Travel in & around Vienna
It’s the last week of June and after 3 flights, two of which are bumpy long hauls caused by strong headwinds, we are in Vienna!! Views of snow on the Alps in the distance as we fly in on Swiss Air, to a clean well organised airport. Not only do we arrive on time, but hey presto our luggage arrives as well. It’s 9am, time to change from “travelling attire” to “summer in Vienna City clothes”, it will be high 20sC, today!!
Vienna International Airport is south west of the city, with multiple transport options – bus, train, Citi Link Fast Train and cabs. Our apartment was due south of the centre but we needed to get into the centre, to then get south. From the airport that was super simple, a couple of tickets, easy ramp and escalators to the station platform right below the terminal. Vienna, which was badly damaged in both WW1 & 2, has taken full advantage of integrating a very efficient train, tram, bus and UBahn (underground) system. So for us its train, walk to UBahn U1 – 4 stops later, we emerge to daylight at the Trosstrasse and a 5 min walk to the Rechberggasse apartment. Apartment Lockbox Code works and we are in for an 11am early check in, thank you Airbnb host.
We had pre-purchased travel cards for Vienna, which within the city give us unlimited travel on all public transport at 17E for a week each, it was great value. No “tap on tap off”, just have the pass available for inspection – which never eventuated.
Day 1 – Getting our Bearings Walking Tour
With destinations new to us, like Vienna, we have found that, first up, a group walking tour is a neat way to get a handle on a place. This then gives us an experienced guide to ask questions of, plus an opportunity to size up what we will do for our next four days here in Vienna. For a while now we have used Get Your Guide, not only does the process of buying a tour via the app work well, the Guides themselves are great. Our Vienna Guides for this 1st Day Walk and the subsequent one at the Schonbrunn Palace were excellent.
The “Getting our Bearings Tour” started at 2pm, our first day in Vienna, very hot but plenty of shade and “cool church interiors”. First impressions of Vienna are cleanliness, not too busy, lots of renovation of the historical buildings, most repurposed to Government accomodation from the former Habsburg Royal occupants. Beautiful gardens and green spaces too, manicured and presented. Important to note, as i type this on our final day, that all through our visit we hardly saw any Police, but felt really safe even on the Ubahn at 10.30pm.
Austria and Vienna lie at an intersection in Europe, as East – Russian/Baltic/Balkan influence, collides with West – Franco/Germanic and let’s not forget the Ottomans too from Turkey and beyond. Today we hear all of this and more in the languages being spoken , and the eating establishments on display, as we move around the city. The heart of the city is called the – Inner Stadt – where our Walking tour is concentrated, but its border to our north is the Danube forming a corridor for the movement of people, armies and trade across Europe.
Day 2 – Find the Danube before it gets too hot – Make an Appel Strudel and on to the Schonbrunn Palace
Our apartment is not air conditioned, nor are there any fans, a feature we are missing badly, so Day 2 is all about getting out early before the sun is too hot! We take two Ubahns and get deposited on the north side of the Danube and its adjacent canal, so that we can walk back across them heading into the city and eventually on to our principle destination, the Schonbrunn Palace. North of the Danube stand modern quite stunning buildings, apartments and office premises side by side. As we walk along the Danube, three intrepid swimmers are taking a dip – no obvious information on water quality is visible!! We agree they are brave. Sue finds a manufactured “Copa Beach” beside the river, then we head across both the Danube and its Canal, pausing to take in the colossal “River Cruise Vessels”, which we see advertised so much.
It’s interesting that most tourists to Vienna only spend two nights on average. We are here for 5 but the weighting of the “one night River Cruises”, clearly an influence. In late June we are here before many schools have broken up, and tourists seem to be split into the “retirees/oldies”, “young college aged people” and “Chinese” – who are not here in numbers, yet.
Apfel Strudel
Along with a Schnitzel and Kaiserschmarrn, all “national dishes’!! We are here in a wing of the Schonbrunn Palace to see an “Apfel Strudel Cooking Show, thank you Carol from tennis for the brilliant recommendation. Included a chance to sample – mmmm delicious and great coffee!!
Travels with My Wife 
Excellent first report thanks Peter.
Remember to persist & rehydrate frequently!
Local beers always often seem to do the trick.
Cheers
David Weston
+64 21 426 302
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
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Nice to hear from you Peter! Was wondering, thought maybe you had both melted.
Sort of funny to read of your Vienna experiences given much is what we saw, albeit not in same detail. Schonbrunn, we visited in 1973 and in 2019 as part of our river cruise, impressive.
Totally agree with your description of the city, almost perfect. I don’t actually know how their general social climate is, eg unemployment, homeless, dodgy people, housing problems, etc and not forgetting the modern scourge of way too many illegal immigrants and refugees. No idea on the Austrian economy, what does the country produce apart from the finest classical music? They definitely don’t have kangaroos!
Back here, big windstorm, wow, heaps of rain. Not really cold here, is in the south. Also nice sunny days in between the rain.
Looking forward to ABs v France on Saturday evening, in Dunedin, next week in Wgtn.
Stay safe, best Bret.
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