MARCH 2016
For Easter this year, we flew to Vienna! When I think of Vienna, I think of sausages, waltzes, and the evil baroness from the Sound of Music. B and I visited Vienna before going to Salzburg with his parents, so it was our first impression of Austria, and we instantly fell in love. Austria feels so romantic, and its easy to imagine previous generations enjoying these streets.
Friday
Our first major victory in Vienna: public transit! Like, MAJOR victory. I have a hard time understanding public transit before arriving in whatever city we're visiting, but thanks to lots of Google mapping ahead of time, we were all-stars. Usually when we land at the airport, we take a taxi to the hotel. It's easy, stress free, and we can clarify train/bus details and schedules with the concierge. We didn't necessarily have anywhere to be upon arrival in Vienna, so it was a great place to test the waters.
We boarded the U-bahn at the airport and crossed our fingers. We knew our hotel was between the Schottenring and Schottentor stops, but not exactly sure where. We got off at Schottentor and as it turned out, the hotel is at the top of the stairs. YES! We celebrated in the street, literally. And by "we," I mean me.
For this trip, we stayed at the Hilton Vienna Plaza. Our experience there was just okay. It had all of the essentials: a comfy bed, good location, and an amazing breakfast, but the air conditioning was non existent. The hallways were humid tunnels and our room (even if we set the thermostat to 20 degrees Celsius) was SO hot. Luckily, we were on a high floor with a bay window, so we were able to just leave the windows open and that cooled off the room.
After our amazing first impression and not-so-amazing second impression of Vienna, we were ready to get our adventure started!
As I've written before, I'm a sucker for white churches, and white buildings like these are also my favorite! It just oozes romance, and I love that its easy to see and appreciate all of the detail.
Our first stop was the St. Stephen's Cathedral on Stephansplatz. Not a typo- "St. Stephen's" is English, and "Stephansplatz" is German!
This church was massive and uniquely beautiful. After restoration work is completed, it will be easy to appreciate the colored tile roof against the white washed exterior. Most of the black you see in these pictures is due to pollution and environmental factors, but it can also transport visitors back to the 13th century, when the church almost burned down in a fire.
The interior of the church was very gothic and very crowded. They regulate the number of visitors in the main area of the church, and since they were getting ready for an Easter concert, a few of the sanctuaries were closed off. The darkness of this church reminded me a lot of Barcelona's cathedral, very ominous and brooding.
Stephansplatz outside of the cathedral was full of life! Austrians and Germans definitely like to celebrate their holidays, and Easter was proving to follow suit. There were classical concerts in the area, as well as horse and carriage rides and the usual corner salespeople.
 |
| Flower shops are my favorite! |
With all of the congestion, we decided to go off the beaten path and enjoy our favorite Austrian pastime: beer.
 |
| His & Hers |
The interior of the restaurant was a very "high-end-cafeteria" style. The food was local, fresh, and scrumptious, and of course, I did not take a picture of it. Instead, I DID take a picture of the dessert B selected, because he was a little too excited about it. Here is their version of a deconstructed cinnamon roll, his favorite!:
 |
| Marshmallows in Europe, WHAT? |
Saturday
Our first full day in Vienna was full of palaces. First, we hopped on the subway and headed to the Schonbrunn Palace. I didn't purchase the Schonbrunn tickets online, which was not a wise decision. Luckily, we are getting more flexible, so we made it work in our favor. When we showed up around 9:30, the wait was 4 HOURS. Uh, okay.
We bought our tickets and instead of sitting in front of the palace, we hopped back on the train to go see another one. Public transit professionals + flexible tourists = winning. We decided to go to the Belvedere Palace so we could enjoy more local sights closer to our tour time. Behold, the Belvedere palace:
Today, Belvedere is an art museum. We enjoy art, but we knew we would be doing a few other tours, so we decided to enjoy the scenery instead. We headed around the backside of the palace to enjoy the pre-bloom gardens.
Oh, I can only imagine how pretty these gardens must be in the spring/summer! After we finished reading all about the Belvedere Palace, we headed back to Schonbrunn in search of food. Luckily, there was a fantastic Easter market going on at Schonbrunn! We love eating at markets because the food is reliably affordable and always delicious.
The easter market was hoppin'! Get it? :) Seriously though, live music, local artisans, and lots of food made this market SO much fun.
 |
| Pretzels! |
These eggs are everywhere! They're made out of a very light wood, and are typically used for decoration. They're beautiful!
We ended up eating spaetzle at this booth, simply because it smelled divine! It had nothing to do with the fact that the workers were dressed up as cowgirls, I promise! I would describe spaetzle as a thick German noodle/dumpling. They had different varieties at this stand, and we opted for the one with herbs (most likely parsley) and ham - so yummy! We had a little more time before our tour, so we walked around to the backside of the palace to enjoy the famous gardens, which again, were pre-bloom.
I love the whimsical scroll patterns in the grass, and again, could only imagine how pretty the gardens would be when the weather is warmer. There's a whole section of the gardens that is full of statues and trails where visitors can get lost for hours. Since it wasn't quite spring yet, we skipped that part and headed inside for our tour.
The tour of Schonbrunn was efficient and fascinating, thanks to the provided audioguides. There were no photos allowed, and because I always follow the rules, I obeyed. I may be a flexible traveler... but I always follow the rules!
Schonbrunn palace was the summer home for over 300 years of Austrian monarchs, including during the Austrian-Hungarian empire. I remember learning about the Hapsburgs in school, but couldn't quite remember their historical significance, but the audioguide did a great job of refreshing my memory. Franz Josef was the last Austrian royal to live here, and died in this palace in 1916. The rooms in this palace are magnificent. They are decorated in a "rococo" style, which basically means rich red damask cloth panels adorned the walls (and matching cloth chairs/other furniture), with white painted panels and gold accents throughout. Its incredibly lush, and surprisingly modern.
Throughout Vienna, you will hear about the beloved Sisi, who was the Empress of Austria and was married to Franz Josef. Even though the people loved her, she was extremely vain. After she died, her diaries revealed how much she hated royal life and all of the people, as well as her extreme depression. She was so focused on her appearance, she would starve herself and exercise profusely. She would spend hours being sewn into her corsets, and at least two hours having her hair brushed every day. Despite all of these interesting quirks, she is still popular throughout Vienna, and even has an entire museum dedicated to her and her clothes.
 |
| Source |
After a few hours, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and get ready for dinner. Saturday night's reservation was at Reinthaler's Beisl, which was known for having delicious local fare, which is always our favorite. Thank goodness we had a reservation, because again, this restaurant was super busy.
B opted for sausage and sour kraut because he's weird, while I stuck with schnitzel. We also ordered potato and cucumber salads so we could have a true Austrian experience. Not pictured: typical massive beers. After dinner, we decided that our whirlwind day was not complete without a strudel course, so we popped into a restaurant near our hotel and shared a slice. Fun fact: calories don't count on vacation, ESPECIALLY in Austria!
I love that y'all got to visit so many different castles while you were in Austria, and those wooden eggs look so pretty! I hope that you brought a few home with you! My mouth is pretty much watering just thinking about all the spaetzle you ate while you were there too! Yum!
ReplyDeleteAustria is beautiful! The only reason I don't like going to Germany/Austria is because the food and beer are TOO delicious... it's hard to maintain my Italian figure ;)
Delete