Vienna, Austria: 19/20 August 2022

I hardly know where to begin, it’s been such a fabulous couple of days!

1st instalment: Friday 19th

Friday began early with a buffet breakfast, pack up, checkout, brief Uber to Prague station and enough time to work out which platform and carriage we needed to be on for our pre-booked 8.57am train trip to Vienna.

The station was fairly crowded but it didn’t take us long to find the large departures board and the train number we needed. It didn’t yet announce the platform, so we found Burger King, a used tray (so that no one would move us on for not ordering anything) and connected to the free and quick WiFi to fill in some time with important social media work. Unfortunately when Dave ducked back to the board for an update it indicated a delay. We meandered around the station, returned to BK for an ice-cream (it was already hot) then when the update came through on the platform number just 5 minutes before the revised departure, we joined the throng of humans who rushed to Platform 4 and boarded the train.

This time we had booked seats at the back of the train in the only first class carriage which was divided into about eight, six-seat cabins. In our cabin, two seats were spare, the others occupied by a lovely Californian couple whose adult children were in the next cabin. I spent most of the three-hour journey trying to work out which train we would be able to change to at Breclav, knowing that the 1 hour delay meant we would miss the connecting train we were originally booked on. Dave spent most of the trip chatting to the American – who as it turned our was an ex-US Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot!

My research paid off, and so we knew that we needed to change quickly from Platform 3 to 1 at Breclev in order to get the next express train into Vienna. It turns out 1st class is even fancier on Austrian trains, which meant we were super comfortable on the nearly 1 hour trip into Vienna’s main station. (Note here the price difference between 1st class and 2nd class is not like on a plane – for the full 2 train trip from Prague to Vienna the price was $70 pp instead of $50)

Our hotel was about 10 minutes in an Uber from the station and we were hot and a bit tired by the time we got to it, and figured out that we needed to call via an intercom to be let in to the Neuer Markt Pension. As the door buzzed, I pushed the heavy frame forward, only for it to quickly come back and trap my little finger!

My ‘in pain’ mood is only slightly better then my ‘hangry’ mood mentioned in the Prague blog post ? so once we checked in and let ourselves in to an unairconditioned, tiny room with a hard bed and no bath (as promised in the booking) I was not a happy camper. Dave returned to reception, arranged a new, slightly improved room, with a bath that I promptly filled with cool water and got in to!

Do you have any ‘Holiday Rules’? After 30+ years of travelling together, we certainly do. They include:

1. Sara gets to choose 4 out of 5 eating establishments,
2. Every stop must include a supermarket visit (best way to get the feel for a place),
3. Walk lots, eat lots,
4. Passport stamps – quantity over quality,
5. No mission creep (ill explain that one day!),
6. Alternate between moderate and fabulous hotels

Now rule number 6 is the reason we ended up in this particular hotel. Not that it was cheap ($190/night) but it certainly was not as expensive as we might have paid in Vienna, which is a pretty pricey place to visit. Over the years we have occasionally stayed in some exceptionally lovely hotels, the most memorable being the Danielli in Venice which I am far too embarrassed to share the price. To compensate, we stayed in a very basic hotel in Turin the next night (think bed bugs and shared bathroom), and if you averaged the two amounts, the price seems more reasonable. I’m sure you get my drift…

I announced, from the cool bath, that this rule was officially deleted. I then immediately (yes from the bath on my phone) upgraded the one hotel we are staying at next week that I had some doubts about 😉

In all honesty, the cool bath; some ice and a Band-Aid for my finger; and I was rearing and ready to hit the pavement and explore Vienna.

First stop was a café for a very late lunch (don’t panic I had snacked on the train) where I ordered Viennese sausages, mustard, horseradish and a crusty bread roll and Dave a toasted cheese sandwich. My mojito was just the thing to help me relax and we then had a good wander around District 1, admiring the fancy shops, the well dressed people and of course the amazing architecture of the buildings and many churches in this extremely beautiful city.

After the obligatory afternoon rest, dinner was at a restaurant famous for its Weiner Schnitzel, which is a favourite of Dave’s. I’m very glad we didn’t order starters, his schnitzel and my beef goulash were both huge although I did manage to eat all the side of vegetables, I’m craving green veggies ?

Sorry about the long post, I will get this published now and will wait and publish part 2 of Vienna when we are on the ferry to Slovakia tomorrow… after all its 830pm and nearly my bed time 😉