A Brief Visit To Beautiful Wien - And To See Where Motzart Lived

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Vienna, was a lot more commercial and busy than the neighbouring cities like Frankfurt and Zurich to me, there were people everywhere, and I was so lucky that I had a day off in this beautiful city so I decided to explore the famous historical Germanic city in this country.

The airport is located around 20km east of Vienna and given its name, one of the most expensive city in Western Europe, the ticket was surprisingly cheap despite Vienna is an expensive city, 1.8 Euro one way to Stephansplatz in downtown, also where the famous St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) is located. The train from airport left exactly on time, I was not expected to this after my trip in Bosnia and then I quickly reminded myself that this is an Austrian train. The train was very clean and made up punctual on every stop according to the schedules. Most Asian might overlook the German's kind efficiency, even in Germany.

So far, most of the cities I’ve been to have had extensive and efficient Metro Subway System, and Vienna, unlike other cities in Europe and America, there were no bums or beggars around the metro stations. The system within the city has 2 kinds : U-Bahn, which is Metro type and goes underground, and S-Bahn, train type running overground.

Given its size, Vienna is not very small and surprisingly beautiful and well preserved city. It has the relaxed atmosphere of Amsterdam, cosmopolitan feel of London, but without all the beggars and drugs. Most of the streets in the city are very clean, always busy and full of well dressed people, even on Sunday.

The 45 minutes train ride from the Airport was nice experience,
I was quite surprised at how flat the landscape is, since it's Austria there would be more hills and mountains, but I know there are some distance to the Alps.

After getting off from S-Bahn trains, and decide do what I normally do, I began my walking tour from Stephansplatz with no maps, I then saw the famous Stephansdom right infront of my eyes, had a quick look inside of this tallest church in Europe, this cathedral was built in 12th century, therefore the architecture was really elegant and great, behind the church was an exit to the main street called Graben, which has lots of shops, cafes, restaurants and street entertainers. This whole area is pedestrianised and I believe part of a major shopping area in downtown.

I then walked further 15 minutes along Graben, I reached the famous Michaelerplatz aka Royal Palace, Winter Palace, Few Museums, The Opera House, The Volksgarden, and Rathaus, basically the downtown of Vienna houses all the famous landmarks, and all within walking distance. Anyway, walking up in Vienna was an amazing experience.

In general, Vienna was very laid back and relaxing, but nothing so interesting to me, even though I think it's very nice, impressive, elegance, clean, safe and beautiful city.

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