Vienna

Getting out of Brno was seamless, and we went out for a good coffee before checking out of our room. We had about an hour before we needed to be at the train, so we found another good café, this time in a book store with space for us to sit with all our luggage, where we had another coffee and a croissant before heading to the train station on our way to Vienna.

It was about two hours on the train to Vienna, then we had to take an Uber to the hotel to the train station. We were staying in a nice area just outside of the city, and after checking in, we walked over to the metro station to head into the city. We had changed our plans to leave Brno early, so this afternoon was bonus time in Vienna, and we used the time well to see some of the sites in the city centre, like St Stephen’s Cathedral, Hofburg Palace, and Parliament. It was cold and windy, but the sky was clear, and the sun was still out. We captured some nice golden hour photos of these impressive buildings, and we stopped into a nice chocolate store as well before heading to dinner.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the centre of Vienna

We were pubbed out after Czech, and decided on a Japanese place, where we could get an udon soup and a teriyaki salmon don. It took us a while to decide where to go, but we eventually found a great spot right next to the train station heading back to the hotel. It was a really casual place that did half take away, but it had some high quality Japanese food, and we were really happy to have a lighter meal.

Our first impression of Vienna was a big, modern city with more locals out than tourists. The downtown near St Stephan’s Cathedral was a big outdoor mall, reminiscent of Pitt Street mall in Sydney, and they were starting to put up Christmas lights across all the streets and walkways, although they hadn’t finished, so the street wasn’t lit up yet. This was a big change from Prague, but we liked it, and we were relieved to not be swarmed by tourists after turning onto the wrong street.

The next day (our first full day in Vienna) we did what we do best in a new city – looked for the best looking café where we could get a good flat white. We found one in Karls Platz, which was conveniently on the way to Schonbrunn Castle, where we were heading that morning. After feeding our caffeine addictions, we continued on the train to Schonbrunn castle. It was an extravagant yellow castle with gardens that extended more than a kilometer back behind the castle and up the hill. We went straight to the back of the castle because the view at the front was obscured from the construction of Christmas markets. The trend with these beautiful places in Europe at this time of year was to be setting up Christmas markets, and this was the second one we had seen being set up in Vienna thus far.

Looking down on Schonbrunn Castle and gardens from Gloriette Schonbrunn.

Back to the castle, you can take a tour inside, but we were mostly there for the beautiful gardens, and we didn’t learn anything about the castle’s history. The gardens started as soon as we went through a gate on the side of the castle, and we were met with immaculately trimmed hedges leading to some large pagodas. Everything was surprisingly green for this time of year and highlighted by the reds, oranges and yellows in the trees. We continued around the castle through the gardens until the garden opened up into a large area of lawns surrounded by gravel paths at the back of the castle. This extended for at least a kilometer back and up a hill. We walked along these paths and up the hill to the Gloriette Schonbrunn. This was a large decorative structure with just enough room inside for a small café. From the top of the hill, we could see the castle with the rest of Vienna spread out in the background. We took some photos and walked around the top of the hill before heading back down toward the castle on one of the side trails through the garden forests to enjoy the autumn colours.

Autumn leaves in the gardens at Schonbrunn Castle

When we left the castle, we took the subway back to Karls Platz. Here, we got off to walk down toward Belvedere Castle, again just to enjoy the gardens. We were scarred after we missed out on of all the gardens in Prague, so we skipped the history lessons to enjoy the beautiful outdoor spaces around the castles. The gardens at both castles had some landscaping work happening, and the buildings had scaffolding up for restoration work, but it was still open, the grass was green, and the trees were turning, so we had a good time. We walked the full length of the garden twice, dodging the Austrian children running for their soccer training, before heading out to find some food.

Belvedere Castle and Gardens

We had done around 12 kms of walking in the gardens at the two castles, and we were starving. Despite this, we decided to walk the long way back into the city, so we could walk through Statdpark, a really nice park on the edge of town. I think we were up to 16 kms by the time we made it into the city and we were cold and depleted.

After the day of wandering around castles and gardens, we were feeling fancy and went to Demel Café where we could get some classic Viennese cakes. The shop was warm and inviting, with pastries and their classic cakes for sale, but we made our way upstairs into a nice café area that looked unchanged since the late 1800’s. We made it in relatively quickly for how busy it was, and ordered a nice cake and a hot chocolate each. They even had a gluten free cake for Millie, and she was overjoyed that she could enjoy this cultural experience with me. We spent a while here, avoiding the cold and enjoying our snacks and the classic atmosphere, but eventually we had head back to the hotel to get ready for a piano concert.

We were inspired after our great experience at the ballet in Prague, so we made last minute booking for a piano concert in what we thought was a class concert house. Vienna has a long history of classical art and music that we felt that it was essential to our experiencing the city. There are also many old, ornate concert halls here that put on classic music concerts, ballets and operas, but they were either booked out or too expensive. Still wanting to see something, we booked a smaller concert from a more modern pianist at a smaller, but still old, concert house (Konzerthaus Wien). We weren’t expecting to be blown away, as we were in Prague, but when we arrived, it turned out to be a much more local production than we had expected. The Konzerthaus, had some hints of the classic decorations, but overall it more closely resembled a school gym than the great concert halls nearby. Although we were disappointed, we were not dissuaded by the setting, and we filed in, found our seats, and waited for the show to start.

It was a solo piano show with original compositions from the artist. She was exceptionally talented, but it was still hard for me to enjoy. I have a playlist on Spotify that I like to listen to called ‘Peaceful Piano’ that is similar music. It’s the playlist that I like to put on when I want to sleep on a plane, and I think I have trained my body to want to sleep to those sounds, and I was struggling to keep my eyes open after ten minutes. Millie has a background in music and piano and hasn’t trained her body the same, so she was able to enjoy the show and appreciate the musical talent of the artist a bit more than I did. I just don’t think a solo classical piano show is really my thing, and it will take a lot of convincing for me to do that again.

When the show finished, we filed out of the theatre and looked for where we could get dinner. It was a cold night in Vienna, so we were feeling like a big hot bowl of pho soup. We found a Vietnamese restaurant a couple of blocks away and went straight there. The restaurant was on a side street near Karls Platz, outside the main city centre and not anything notable. It had good reviews, but we went in without any expectations. But when we walked through the door, the inside it was nicer than expected and filled with people. We didn’t need long to review the menu, and we soon had two massive bowls of some of the best pho we’ve ever had in front of us. This is one of our comfort foods in Sydney, so we know a good pho, and this place was some of the best. It also helped that each bowl was under €20 when everything else in Vienna was nearly double the prices in Czech.

We had a good sleep that night after filling up on pho, and we had time to sleep in the next morning. After the hotel breakfast, we went back onto google to find another café and plan out our day. There was a building nearby called the Hundertwasser Haus that has a weird unique architecture, reminiscent of buildings designed by Gaudi in Barcelona. To get there, we had to walk through a park on the other side of the hotel instead of going straight for the metro as we had done the previous two days. This turned out to be a huge park with no one in it except a few dog walkers. It was just the way to the first site of the day, but we really enjoyed the walk over with the morning sun filtering through even more orange and yellow autumn leaves. We finally made it to a tram stop where we took a tram for ten minutes to the Hundertwasser Haus.

Morning walk through the park to the tram stop

The Hundertwasser Haus was great to look at, and we read a few of the information plaques around to learn about the history and why it was built. We learned that there are a few different Hundertwasser designed buildings around Vienna, Austria and the rest of Europe, and they are all in use, not just museums. The house that we were at was a low-income apartment building sponsored by the Austrian government, and the apartments all had active tenants. Despite the unique architectural features continuing on the inside, we could only observe the place from the outside.

Hundertwasser Haus from the front

We moved on from the house and made our way down a couple more blocks where we found a good looking coffee shop and got our flat whites, before continuing our journey through this city of art, music and culture. Our next stop for the day was an art museum, although we hadn’t yet decided which art museum. We had looked up an area of Museums that was well reviewed, but none of the museums were calling us in. We also saw posters for another museum while walking around the previous day, advertising a Chagall exhibit, as well as a collection of Picasso, Monet and other paintings of that era. The advertisements worked on us, and we took the tram the rest of the way to the city.

The Museum we decided on was called “Albertina” and was quite small compared to other museums we’ve been to that hold similar quality exhibitions. It only had three exhibitions running, but that was the perfect amount so that we were able to make it through the whole museum in about two hours. We saw everything there and really enjoyed the space without being overwhelmed or having to choose what to see and what to skip. We enjoyed some newer photorealistic art by Robert Longo, who we hadn’t heard of before, but are now big fans. Then we went through the Chagall exhibition, where we observed the evolution of his style, and learned how it was influenced by his life. And the final exhibition was a private collection that had been donated to the museum ten or fifteen years ago. It was filled with Picasso, Monet, and many other of the most famous 20th century artists. It was filled with a lot of important art, and I still can’t believe that it used to be a private collection.

After the museum, it was time for lunch, and we followed up the sophisticated art of Albertina with a large bratwurst from a stand in the main square. Unfortunately for Millie, this came packaged in a fresh bread roll that prevented Millie from joining in this cultural experience, so we took the train back to Karls Platz where we could find some food in the Naschmarkt. This was a long strip of market stalls selling everything from wine, fruits, nuts, pastries, and of course, more cakes. So, we found a nice cake shop that had gluten free cakes for Millie, and that was lunch. After, we strolled through this area a bit longer to enjoy the views of the beautiful old buildings lit up in the late afternoon sun before heading back to the hotel.

Looking through all the goodies at Naschmarkt

The last thing on the agenda for Vienna was to visit a classic Vienna pub, or as they call it, a gasthaus. We had been enjoying eating different foods the last couple of nights, but I was back onto the cultural foods with lunch, and we couldn’t leave Vienna without getting a wiener schnitzel. We found a gasthaus close to the hotel, it was our second choice, but once we arrived, it looked like a better place than the previous one anyway. Although it was in the middle of the city, it had a real old cabin feel with taxidermy animals on the walls, along with some old rusty tools and trinkets. The food here was incredible, and we had some great Austrian classics along with a beer to round out our Austria experience.

Vienna was a beautiful city, with classic buildings, great shops and restaurants, and a lot of art and history. We really enjoyed our time here although it could have been done with better planning and more money. We had cold weather, but we didn’t get to see the Christmas lights in the city, or the Christmas markets, that would have made it easier. And we did well with the museum, but the concert was a little disappointing, and we should have planned it earlier and spent more money to see a show in one of the old concert halls. But it was already the most expensive place we travelled to in Europe by far, and we are both very happy with the two and a half days we spent there.