We travelled by train which was fantastic! I had wanted to travel by train ever since moving to Europe but it was always more practical to take the bus. I wasn't disappointed. There is so much to see out to window of the train. We passed small cities, little towns and quaint villages and even a castle in southern Bohemia! The trip took about 5 hours, which was a little lengthy for a one night trip.
Vienna is a beautiful city with heaps of history and interesting things to see. Unfortunately we only had two days in the city so we didn't get to see a lot of what we wanted to. The city is so much bigger than Prague with a lot of 'must do's' on the travelers itinerary. Whilst there we hired bikes from the 'City Bike' bays. The idea of these bikes is that, once you register (which is 1 euro), you can hire any of the bikes for under an hour for free! Over one hour is one euro, two hours two euro etc. It was a great way to get around the big city as it meant we could see much more than we would've seen on the metro. We had a few minor bike glitches such as gear-less bikes constantly in something like 5th gear, bikes that wouldn't come out of their holders and, in my case, not putting my bike back properly and having to pay for extended use of the bike! Annoying, but definitely a recommended experience. Thanks Jon for riding in gale force winds to fix my bike! What a hero...? :)
We visited a lot of the main sights in Vienna which are breathtaking. The architecture is really amazing - heaps of art deco buildings (I only learnt about this recently) dotted around the city. Much of the city was destroyed in WWII, so there is an interesting mix of old and 'new' buildings.
We visited the Schonbrunn palace, the summer residence of the Habsburg Monarchs. The last time we visited the palace was in the middle of summer and the immaculate garden estate was in full bloom. This time the first touch of Spring was just making itself known in the garden, with some of the trees full of blossoms but others still bare from winter. It was nice to see that Spring is finally here in Europe.
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| Schonbrunn Palace and some of it's gardens |
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| The Gloriette Structure at the highest point of the palace gardens |
Out the front of the palace were some markets for Easter. They were typical European markets with a beautiful backdrop of the palace. There were stalls selling street food, traditional Easter things such as painted eggs as well other stall selling homemade products. We tried some speatzle which was nice but Jon said wasn't quite as good as Oma's.
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| Traditional hand painted eggs for Easter |
One of the things we were most looking forward to was sampling some Austrian food, and we weren't disappointed. We visited the Naschmarkt, which is Vienna's most popular market, stretching over 1.5km. You can get all sort of produce here, from fresh fruits and vegetables from around the world, exotic herbs, cheese, baked goods, meats and seafoods. There are heaps of small restaurants where you can have traditional Viennese food, seafood, kebabs, wieners etc. We opted for a bratwurst and a beer for lunch which was amazing! I didn't eat sausages before I left Australia, now I am eating them from a small 'hole in the wall' store, served by a grumpy middle aged lady. After lunch we tried some turkish delight and caramel fudge which was equally as delicious (and messy).
We also sampled some fresh wine from a local seller. You could have the wine in small bottles, which we of course bought to drink as we walked around the remainder of the market. Attached to the end of the permanent market was a flea market full of people selling bits and bobs. Most of it was antique/ vintage goods, with the majority of that being very kitsch and as Jon put it 'just plain old crap'. I'm sure there were some real gems hidden in there and I would have loved to have poked around for longer.
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| Bratwurst and Beer for lunch |
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| With our wine and seasonal flowers |
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| Some of the produce |
We also visited the Belvedere, which is a historical building complex with two baroque palaces, the Upper and Lower Belvedere. The Belvedere museum has a Gustav Klimt exhibiton, which was fantastic - we even got to see his most famous painting, The Kiss. The rest of the gallery was equally as amazing with lots of different artists and styles on display. The grounds of the palace were incredible, a 'baroque park landscape' which was full of beautiful statues and cascades, decorative tiered fountains and majestic wrought iron gates. The palace complex was built as a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Meanwhile, Jon went to see the Austrian Military Museum which he said was interesting despite the lack of English descriptions. He saw the clothes Archduke Franz Ferdinand was wearing and the car he was in when he was assassinated, which initiated WWI.
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| Upper Belvedere housing the main exhibition |
It was a fantastic weekend, but I think Vienna needs a good week to be explored and to get the most out of this city.
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| Breakfast |
