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St Stephansdom
The cathedral at Vienna's heart One of the things people who meet me travelling need to be well aware of is that the passing comment of “if you’re ever in the area get in touch and I’ll put you up”, will be taken very seriously!! As was the case when my travelling companion Sky, who lives in Dinkytown, Minnesota, (wow, that place has such a cool name), who I met in Santiago mentioned that she was set to be studying for one semester of her masters in Vienna!! Seeing as Vienna is only a short hop from London, I had soon booked up a flight to Austria’s capital on what turned out to be a balmy (in Austria anyway) bank holiday weekend at the end of May to enjoy some fine culture-vulturing as well as reliving the student days with cut-price drinks and local haunts!!
The first thing I noticed about Vienna was the fact that the public transport is absolutely sorted. A miserly €12.50 gets you weeklong access to all of the cities buses, trams and underground, and it was the tram that oddly enough proved to be the first tourist attraction that we checked out!! One of the tram lines follows the
course of the inner ring road around the historic centre, and as you’ve probably guessed from the title, Vienna boasts some of the finest variety of architecture to be found - not that I could identify any of it!! However, the friendly guidebook does claim that to be found in Vienna are examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Historicism and Modern architecture!!
Once our “tour” had concluded we headed straight for Vienna’s main square, Stephansplatz, and the huge gothic Stephensdom cathedral that lies at its heart. The incredible tiled roof was dazzling against the blue sky, and around Stephansplatz street performers gathered to entertain the tourists (in perfect English of course!!). The roof of Stephansdom was badly damaged by fire in 1945, but such was the post-war determination of the population to show their solidarity, people from all over Austria donated money to “purchase” their own roof tile and as such the cathedral was rebuilt and reopened within three years.
Another great thing about touring the city with Sky was her local knowledge. After viewing Stephansdom we were feeling slightly parched in the heat, (It was 30+ ºC the whole four days I was there - heavenly
to be back in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops once again!!), so Sky took me to a microbrewery pub that she knew. With such fine home brewed ales on offer it would have been rude not to stay for at least a few cheeky drinks!!
The first night being a Thursday night, Sky and her University friends knew of a cracking student night that was held at a club called Vibrations. Happy hour lasted until 12.30a.m. and it served up some of the strongest and tastiest cocktails from around the world for only €2 a pop!! The drink and the banter were soon flowing to the cool reggae beats, which unfortunately gave way later on to a hip-hop night until the early hours. Not exactly my cup of tea, and I know I’m starting to get old, but is it really necessary to have the lyrics “my ni*gers, my ni*gers, my ni*gers, f**k all my b**ches, f**k all my b**ches, my ni*gers, my ni*gers”!!! Anyway, its apparently what the kids listen to these days and the cocktails had well and truly taken hold by this point so I had a blast dancing away to it!!
The next day dawned
bright and sunny - well I guess it did, as by the time we had enjoyed a leisurely lie-in and sought out a cracking bagel breakfast, it was well into the afternoon!! But it was still bright and sunny and we headed out to view the Belevedere palace. It was built in the early 18th century for a Prince Eugene, one of Austria’s greatest military heroes who helped to beat off the Turks, and acted as his summer residence - alright for some!! As you can see from the photos, the building is quite spectacular and set in colossal grounds. The landscaped gardens look incredible as well - or at least the photos of how they should look when they are finished are spectacular, as progress on finishing them seems to be quite slow!!
Our wanderings took us onto the huge Hofburg (Imperial Palace), which was the base of the ruling Habsburg Emperors for almost 6 centuries from the late 13th century onwards. The massive collection of building is apparently an impressive repository of culture and heritage, but as the weather was so fine Sky and I were much happier laying down in the leafy grounds of the Hofburg
drinking a fine bottle of Chilean red!! We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the vino to take in the outside of some of Vienna’s other architectural big hitters, the Rathaus (town hall), Naturhistoriches Museum and the always-going-to-raise-a-giggle-no-matter-how-straight-laced-you-are Kunsthistoriches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts incidentally), before catching a cool sunset back in the grounds of the Hofburg.
After a fun night out at an Irish bar, all of the “kids” met up in one of the kitchens of the Halls of Residence and I was treated to a genuine American breakfast!! I supplied the culinary skill for the scrambled eggs, but it was hats off to chef Todd who served up some incredible homemade pancakes drenched in maple syrup.
Obviously, this took quite a lot of time to prepare and, in keeping with the rest of the trip; by the time we headed out we were into the afternoon. The plan was to visit a Heuringen, one of the wine taverns on the hillside overlooking the city. We took the bus up there and enjoyed a drink and the views back across the Danube, before embarking on the hike that Sky’s friends had “joked” (we thought!) about
taking back to the Hostel. Unfortunately Sky and I hadn’t taken them seriously, and were therefore clad only in flip-flops, which made descending the steep hillside paths a lot more entertaining!!
As night fell it was time to take advantage of the fact that Sky’s halls of residence were 17 stories high, and so we scooted up to the top floor to enjoy the views. I tried to get flashy with the photography and snared a pretty good photo of the street lights reflected in the Danube canal.
The final day in Vienna we headed over to the Prater, a large funfair and amusement park in the east of the city. Here the dominant feature is the Riesenrad or Ferris Wheel. It was built in 1897 and is the oldest Ferris wheel in the world. Its a huge iron construction with wooden carriages that offer a very enjoyable 10 min trip with views back towards the heart of the city. Elsewhere in the park are an assortment of fairground rides, some white knuckle and some just downright lethal, as I found when I was asked to remove my flip-flops for “safety reasons” and then promptly sliced open my
Belvedere Palace Gardens
Would be lovely, if they pulled their fingers out and actually got them finished! toe on a protruding piece of metal!! Our favourite ride had to be the “tower” type ride where you are strapped in and launched upwards at a fantastic rate before coming hurtling back towards the ground only to be bounced back up in the air again. The ride was accompanied by the cheesiest pumping Europop on the speakers, and the ride controller absolutely loved the hold his job gave him over the riders as he psyched us up and repeated the launch sequence 4 or 5 times over. Great stuff!!
After the thrills of the funfair, my time was drawing to a close and there was only ever going to be one was to finish…with an ice-cold lager!! This time it wasn’t just any lager, it was a huge tankard of my favourite beer - Czech Budvar - served ice-cold!!
It was a fantastic way to end a great trip. Vienna may not be a city for the true party-animal, but there was more than enough going on to keep me going, and the more laid back approach to drinking just meant there was all the more time to enjoy supping on the vast array of high quality
lagers which were available. Architecturally, the city is just stunning, with a random wander around the central district taking you past all manner of palaces and other architectural gems - made all the more enjoyable by the fact that we were doing our sightseeing with the backdrop of glorious blue skies and 30+ ºC temperatures. Many thanks to Sky for putting up with me, putting a roof over my head and being such a fantastic host and tour guide!!
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