Vienna, Austria

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Although I had incorrectly booked our Sept. 7 train tickets from Hallstatt, it was no problem boarding at Bad Goisern, two stops later. Our reserved first class seats were a little more comfortable and we could order food from our seat or sit in the dining car next to us. As we had to change trains around noon in Puchheim, we decided to have lunch on the next train. It was a quick and easy change (we only had about 10 minutes) and we were quickly settled in, on our last leg to Vienna.



The only awkward thing about the trains in Austria is a lack of luggage storage. All the trains in France have large luggage storage areas as you enter, but most of the trains in Austria have nothing at all, creating very crowded aisles. Luckily this train had large overhead racks that our small High Sierra bags fit onto easily.



Once we were settle in, we made our way to the dining car for lunch. The CLOSED dining car. Something broken they said. Luckily I had a Snickers bar and a bag of peanuts so we avoided starvation.



We arrived in Vienna around 1:30PM, exited the station then wandered around with my google map on my phone trying to find our nearby hotel. Thirty minutes later we had made our way back to the railway station, looked up and saw our hotel right across the street.



The Azimut Vienna Hotel was nice, reasonably priced at 163€ for two nights, with a good sized room, nice shower, and a huge breakfast restaurant. I chose it mainly for the close proximity to the train station for our early departure two days from now. (I have not provided a link to this hotel as I would NOT recommend it due to a problem we encountered with our bill.)



With only a day and a half to experience Vienna, we had most of our itinerary planned in advance to see as much as possible. With a good subway metro system, it is easy to get around the city very quickly. Our first stop was at the Vienna Pass office across from the Opera House metro stop. We picked up the two passes we had purchased online in advance.



The Vienna Pass is an all-inclusive sightseeing card for 1, 2, 3, or 6 consecutive days. Ours was the 2-day Pass for free and often expedited entry to dozens of sites, and included the hop-on, hop-off bus system. With 6 different lines and multi-lingual commentary at your seat, it's a great way to not only tour the city but also travel around to almost anyplace you want to go. We were also able to pick up our pre-purchased tickets here for our Vienna Mozart Orchestra concert that night in the beautiful Musikverein Golden Hall.



We hopped on the bus to get started and chose to hop off at the Schönbrunn Palace. At the end of the 17th century, Emporer Leopoldo I commissioned the construction of this HUGE baroque hunting lodge. It later became the summer residence during Maria Theresia's reign and today, the palace and gardens are a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site and Austria's most-visited tourist attraction.



Luckily, the hop-on bus had a hop-off stop across from our hotel at the train station. So we headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes then a quick metro ride back to the Opera house stop near our concert location. We found a traditional Austrian restaurant near the Musikverein and joined a few others for a pre-concert meal.



The hall was packed with tourists, mostly taking selfies throughout the beautiful building. The 30 Vienna Mozart Orchestra musicians perform dressed in historical costumes and wigs. The evening included single movements from symphonies and solo concertos as well as operatic overtures, arias and duets. After the performance, the metro stop a block away took us directly to the train station by our hotel.



The breakfast buffet at the Azimut hotel the next morning was great. They had one of the best espresso/cappuccino, macchiato machines and wonderful coffee with a huge selection of meats, eggs, breads and fruit.



We caught the yellow-line hop on bus across the street at the train station then hopped off a few stops later at Belvedere Palace . This UNESCO World Heritage site was the former residence of Prince EUGENE of Savoy. There are beautiful gardens connecting two palaces. The Upper Belvedere houses a collection of 19th and 20th century baroque and medieval art as well as the world's largest collection of Gustave Klimt's paintings including the famous "The Kiss". They also have masterpiece collections from a variety of other painters including Renoir, Monet and Van Gogh.



We took the yellow line bus back to the main Opera House stop and switched to the red line to drop us off at the Museum Quarter and Shopping Street. We decided we had seen enough galleries and museums for now so we took a couple hour break and wandered along the beautiful tree-lined shopping street filled with sidewalk cafés and shops of every description for 3 or 4 km.



We caught a metro from here to the MuTH Concert Hall and picked up our online pre-purchased tickets at the box office for the 5:30PM afternoon performance of the Vienna Boys' Choir . Since 1498 Vienna has had a boys choir entertaining the court, then publicly since 1918. There are around 100 choristers divided into four different touring groups. The group performing for us was short 5 boys from illness and their performance suffered for it at first. However, after the intermission a small symphony accompanied them and the quality of the overall performance was greatly improved. One of their songs was written by one of their original conductors 500 years ago! The Vienna Boys' Choir was always a favourite thing for my Mom to watch on TV so I was excited to see them live.



The metro had a stop directly across the street so returning to the train station by our hotel was quick and easy. Most businesses in the neighbourhood were closed already but we found a small Sushi restaurant around the corner for a late-night dinner before bed.



After breakfast the next morning we checked out and walked across the street to catch our train to Villach, Austria where we switched to a bus for the 2nd half of a 7-hour trip to Venice, Italy.

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Photos

"The Kiss"- Gustav Klimt
I snapped this before learning no photos were allowed.

Replica of The Kiss -"selfie spot"
No photos allowed of original so they set this up.