A Few Days In Vienna

Hi everyone as promised here's my blog about mine & Mum's holiday in Vienna last week. The aim of the trip was to take my mind off of the last few months and I can say definitively that for the few days we were away I was the most relaxed I've been in months.

To start with I need to apologise for any potential over-use of adjectives such as 'Beautiful' or 'Stunning' but there really are no other words to describe some of the sites that the city has to offer (perhaps I should ask Santa for a Thesaurus for Christmas?).

Vienna is of course famous for it's Christmas Markets and Mum and I made the deal that if I did the markets she would do the zoo (PANDAS! 🐼) but more on both of those later. As an aside, if you are planning a trip to Vienna then consider getting a Vienna Pass, it covers entry to loads of  attractions, Hop On Hop Off bus access and a ride of the Reisenrad. You save a huge amount of money on paying for all the attractions separately. I also recommend getting a travel pass to save buying a ticket every time you use the public transport - the pass covers the tube, tram and buses.

Being a massive plane geek one of the things I was most looking forward to from the trip was the flying, it's the ultimate in geek experience!

Far too excited about getting on a plane!

The flight is about 2 hours so plenty of time for me to have a nap ....

Now I can say I've seen The Alps!

From Vienna airport it's really easy to get into the city, we used the City Airport Train which takes you from the airport to the centre of the city in 16 minutes. Much like London the city itself is really easy to get around with a simple underground system as well as buses and a tram. Although the city centre is relatively small and you could walk between sights if you felt up to it (for example it was only a 10 minuteish walk from our hotel to the Museum Quarter).

We stayed at the Hotel Graf Stadion which is a basic but comfortable hotel. When I'm on holiday I don't plan on being in the hotel much so as long as it's clean, has an en suite and a comfortable bed then I'm happy. In this case the room ticked all those boxes, the room was large and came with free Wi-Fi - the only complaint was that the room was incredibly hot even without the radiator on. 

Our humble abode

I was also reminded that on the continent it's socially acceptable to eat cake for breakfast!

After checking into the hotel we went out to explore the vicinity. Our first stop was the cafe around the corner from our hotel to try the famous Sacher Torte, I can confirm that it's absolutely delicious! I also tried Melange,  a type of coffee which was equally delicious. We were pleased to discover that one of the Christmas Markets was actually right on our doorstep. The Vienna Rathaus is the city hall and has one of the largest of the markets in it's grounds.

The Rathaus

A little on the pretty side!

From the Rathaus we were able to quickly walk to the market at Maria-Theresien-Platz the square is set between the Art History Museum and the Natural History Museum.

The Art History Museum

A pretty festive projection

It was here that we sampled our first (very potent) Vienna Christmas Punch. The different markets have a really clever system where you pay a 4 Euro 'deposit' on a mug that your drink is served in, you can then choose to take your mug with you to other markets to be filled/give it back at the end of the evening for the return of your Euros or to keep it. We chose to keep a lot of ours as they were all different to reflect the different themes of each market and were also horrendously Christmassy 😄. Hopefully it'll catch on here as it's far more environmentally friendly and avoids litter (whilst on that note we saw absolutely no litter at all the whole time we were there, it was amazing!).

Jameson's Orange Punch

We'd booked a table at the Hard Rock Cafe so that I could have my traditional Hurricane.

Hurricane O'Clock

Yum

Mum opted for a Sangria

We were near to the St Stephen's Cathedral so popped along for a look.

Wow

Tuesday was our most walking heavy day (according to my Huawei Watch we did approximately 21000 steps) which was lucky really with the amount of cake and coffee that we managed to consume over the course of the trip - I'm actually amazed that I haven't gained any weight!

We started off at the most important part of the trip the zoo! Anyone who knows me will know that my second favourite animal after bunnies are pandas and my aim in life is to own one and cuddle it every day. Well my friends I came close to this aim by seeing Pandas in real life!!!!! And I'm happy to confirm that they are incredibly fluffy in real life as well as incredibly lazy (there's a reason I consider them to be my spirit animal!).

Hello new friend!

Cuddles!!!

REAL. LIFE. PANDA!!!!!!!!

IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!

There were loads of other cute and interesting animals in the zoo -

Red Panda

Simba in real life!

Tiger

Beautiful purple Winterberries

Rosehips

Sumatran Rhino

This leopard has the most beautiful blue eyes

Monkeys with moustaches what more could you want?

Cheeky little Spider Monkey

Cheetah with some Autumn Colours

Ladies what lunch!

I love this Koala! He didn't even stir when we walked through 😁

Little baby elephant

To get to the zoo you walk through some of the grounds of the Schonbruun Palace (more of that later), this was the Orangery although we gave it a miss due to it's collection of Rattlesnakes ......

After the zoo we headed back into the city to visit the Art History Museum . Aside from the art it's a beautifully decorated building 

The entrance to the Egyptian section

As with all good museums it has a great gift shop and I was able to pick up some very reasonably priced souvenirs and Christmas presents.

Later in the day we headed to the Prater the amusement park which is home to the Reisenrad Ferris wheel. The wheel is made from railway carriages so you have plenty of space to move around to get the best views of the city and the Danube. Whilst we have a good view of the city at night I would recommend going during the day as I think you'd see more. 

I made a friend!

One of the other fairground rides

Mum on the Reisenrad 

I think the Votivkirche was my favourite church in the city

After our ride we went to the Christmas Market at the university. Unsurprisingly for a university campus there were plenty of different drinks on offer so we tried Amaretto Punch

Pretty lights at the market

We started Wednesday with a walk through the Museums Quarter stopping at the Papyrus Museum (unbelievable how 1000+ year old documents are still in readable condition) and my favourite museum of the trip The Albertina. Whilst the museum has the expected 'art' it also includes some of the state rooms from the Habsburg Monarchy who lived in the Hofburg Complex the museum forms part of.

The outside of the Hofberg 

We passed the Vienna Opera House on our travels

Beautiful Autumn colours outside The Albertina

I think this would look great in my room!

Best concealed toilet door ever?

When you're trying to take a selfie and a blurry man interrupts ...

The museum was having an exhibition by Albrecht Durer and I remembered that I'd studied his work during secondary school so I really enjoyed getting re-acquainted with some old favourites. Including this incredibly angry-looking rabbit ....

I cannot escape bunny disapproval ...

Look at the detail and colour in this drawing (no I don't mean Mum and I!)

I can also confirm that The Albertina has an excellent cafe (More Sacher Torte and Melange yum!) and a good gift shop (plenty of angry rabbit related souvenirs).

We spent the afternoon at the amazing Schloss Belvedere , one of the residences of the Habsburgs which is a UNESCO world heritage site. As well as the palace rooms and gardens there is also an art gallery featuring Gustav Klimt's 'The Kiss'.

Gates of The Belvedere

The decoration in the rooms takes your breath away -

   

The Belvedere also has a Christmas Market so it was time for more punch and of course more mugs ...

So pretty

Mum had Mulled Wine and I had Baileys Punch

 

We found time to stop off at the Stephansplatz Market on the way back to the hotel. 

Apple Punch

We tried the famous Wiener Schnitzel which it turns out is delicious!

For our final day we decided to be 'real tourists' and ride the Hop On/Hop Off bus around the city centre to see the sights that we just wouldn't have had time to see. We also realised in our rush the day before that we hadn't actually seen the front of the Hofburg Complex so jumped off to take a look.

Well worth the stop

We were delighted to discover that there was also a small market in the square in front. We had a 'Sisi' punch with had berry pieces in it.

We'd heard that the State Hall of the Austrian National Library was really pretty so we popped in. Wow was it worth it! The ceiling frescoes were absolutely amazing.

How anyone ever got any reading done with a view like this I'll never know!

 

Another Melange stop, this time with Apple Strudel accompaniment 

In the afternoon we went to the final, and biggest of Vienna's palaces the Schonbrunn  which was the Habsburg's summer palace. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside the palace but if you follow the previous link then you'll get an idea of what we saw. 

Luckily we did manage to photograph the gardens! 

Mum at the gate

The 'back garden'

Think I might move in!

Being us we found a cafe ...

Sacher Torte for me and Winter Cheesecake for Mum

Schonbrunn also has it's own Christmas Market 

Punch time!

The light has made it look like I have whiskers!

Stawberry & Lychee (with fruit pieces inside) for me and Berry for Mum.

We thought these were the prettiest mugs

We made one final visit to the Rathaus Market on the way back to our hotel. On reflection I think this was my favourite of the (many) markets we went to as it had the most variety of stalls . 

These are Maroni (roasted chestnuts) - bloody lovely

Our final punch (Gin and Apple - probably the nicest one)

Final photographic proof that I willingly took part in Christmas related activities!

Vienna is an absolutely beautiful city to visit, it was incredibly clean and we felt safe at all times. It wasn't particularly expensive (regular 'city prices') and of course you can make the trip cheaper by going to cafes 'round the corner' from attraction, staying in hotels 5/10 mins away from the same attractions or buying snacks at convenience stores etc. Whilst we focused on the historic side of things there are also loads of 'modern' attractions such as museums  and a lot of kid-friendly museums etc so, to use a cliche, there really is something for everyone. 

And yes even a certified Scrooge like me loved the Christmas Markets, they're so different from the tat sold at markets here, the decorations and lights are beautiful. If, like me, you aren't a fan of crowds then late November is probably the best time to go as you can wander around the stalls freely without feeling claustrophobic. The same goes from all the sights too - although the gardens weren't in 'full bloom' we didn't have to queue to get into anywhere (I get the impression that the palaces in particular have huge queues in peak season) and the relief from the constant rain in the UK was fantastic.

If you get the chance to go to Vienna then go for it! It's a beautiful city with lovely, helpful people and I can't wait to go back. 

Love Jen

XxxX