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Late Summer Holiday 2012 - Part 2: Vienna
In the last week of August Emily and I jetted off to Berlin for three nights, then Vienna for two nights. When we got back, we went to EMF Camp, a nerdfest in Milton Keynes, for the weekend.
Tuesday
We arrived at Vienna in the late afternoon and walked through the oddly deserted airport to the S-bahn. Emily's friend Stu, who I'd previously met earlier in the year in the Netherlands and had since had a work transfer to Vienna. He proved to be an excellent tour guide on our first evening there, and set us up with some great ideas for the rest of the time we spent there.
After checking into the hotel, Hotel Am Konzerthaus, we went straight into town to get some Sachertorte from the Sacher Hotel. With that packed in a box for us, we then went to a Japanese chain, Akiko, for dinner, and afterwards to Café Central, which looked ostentatious (like every other building in Vienna) but wasn't pretentious, which was just as well because I certainly wasn't dressed well enough for anywhere that expensive-looking if it were in the UK! We finally had the black forest gateau that had eluded us in Berlin, and walked it off by exploring Vienna. Stu took us past all the nicest places, all lit up now it was dark, until we reached the Rathaus, Vienna's mayoral and council hall.
The Rathaus currently has a massive projector screen on its front, which shows a free opera broadcast every night. The one that evening had just finished, but we took the opportunity to sit down in the seating there to eat our Sachertorte, which was as delicious as any photo makes it look. We had mini-sachertorte, so the whole of it was covered in chocolate and the middle was very moist. If you like cake, visit Vienna!
To walk that off, we took the S-bahn to see the Hundertwasser incinerator, probably the only waste disposal building worth visiting, since it was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a well-known contemporary Austrian artist. Making sure we got to the S-bahn station before the last train back to the hotel, we bid Stu farewell and had a good night's sleep, full of ideas for tomorrow (and cake).
Wednesday
We skipped straight to an early lunch in the morning to visit Café Neko, Europe's first cat café, which we had to go to after hearing about it from Stu. The place had five cats who were free to roam around and of course were able get out of everyone's way if they felt like it. Being the middle of a warm sunny day, most of them were snoozing, either on the seating with the customers, or in the baskets dotted around the room and on the walls. The food was tasty, but the real novelty was the cats, of course. The waitress seemed particularly pleased that the café was attracting international customers, too!
We walked to the Hundertwasserhaus, another building designed by Hundertwasser, this time a block of flats. There were no straight edges and the walls were all brightly coloured. After seeing it, we jumped on a tram to the S-bahn, and then we jumped onto another tram because it was an old wooden one, and old trams are awesome. Then to get back to the station we jumped onto a third (wooden) tram. All covered by our 48-hour public transport ticket, of course!
Donauinsel, a 20km island that despite its length is only about 100m across, is known locally as Recreation Island, and is utterly beautiful, with greenery on the island itself and to be seen on either side on the mainland. We hired bicycles from the food and facilities area on the North-East side of the New Danube near the Donauinsel line 8 S-Bahn station, and cycled right to the North end of the island, about nine or ten kilometres.
The whole cycle took us about three hours, but we didn't spend all of it cycling. Donauinsel also has a strip marked clearly on the map and on pathways as the Freikörperkultur-Berich (FKK area) - where of course nude bathing was allowed. Well, when in Rome.... The Danube was pleasantly cool after a long cycle, and after I'd overcome my initial embarrassment/apprehension, it was lovely to bathe in the Austrian sun. And really, I am so chuffed that I've been swimming in the Danube. As Emily said, it really is blue.
We handed back our bikes as the sun was beginning to set, then went back into the city centre for dinner. We ate at Pizza Bizi quickly in order to go to Cafe Central again for cake before it closed at ten. We made it there for 2100 in the end, and afterwards we went to the Rathaus to see the opera being projected there. The listings at the gate said it was "Benvenuto Cellini - Hector Berlioz," and the actual performance featured a fairy, a woman dressed as C-3PO, and all kinds of crazy that we couldn't make sense of. I think a guide book might've been required!
Thursday
Thursday was our last day in Vienna, but we made the most of it before our evening flight. We walked past the noisy Morning Line art installation on Schwartzenplatz, into Karlsplatz where the Karlskirche (Karl's Church) stood in the sunshine, and then caught the S-Bahn to Schönbrunn, where there is a huge palace and gardens.
We had Kaffee und Kuchen in the cafe by the entrance, and then walked up through woodland and gardens to the top of the hill, where there was another smaller building. We stopped there for some lunch, then then walked back down the hill making up part of a circle, again through some lovely quiet woodland, and out through some gardens where red squirrels hopped around carefreely.
We walked back through the town one last time, picking up some superb ice cream on the way, collected our bags from the hotel, and made our way to the airport.
On the way into Heathrow, we flew right over the centre of London, and got a magnificent view of the Shard, Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Charing Cross station, St James Park and all the other places we recognised from the ground. Even the Shard looked so tiny! From Heathrow we went back to my flat where we had a good night's sleep, ready to head off to Milton Keynes for EMF Camp the next day!
As I hope has come across in this entry, I really loved our short time in Vienna, and I'd definitely recommend anyone else visiting it. Everything came together perfectly and we managed to do all the things and yet feel incredibly relaxed while doing so. Definitely one of my favourite cities.
Next up: September, including EMF Camp, Breakfast at Tiffany's, vintage trains, Stonehenge, and a lot of apples.
Tuesday
We arrived at Vienna in the late afternoon and walked through the oddly deserted airport to the S-bahn. Emily's friend Stu, who I'd previously met earlier in the year in the Netherlands and had since had a work transfer to Vienna. He proved to be an excellent tour guide on our first evening there, and set us up with some great ideas for the rest of the time we spent there.
After checking into the hotel, Hotel Am Konzerthaus, we went straight into town to get some Sachertorte from the Sacher Hotel. With that packed in a box for us, we then went to a Japanese chain, Akiko, for dinner, and afterwards to Café Central, which looked ostentatious (like every other building in Vienna) but wasn't pretentious, which was just as well because I certainly wasn't dressed well enough for anywhere that expensive-looking if it were in the UK! We finally had the black forest gateau that had eluded us in Berlin, and walked it off by exploring Vienna. Stu took us past all the nicest places, all lit up now it was dark, until we reached the Rathaus, Vienna's mayoral and council hall.
The Rathaus currently has a massive projector screen on its front, which shows a free opera broadcast every night. The one that evening had just finished, but we took the opportunity to sit down in the seating there to eat our Sachertorte, which was as delicious as any photo makes it look. We had mini-sachertorte, so the whole of it was covered in chocolate and the middle was very moist. If you like cake, visit Vienna!
To walk that off, we took the S-bahn to see the Hundertwasser incinerator, probably the only waste disposal building worth visiting, since it was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a well-known contemporary Austrian artist. Making sure we got to the S-bahn station before the last train back to the hotel, we bid Stu farewell and had a good night's sleep, full of ideas for tomorrow (and cake).
Wednesday
We skipped straight to an early lunch in the morning to visit Café Neko, Europe's first cat café, which we had to go to after hearing about it from Stu. The place had five cats who were free to roam around and of course were able get out of everyone's way if they felt like it. Being the middle of a warm sunny day, most of them were snoozing, either on the seating with the customers, or in the baskets dotted around the room and on the walls. The food was tasty, but the real novelty was the cats, of course. The waitress seemed particularly pleased that the café was attracting international customers, too!
We walked to the Hundertwasserhaus, another building designed by Hundertwasser, this time a block of flats. There were no straight edges and the walls were all brightly coloured. After seeing it, we jumped on a tram to the S-bahn, and then we jumped onto another tram because it was an old wooden one, and old trams are awesome. Then to get back to the station we jumped onto a third (wooden) tram. All covered by our 48-hour public transport ticket, of course!
Donauinsel, a 20km island that despite its length is only about 100m across, is known locally as Recreation Island, and is utterly beautiful, with greenery on the island itself and to be seen on either side on the mainland. We hired bicycles from the food and facilities area on the North-East side of the New Danube near the Donauinsel line 8 S-Bahn station, and cycled right to the North end of the island, about nine or ten kilometres.
The whole cycle took us about three hours, but we didn't spend all of it cycling. Donauinsel also has a strip marked clearly on the map and on pathways as the Freikörperkultur-Berich (FKK area) - where of course nude bathing was allowed. Well, when in Rome.... The Danube was pleasantly cool after a long cycle, and after I'd overcome my initial embarrassment/apprehension, it was lovely to bathe in the Austrian sun. And really, I am so chuffed that I've been swimming in the Danube. As Emily said, it really is blue.
We handed back our bikes as the sun was beginning to set, then went back into the city centre for dinner. We ate at Pizza Bizi quickly in order to go to Cafe Central again for cake before it closed at ten. We made it there for 2100 in the end, and afterwards we went to the Rathaus to see the opera being projected there. The listings at the gate said it was "Benvenuto Cellini - Hector Berlioz," and the actual performance featured a fairy, a woman dressed as C-3PO, and all kinds of crazy that we couldn't make sense of. I think a guide book might've been required!
Thursday
Thursday was our last day in Vienna, but we made the most of it before our evening flight. We walked past the noisy Morning Line art installation on Schwartzenplatz, into Karlsplatz where the Karlskirche (Karl's Church) stood in the sunshine, and then caught the S-Bahn to Schönbrunn, where there is a huge palace and gardens.
We had Kaffee und Kuchen in the cafe by the entrance, and then walked up through woodland and gardens to the top of the hill, where there was another smaller building. We stopped there for some lunch, then then walked back down the hill making up part of a circle, again through some lovely quiet woodland, and out through some gardens where red squirrels hopped around carefreely.
We walked back through the town one last time, picking up some superb ice cream on the way, collected our bags from the hotel, and made our way to the airport.
On the way into Heathrow, we flew right over the centre of London, and got a magnificent view of the Shard, Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Charing Cross station, St James Park and all the other places we recognised from the ground. Even the Shard looked so tiny! From Heathrow we went back to my flat where we had a good night's sleep, ready to head off to Milton Keynes for EMF Camp the next day!
As I hope has come across in this entry, I really loved our short time in Vienna, and I'd definitely recommend anyone else visiting it. Everything came together perfectly and we managed to do all the things and yet feel incredibly relaxed while doing so. Definitely one of my favourite cities.
Next up: September, including EMF Camp, Breakfast at Tiffany's, vintage trains, Stonehenge, and a lot of apples.