Vienna

We had two fantastic days in Budapest...Now it was on to three days in Vienna.

Budapest and Vienna are three hours away by EuroTrain. I have to say EuroTrain is one of the top trains I have been on so far. Very clean and comfortable seats. Great leg room. Plus if you pay for allocated seating your destination is on a little screen above your seat!  Very cool....

Below is a picture of Tanner and JL hanging out at the station waiting on our train...

Vienna has been one of my bucket list destinations. My mom always tells us she is from Swiss-Austria, so of course I had to go see a part of my history....come to find out, my ancestors were not from Vienna. Vienna was actually part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867-WWII. Vienna was a powerhouse of a city with culture and politics for most of the last couple centuries.  During WWII, Hilter overtook Vienna and made Berlin the capitol. I read somewhere that he did not like Vienna and did not want it to flourish anymore. The people speak German, however they speak amazing English.

Vienna is very modern. Very clean....and anyone that knows me, knows I love clean cities!  Glasgow is not that clean and it drives me crazy. People clean their cars out and drop their trash on the streets near my house. Every time I take Ava to school there is trash all over. Urgh!  Okay, on to the fun stuff....

Where we stayed....

We stayed right on the outskirts of the Old City, a two minute walk to the Opera House Staatsoper. Near the Mariahilfer Straße, 5 minute walk to Naschmarkt, 10 minute walk to the Cathedral and right next to the Museum Quarter.  le MERIDIEN was in the perfect location. I really liked our hotel. It was clean and modern. The shower was the best! Had shower heads all the way down. The bed was super comfortable. The mini fridge is free and they restock it everyday. It is artsy, so if you want more charm this place probably would not fit your liking.

Within just a couple minutes walking, we had all the following around us....

                                 Opera House Staatsoper

Museum Quarter

 Old City in Vienna has small and cute streets

                   Scottish church Schottenkirche. Founded in 12th Century by Scottish-Irish monks

St. Stephen's Cathedral

                      

                      
                 Opened in 1160. It is Romanesque and Gothic Style. In the heart of the Old City 

Pestsaule, Holy Trinity
One of the most well known structures in Vienna. Finished in 1690's after the last big plague epidemics. Emperor Leopold I vowed in 1679 to have a mercy column built if it left the city. He started work the following year.

Holfburg Palace

Walking around the Old City... you can get lost. I bought this really good app CityMaps2go, it allows you to download a city map and not be on wifi, but it knows where you are. It has been a lifesaver in many cities. We stumbled upon the Holfburg Palace. It housed the Spanish Riding School 

President of Austria still works here. Many of the nobles lived here until 1918. 

Schonbrun Palace
On Thursday we decided to take the subway to Schonbrun Palace. The subway system is very easy to follow...6 lines, 6 different colors. We got on at Karlsplatz, I was amazed at the mall underground.

The train out to Schonbrun Palace only took about 30 minutes.  It dropped us off just a few hundred yards from the Palace.  This place is stunning and for those that have been around Paris, it rivals Versailles Palace. The line to get in was over an hour long, so we passed. Thankfully the gardens are free to roam. 

You are amazed when you walk up to the Palace, then you walk around and see the garden! 

Parliament and Rathaus City Hall

On the third day, we still had a lot to see.  It was raining a bit, but from our training in Glasgow over the last few months, we went anyway and ventured around to the Parliament and Rathaus City Hall.  

Rathaus City Hall

Looking through the gardens to the Museum Quarter

Rathaus City Hall

Parliament

Packing all of this in three days did not deter us from enjoying two of the most famous things Vienna has to offer....food and coffee!

Vienna's famous food

We went to Figlmueller, home of the first schnitzel. It is a really thin breaded chicken. It was the size of Tanner's head. The line was really long, but lucky us we got our name on the list. The schnitzel was really good, but we all really liked the Chicken Cordon Blue. The service was amazing. Got us in and out!!!

                                                              Best Buds waiting for dinner

Best Hot Dog
We stumbled upon Bitzinger Hot Dog stand. It was incredible. For all you late people it stays open till 4am! You can choose between 3 dogs; filled with cheese, spicy and another that I forgot. I always got the one stuffed with cheese. Then they take the bread, put a hole in it, add mustard, ketchup anything you like plus the Hot Dog. It was delicious. It is located right behind the Opera House Staatsoper. 

Best Coffee

I had the best coffee I have ever had at Julius Meinl. I like a good latte and they make it excellent. The coffee had a smooth finish and very creamy taste. They have a supermarket in the middle of the Old City and it would blow AJ's away. I love going to supermarkets in other countries and Vienna has some amazing ones. Really good selection of items with organic produce, chocolate, drinks and was very well laid out. Vienna people are into healthy choices....plus chocolate.  Haha!

I got the heart. My mom got the person and she asked the barista if he thought she was a Samoan:)

There are over 70 different types of coffee in Vienna but here are the most popular. 

                                                                    Julius Meinl

Old Coffee house

We did go to one of the oldest coffee houses in Vienna Central Cafe. It was good, but basic. Loved that they open at 7:30am!

Vienna's lovely sweets

I have the worst sweet tooth and Vienna is the place for me!! Yummy. We went to a famous baker/restaurant in the Old City, Demel. You walk in and think that there is nowhere to sit, but walk to the back and you will see the chefs baking the goods then go upstairs to eat. The cakes were delicious. I forgot the name of the cake we tried, but it was chocolate with a mousse filling. I do know it was not the famous apricot filling that many bakers make in the city. I did not like that one. Their chocolate has such a smooth taste. I am loving European chocolates. I can't say the scale is liking it though! I have been told that the major brands of Chocolate use mostly Vegetable Oil, where as the Chocolatiers don't. You can taste the difference!

Hotel Sacher Wein is famous for there Original Sacher Torte. It is filled with a thin layer of apricot jam. It was good, but did not give me the "this is the best cake ever" feeling. 

Breakfast

We again did not have the buffet breakfast included in our hotel, but lucky Vienna has places open up at 7/7:30am. We went to a place Corns n Pops. I am really enjoying the Muesli Europeans eat here. It is a small little shop but with good food. 

Sushi

On a side note, any time we have gone to a new place, we search out Sushi.  It is difficult to get in Glasgow and something we all love.  It looks like the apple does not fall far from the tree...Ava tried Ebi for the first time and loved it! I think she ate 8 of them. 

Best Vienna Schnitzel

On the last day, John came down with the flu and when adding the wet / cold weather that swept in, he decided to get some rest. Around dinner the skies cleared up, Yeah!! Without John we went to Plachuttas Gasthaus zur OPER. Their schnitzel is made of veal and was so yummy. It had great flavor, juicy and the breading was really tasty. I really liked this restaurant. 

            

Shopping

We went to the largest shopping streets in Vienna, Mariahilfer Straße.  This street of shopping is written in many blogs about being great, I however wasn't that impressed. There are a lot of shops, just the normal everyday H&M. I liked the shopping in the Old City the best. Kärntner Straße street had the H&M's but also Mom and Pop shops throughout. 

Naschmarkt

Naschmarkt is an outdoor market filled with produce, meats, cheeses, clothes vendors and a bunch of restaurants.  At night the restaurants are filled with people. It opens from 6am for produce and meats....stays open till midnight for restaurants. It is a long street, but worth a visit.  With all the places to see, we did not make it here until the third day, which happened to be when the rain came.  We decided to weather the storm and go.  We ate at an Italian restaurant and it was probably the worst meal we had on the trip. I would say having one bad meal for a whole week is really good! 

            

Tanner and Ava rocking to some music together at the market....

                                    

                                Billa Corso Supermarket

 They have a muesli bar!

These machines are in a bunch of supermarkets. I love fresh OJ! 

Fun Stuff.......

More Carriage rides

Vienna has a bunch of horse carriages. Ava could not stop asking if she was going to go on it. We had to get the white horses and she named them Elsa and Anna:). I would highly recommend it, because the guy who took us around gave us much insight into some of the buildings. Vienna is the music capital. Mozart is their golden boy. 

One of the coolest things we got to see on the Carriage Ride was Mozart's apartment and the place of Mozart's first performance....at 6 years old!  

Wiener Wasser

It might be the child in me, but I thought this was so funny!!! They are drinking facets around town. We think the city is called Vienna, but it actually is spelled Wien.

End of our Trip

Our trip had to come to an end, boo. We were all a bit exhausted from all the fun we had.   I did not feel like trying to find a breakfast place since I had to pack everyone up. John Luke and I went to the hotel buffet and I loved it!!! 30Euros was pricey...but the selection of items and coffee was amazing.  They made me my special coffee, Melange.  I took the kids for a bit to get out of the hotel and got another coffee from Julius Meinl and some of their famous cocoa... and of course, one last amazing hot dog:)

We flew out of Bratislava which is an hour away from Vienna towards the east. Ryanair had a direct flight to Edinburgh. We decided to hire a car from Bratislava Airport Travels for 109euro, because we would have had to take a taxi to the train, then train to central Bratislava and then taxi again to airport. The hotel wanted 260euro for a hire car:( The company we used was great, came with a big van and car seats. 

It was an amazing trip and we all loved each place. I would go back to both Budapest and Vienna in a heartbeat. I think Vienna at Christmas would be magical, but I am hoping to go to a German Christmas Market first.