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Published: June 20th 2016
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The Vienna trip started with overnight train from Zurich. The train ride was comfortable and uneventful. I had a packet of mozzarella that was going to spoil, so I was carrying it with me to use for breakfast. It survived the train journey. Once at Vienna train station, we were a bit lost. We were at the other end of train station, and the main station building was somewhere in the middle. At the main building we bought a 48hr unlimited ticket to make it easy to travel around. Our hotel was one station away, and still it was complicated figure out which train gets there. Vienna has 4 different (maybe 5) train systems. At the main station there are multiple levels and different trains go from different levels, and no proper map. After making couple of rounds up and down we found the right platform and train and reached our hotel station. The hotel was right outside the station. It was too early to checkin. So we dropped our stuff here and headed to Schonnenberg Palace.
This palace I had not seen before. We took the Grand Tour (combination ticket with maze and gardens). It was good that we
did the Grand Tour. The shorter version goes through big general access rooms. Then there are about 6 - 7 rooms which are smaller and more personal rooms that I found much more impressive. We had seen a nice rose garden from the palace windows and wanted to find it afterwards. We headed off to Orangerie which I thought must have orange trees, or some well maintained garden as there was a extra fee to get in. This was a total bust, there was nothing to see there. Then we took a break to eat lunch of veggies, bread and the leftover cheese. Then headed towards the maze and gardens behind the palace. These gardens are free to access and way more beautiful than any of the paid gardens. A huge rose garden is also part of this. So is the maze, though there is extra fee to get into the maze. When I first saw the maze I thought, like Orangerie it is going to be another disappointment. The destination was clearly visible from the entrance - but it was a nice surprised. We kept going round and round like in a real maze and it took a while
to finally get to the centre. FUN! There were 2 more maze here, but we were so tired from the first one that we decided not to do them. After this it was return to hotel for checkin and relax.
We came back to the hotel, got our room and decided to relax. The room was quite nice, spacious. Bathroom arrangement was a bit weird. Separate toilet, but no washbasin in the toilet. There was also nothing to heat water for tea. We called the reception and he said no, nothing. Later we discovered that in the lobby there was a coffee machine from which we could get hot water. Next, we discovered no hot water in bathroom for shower. Called reception again. The person was really rude. He said there is hot water, its just not hot enough to cook. I said I am not cooking anything in hot water, I just need to take shower and it is NOT hot enough even for that. He just dismissed us with - I will send someone. Obviously no one was going to come. Very rude - Hotel Allegro. Though location was excellent, but we also paid a lot for
the hotel, and I will definitely NOT stay here again.
In the evening we had tickets to the Opera, of course. We got out in time to walk the street market and go to a famous falafel shop. The street market is a collection of shops selling some turkish goods, very expensive. Falafel was good though. After falafel barely enough time remained to see the cathedral and then off to Opera house. I was quite late in booking the tickets, so our seat was on the side box, and we could not see anything from the seat. Standing it was possible to see something. The ballet was not bad, seats totally sucked. We got out after the second act, I was quite tired and needed sleep.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Vienna
We loved our time in Vienna but it was cold as we went for New Year's which we highly recommend. Can't believe you didn't have hot water.