Vienna

2014/08/01

Left Praha hl.n. on time, train was a RailJet which was pretty quick, went 160km/h at times when out in the open, we only had 5 stops on he way to Vienna. Was glad I never paid extra to book my seat on this train or the one to Prague as there was ample space on both trains. There was just normal seating on the train and not the compartments like some other trains have had.

Weather was a bit overcast so made travelling quite pleasant. Watched a bit of the countryside so past, old abandoned buildings seem quite commonplace here.

Saw there was a power socket at my seat so tinkered on my laptop and ensured my phone remained fully charged. Had my yoghurt for breakfast and made myself ham & cheese rolls for lunch on the train from stuff I bought the night before from Albert.

Found my way to my accommodation OK once here and offloaded my bags and then headed out for a bit of sightseeing. Wednesday I just decided to go to the Twin City Liner place and pay and collect my ticket for my boat trip down the Danube to Bratislava on Friday. Glad I did as there was a messup. Basically I had booked online and that was on the Slovakia side not the Austria side so a few phone calls back and forth etc. and everything was cancelled and rebooked nicely. Was good I did this then not on Friday morning. Following that went to the Prater Amusement Park, there were loads of rides and things, I can see it costing parents a fortune to take your children there for a while.

I got a recommendation from my hosts for a place for dinner, went to Schöne Perle and had a really good meal. I had a Grieskirchner Pils Krügel 0.5l beer and then a Wiener Schnitzel with parsley potatoes for my main meal, wow was it massive.

Wednesday afternoon and a little on Thursday morning I hit a bit of a brick wall travel wise and was super down and wondering why I was doing so much of everything, I am REALLY missing home and all my friends. One week and then I will be ending my trip, still 4 cities and 4 countries (3 new) to go. I managed to get over that and carried on and enjoyed my time here in Vienna. Thursday I set off very early (about 7ish) for Schönbrunn Palace which I looked round the grounds for a few hours, decided not to go inside as that isn’t really my thing, even though would have been cool, I kinda think after the 1st or 2nd room it will be a lot of the same, maybe I’m wrong. While there it started raining, an annoying drizzle that lasted pretty much all morning. After that I headed to Ketten Brücken Gasse (was on my way back to town) and looked round Naschmarkt which was a bit arb really, a lot of stalls identical, maybe 4 or so variations in the entire place. I was going past anyway so thought I may as well check it out.

I then headed into town and did all the sights there (well mostly I think anyway), there were loads of old nice buildings to check out, unfortunately a lot of them have scaffolding all over so makes taking pictures awkward. At about 1pm headed home for a rest and then after 45min or so relax and chatting to friends, I headed back to Prater Amusement Park and went on the Wiener Riesenrad (Ferris Wheel) and the small train Prater Liliputbahn. Both of which were cool to go on, bought a combo ticket for E10.70 the Riesenrad lasted 10-15min and the train maybe 20min or so. After that headed for a bit more sightseeing and found my way (a long long walk) to the Belvedere Palace which was really nice to see. I got home about 30 seconds before the heavens opened again, good timing.

Slept a bit kak and woke up at 4:15am then tried to sleep more but found that wasn’t possible so got up and tinkered online and put this post together to get it all done. My boat is at 9am to Bratislava, have to be there 8:30am, is maybe a 10min walk from my accommodation.

All in all a pleasant stay in Vienna, the place has a good atmosphere and things are within walking distance of each other generally. A friend asked me which is my favourite city of the trip so far, hard to say really, I’ll think about that one once I’ve done everything.

Schönbrunn Palace