Vienna

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My fourth city of my travels was Vienna. I took the train from Prague to Vienna and after checking into my hostel, I went for a walk around the city. I made a stop at the historic Café Hawelka and had a coffee before exploring some more of the city and walking around what used to be the Hofburg Palace. During my walk, I made a stop inside of St. Peter’s church, which was beautiful and I also walked down Kohlmarkt, which is the luxury shopping street in Vienna and they have just about every luxury brand imaginable. Day two of my time in Vienna started by going out to Schonbrunn Palace which was the summer residence for the Hapsburg Family. The palace, like so many others from that time period, was beautiful and decadent. The gardens were very impressive and provided some very nice walking. After getting in my fill of walking the gardens, I headed back to the city and made my way to the State Opera House and took a tour of the inside. The entrance was very nice, but I was actually surprised by the rest of the Opera House and how plain/standard it was. After the Opera House tour, I walked to ST. Stephan’s Cathedral that had some rather strange lights. There was also a little market going on around the church that I had a look at. From the St. Stephan’s, I went to Café Korb and had a Viennese Malange and delicious apple strudel. Following my afternoon coffee, I continued to walk around and be amazed at all of the shopping there is in Vienna! After walking around a bit, I was able to see some of the opera that was being performed that night, Gotterdammerung, for free on the giant screen outside the Opera House. This ended my second day in Vienna.



My third day in Vienna had me walk around the city very quickly as the weather was not very good. I saw the Parliament, University, Burgtheatre and Rathuaus. I also had a nice walk through some beautiful public garden. The Austrians know how to make nice gardens! After a quick coffee break, I went into the Haus der Musik, which tells all about the history of music in this very musical city. I then got to see the Naschmartk, which is a large outdoors market before it really started to rain. From the market, I was able to buy the traditional Viennese chocolate cake called Sachertorte and it was delicious. My dinner on my last night in Vienna was quintessentially Austrian with schnitzel, fried potatoes and a good beer to wash it all down. A good way to end a beautiful city.

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