the day before. Mission accomplished, he was looking resplendent in the sunshine, we got back on the tram to go to the Belvedere palace. Another stunning complex of baroque buildings with formal gardens ended our day of palaces perfectly. These buildings really do shine in the Austrian sunshine and we feel very lucky to see them at their best.
After a quick siesta, we are getting quite good at these, we headed out again for our last night in Vienna.
Our train to Bratislava only takes an hour and as we didn’t need to be out of our room until midday, we decided to leave our bags and go out for breakfast this morning. Our friends Margaret & Arthur had recommended that we try KaiserSchwarm (Kaiser’s mess) whilst here and it seemed like a great thing to have for breakfast. It is basically a light, fluffy pancake ‘messed up’ and served with apple sauce although we think ours had plums with it too. It is always made to order so took a little while to arrive but was worth the wait, it was delicious and should sustain us beautifully on our journey.
We have loved Vienna, it is everything and more than we expected. There are lots of new buildings here but the old heart of the city with its stunning architecture and culture is truly stunning. It is probably the biggest city we have visited on our trip but as with everywhere we have been we felt very safe and loved wandering around and getting lost. So sadly it is ‘Goonight Vienna’, next stop, Bratislava.
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