View from above

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A few things we learnt today. The first is that winter in Europe can be a pain in the behind, in more ways than one. Of course, the obvious being that it is extremely cold. Today couldn't manage to reach above 0 Celsius, which meant that we froze our busts off whenever we were outside (which was often). The second problem is that it can really mess with our plans.

The next thing we learnt was that being a tourist in Austria is quite inexpensive, particularly when dining out. The food portions are very generous, and generally a meal costs less than 10 euro. But more on our dinner experience later, and back to how winter can mess with our plans.

Here in Vienna there are many bus touring services. What we have found very beneficial is the Vienna Pass. With this pass you are able to get in to the majority of the main attractions in the city without cost. Of course, you need to purchase the pass to begin with, but really, the cost of it so small compared to the cost of entering the attractions. Along with entering the attractions, the Vienna Pass can also give you unlimited rides on the Hop on Hop off buses.

There are five lines. The yellow line, the red line, the blue line, the green line and the grey line. At certain points, these lines interconnect, meaning you can transfer lines to get to different parts to see different attractions. The stops tend to coincide with the attractions you can access with the Vienna Pass.

We had a plan today. We were going to do the grey line and the blue line, as they were both on the east side of Vienna. They grey line takes you to a reconstruction of Roman buildings back when they occupied Vienna, and the blue line takes you to the Prater - a theme park and a ferris wheel - as well as Danube Tower, which is the highest viewing platform in Vienna at 170m.

As the grey line took you roughly an hour outside of the main city, we were going to do that first. I was really keen to see the Roman buildings, as I'm really interested in that side of history. We could have caught the buses and transferred a few times to reach the right stop, but it would have been much easier to pay the 2,20 euro each to reach a station nearby.

Something told me to Google the grey line, though, to find out more about it. And thank goodness I did. Apparently the grey line doesn't begin operating in 2016 until March. If we had gone to that stop, I believe we would have been waiting for that bus for a very, very long time! It was disappointing, as I was really looking forward to the Roman buildings, but there's not much we could have done. There were trains that went there, but as it was supposed to be a quick stop along the way, they were too infrequent and would have well and truly chewed into our day, anyway.

Instead, we caught a train directly to the Prater, as it was still easier than getting on the yellow line at the train station we caught the train from anyway, transferring to the red line and almost doing a whole loop to reach the connecting stop of the blue line, which would take us there.

When we arrived at the Prater we were greeted with below 0 temperatures. The air was freezing, and I had three layers of pants and about 5 layers on my top. Although, it was mostly our faces that were cold.

The ferris wheel is the main attraction of this area, but it is inside the theme park. It's not like a usual theme park, where you pay at the gate and then enter. You can enter at any stage, and simply pay individually for any rides you may want to go on. Nothing was open when we arrived, but eventually we found a little indoor waiting area that would save us from the cold.

The Vienna Pass gets you onto the wheel for free, and also helps you skip the lines to buy tickets. Not that that was needed. We were there so early we were the second people onto the wheel.

The wheel gives you a wonderful view of the city from high up. It's an old thing, and you're put into a wooden box which creaks every time it moves, which isn't good for people who fear heights, but it truly is worth going up there. A wonderful spot to take some pictures!

After leaving the wheel, we went into Madame Tussauds - the wax people museum which is popping up all over the world. Again, our Vienna Passes allowed us free entry into this, and although we have both been into one before, it's always worth a look. We had quite a bit of fun in here, and obviously there are a few different ones in each place, based on people and what they're interested in.

By the time we'd exited the museum the line to get on the ferris wheel was almost out the door. That made us glad we'd come early, because waiting in the cold was not something we wanted to do. We simply enjoyed watching the line grow as we sat in a nice, warm restaurant for lunch.

The bus stop was right out the front of the theme park. I wanted to go on one of the rides, but there was literally no one on it. Most rides were closed, and the few that were open had no queues. Most would say that's a good thing, but where's the fun in going on a ride by yourself? So our next stop was the Danube Tower.

Again, Vienna Pass gives you free access. You catch an elevator up to the first viewing platform, and the coolest part about this is that the elevator has a glass roof. So as you go up you can see everything above you. It's quite fascinating to watch.

It was cold already, so higher up, you can imagine just how cold it was. Still, we braved a minute or two on the outdoor viewing platform to take some pictures of the beautiful city which took us even higher than the ferris wheel.

The next part of Today's activities was when our plans changed again. The initial plan was to get the blue line to the red line change over, and then get the red line to the yellow line change over so we could go to the zoo. We would have only an hour and a half before it closed, but we figured that would be enough considering most of the animals apart from the polar bears and a few others would be out anyway.

We needed to get off at the Schonbrunn Palace stop, and the moment that we did we decided we were not going to the zoo. We weren't 100% sure where it was, so we decided to go to what was directly in front of us instead - the palace.

Even at 3 o'clock in the afternoon it was very busy, but of course, this is what everybody wants to see. The home of the imperial family, the Habsburgs. We used our Vienna Passes to get in, and when you get your tickets you are actually given an enter time, which is interesting. You can not enter the palace until your specific given time. This is how they monitor how many people go in at one time. It is a continuously moving line, though, so it works well.

The Grand Tour ticket takes you into many of the rooms in the palace. They don't let you take any photos inside, but it's rather overwhelming just how big it is. On your way in you pick up an audio guide which provides information of almost every room you enter. It was actually kind of amusing, really, because it looked as if everybody in there was talking on their phones at the same time.

Still, it was a wonderful place to experience and an earned break from the horrid weather Vienna had decided to bring today.

We made it to the bus just in time before we would have to wait another 30 minutes for the next. After reaching our hotel, we warmed ourselves up for a few hours before heading out to dinner.

The hotel in which we are staying - Hotel Zeitgeist - is a five minute walk from the central train station of Vienna. Surrounding it are a few restaurants and eating places. It's convenient for us, and an Italian restaurant appealed, so we went there.

L'Osteria. A pizza, pasta and salad place. We were quite taken aback by the prices of everything, but even more so when we saw the size of the meals.

We ordered a Coke each, and she asked us if we would like a small or large. Not really picturing what a large actually meant, we asked for it. I hope you can see the picture.

I ordered a tuna salad which was delicious, and Albert ordered a Hawaiian pizza.

I also hope you can see the picture just to understand the size of the pizza. And, no, it is not a normal size for here, because there were an Austrian couple sitting beside us and when they saw it, they seemed to regret ordering a pizza themselves.

We left feeling rather sick, but certainly not from bad tasting food, but from the size of everything. The food was delicious. I recommend trying it!

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Vienna before moving on to other parts of Austria. Tomorrow will be a busty day as we try to cover everything we want to cover.

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Photos

Albert Einstein
Albert meets Albert

Danube Tower
There was a car out the front

Danube Tower elevator
You can see everything as you go up and down

Danube Tower view
View of the city and the Danube River

Ferris Wheel
View from the Ferris wheel

Ferris Wheel
View from the Ferris wheel

Dinner at L'Osteria
Albert ate only half

Albert at Schonbrunn Palace
Just a little bit cold

Rollercoaster
At the theme park