"Vienna - City of Wieners" Vienna by Ewingjr98

I have made three trips to Vienna -- once in 1999 and twice in 2006.

My first trip to Vienna was way back in 1999. My friend's parents lived there, so we drove down from Germany to see her family and pick up her cat. On the way, we spent a night near a beautiful lake south of Munich. Once in Vienna, she gave me a nice windshield tour of the city, and we stopped at a few important landmarks such as St. Stephens Cathedral. We spent the night at her parents' house, then drove back to Germany the next morning after only about 16 hours in the city. On our return trip to the western side of Germany, we again stopped in Munich for a night to see the city.

Hofburg

I returned to Vienna on 24 January around 0830 flying into the airport from Washington, DC. Our first day in Vienna was bitterly cold -- about 10 degrees Fahrenheit -- with a strong wind but plenty of sun. We were also jet lagged, so we had trouble just staying awake much of the day...

Upon arriving, we took the "Postbus" from the airport to Schwedenplatz near St Ruprechts (6 EUR/person). Since our plan was to take the overnight train to Prague that night, we immediately took the subway (1.5 EUR/person) to Sudbahnhof and reserved our train tickets for that night (the train cost 43 EUR/person + 90 EUR for the sleeper car). From Sudbahnhof, we walked north back into downtown, passing St Elisabeth's Church and stopping at Cafe Frey on Favoriten Strasse for a cup of coffee. We continued north, stopping at Karlsplatz to see the University and Karlskirche, then it was off to the Staatsoper and along Karntnerstrasse to St Stephens. It was now around noon, so we searched for a friendly and reasonably priced restaurant, ultimately settling for an average place called Original Wiener Palatschinkenpfandl (on Kollnerhofgasse) which had good schnitzel.

After lunch we stopped at St Peters Church, then took a quick stroll through the Hofburg, Heldenplatz, Maria Theresa Platz, and the Burggarten before stopping for beer and gluhwein to warm up. Now, we were really getting cold, tired, and desperate, so we wandered back to St Stephens and paid the 2-3 EUR per person to walk up the tower...it was well worth the price to warm and wake us up, as well as to get some great views of the city and the church itself. As it was now getting dark, we hunkered down in a nice restaurant near St. Stephens called Porterhouse (Schulerstrasse), where we enjoyed beer, wine, and heat for a few hours. Later that evening, we walked over to the St Ruprechts area and had dinner and a few beers at a nice, small, crowded bar along Ruprechtsplatz. At about 2100, we went to Sudbahnhof and boarded our train for Prague, Czech Republic.

Gargoyles at St Stephens

After visiting Prague; Budapest, Hungary, and Bratislava, Slovakia; we returned to Vienna on 1 February 2006 via train from Bratislava.

We arrived at Westbahnhof and took the U-Bahn to Stephansplatz. Our tour book recommended an inexpensive hotel near the Staatsoper, so we wandered that way, grabbing a great bratwurst hot dog along the way. After searching high and low, we determined the hotel was no longer in existence, so we went to the tourist information desk near the Albertina to reserve a room for the night. They booked us in the Hotel Viennart near Spittelberg and the Museums Quarter for about 65 EUR/night.

After checking into the hotel, we took a walk past Parliament and the Rathaus, where we stopped at the Eistraum (literally "ice dream") -- or ice skating park. Then we strolled to the Votivkirche, through some narrow alleys called Molker Steig and back to the Rathaus park and the Eistraum for a beer. As dark approached, we wandered through the Volksgarten, Heldenplatz, and Hofburg, finally stopping for a few Eidelweiss beers just after dark at a nice little restaurant along Wallnerstrasse called "Die Wienerin." Finally, for dinner we went to Spittelburg where we ate at a popular restaurant called "Centimeter" then it was off to bed.

The next morning, we took the U-Bahn to Bahnhof Wien-Mitte and took the CAT train to the airport. After a slight delay due to bad weather in Frankfurt--our next destination--we departed a little after noon.