Date visited: June 2005
Post written by Laura
Throwback Thurday!
And the second city of a short ‘back in the day’ backpacking trip through Austria with the itinerary being:
Salzburg * Vienna * Bratislava * Linz
Following a couple of nights staying in Salzburg I had travelled by train to Vienna, a journey of about 3 hours. I was excited to be visiting the capital city of Austria and having left laid back, quiet and very green Salzburg I was full of anticipation, wondering what Vienna will be like.
Vienna (Wien as it is called locally) has a population of about 2 million and sits on the Danube River. The city is famous for its rich history, splendid architecture oh and a certain song by Ultravox.
The Vienna hostel was fairly close to the station so my friend and I quickly checked in, dumped off our backpacks and headed back to the station where we purchased the Vienna card which offered unlimited underground, bus and tram travel.
We took the underground to the centre of Vienna, heading towards Hofburg for the Imperial Palace. We had a look round the Imperial Palace and discovered this was the home of the famous Lipizzaner horses (the Spanish riding school).
We booked a tour of the school which included a visit to the horses in their stables but unfortunately I became very allergic and began coughing, wheezing and sneezing and had to wait outside.
After the stables we saw the tack room where each horse has its own names plague with its own gear. Next, we went to see where the horses perform inside and train outside in the summer.
Upon leaving the Imperial Palace, we headed towards the cathedral, passing the Rathaus and museums on the way. We also passed lots of lovely cake shops and chocolate shops! As the weather was very hot, the temptation was too great so we indulged in a large ice-cream from a Gelateria and sat outside to enjoy it in the sunshine.
Following the ice-cream pitstop we took the ring road tram but were not entirely sure where we were heading. We decided to ask a local woman who actually got off at the same stop as us and she kindly walked us to the oldest church in Vienna (St Ruperts). I had already come to realise that Austrians are very friendly and are often keen to show off their city.
From the church we headed through the Old Town where we found the Anker clock, with life size figures that come out on the hour (although as we waited in anticipation on the hour they didn’t appear for some reason).
We walked along the pedestrian area and found a café for drinks. We sat people watching for a short time, watching the street performers and people walking past, whilst we had a ponder while we thought about what to do next.
Decision made and we were off to find the giant Ferris Wheel, another Vienna landmark. A short trip on the underground led us to the Prater amusement park, where we purchased our tickets for the Ferris Wheel. Rather than getting straight on the wheel as in most cases, we were led through a small museum type place beneath the 65 meter tall wheel.
The wheel gave us some great views of Vienna and it reminded me of an old fashioned, wooden and smaller version of the Millenium Wheel in London.
The amusement park area had a seedy, grotty feel to it, with a few rather dodgy looking characters, so we decided to get back on the underground and head for Donauinsel aka Danube Island. Danube Island is a long man made island in the middle of the vast river Danube. It was constructed between 1972 – 1988 primarily as a flood protection for the city.
Danube Island was an amazing place with an abundance of Caribbean cocktail bars along both sides of the river, the majority of them playing calypso music. There were other types of bars and restaurants for example, Chinese, but it was predominantly Caribbean.
I enjoyed a delicious pina colada in one of them. It was very relaxing, soaking up the Caribbean vibes but while sitting in the warm evening sun beside the Danube.
The following day…
We took the underground to Stephensplatz, where we climbed the 343 steps to the top of St Stephen’s Tower. It was a disappointing experience as due to building works we were only able to look out from one window at the top of the Tower.
Today we were on our way to the station for the train to Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia.
Back from Bratislava the previous day and having checked out that morning from the hostel we had one more Vienna attraction to explore…
Schonbrunn Palace
From the hostel we headed for the Westbanhof (train station) and left our backpacks in a locker. Next we took tram 58 to Schonbrunn and got off at Heizel, one stop later as recommended in some information I had found previously. We walked through the gardens towards the back of the Schonbrunn Palace.
We walked to the front and found the entrance of this huge palace and purchased a ‘Grand Tour’ ticket which included most of the major attractions within the palace.
Schonbrunn is one of the most visited attractions of Vienna as visitors come to see the Palace in its extensive grounds.
Inside the palace we were permitted to go in 40 rooms although we were not allowed to take photographs. The palace was extremely over the top, very lavish and very ornate. There was a large ballroom in the centre and with all of the grandeur and opulence it reminded me of the palace in Madrid.
We next headed for the bakery where on an hourly basis, an apple strudel making demonstration takes place. We arrived at 10:00 am and sat alone waiting for it to start. None of the other thousands of tourists turned up, so we had a private demo! The lady demonstrating was very friendly and funny too. We had a free piece of strudel to try, although we had to pay for the coffee which was very expensive at 5.5 Euros for two small cups.
After the demo we went outside and got on the small tourist train which took us around the entire estate. We got off half way at the top of the estate at the ‘Gloriette’ a kind of summer house. Our Grand ticket entitled us to walk up the steps to the viewing platform on top where we had great views of Vienna.
Next we went in the private gardens which were lovely with orange and lemon trees.
We finally ended up at the café where we enjoyed delicious cakes and coffee. The timing was perfect as we were ready to leave at 1:00 pm which gave us enough time to head back to Westbanhof for our train to Linz. All in all, we had a lovely relaxing and enjoyable morning.
We got the train back to the station, brought a roll and drink each, found our train and sat eating lunch as we waited the 15 minutes or so to leave. And just before the train departed, the Orient Express pulled up next to us.
Accommodation
The Happy Hostel! I had never stayed anywhere like it before! It was weird and felt like staying in someone’s bedsit. In a big contrast to the first hostel in Salzburg this felt like we were staying in a room with The Young Ones!
Summary
I was not disappointed with Vienna, it was a beautiful and charming city! And the backpacking concept was turning out to be a brilliant adventure…
While staying in Vienna, I took the train to Bratislava which is covered in the next post.
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