Decided to go on another little trip and get to know another of Europe’s capitals. This time the chosen city was Vienna, Austria’s capital. Was so excited to discover an imperial city! Here’s the itinerary for a weekend in Vienna. All we did in our two day visit.
We landed very late on Friday, arriving to our Airbnb in the city centre at midnight. We left our luggage in the flat and put on a scarf and beanie (god it was cold). Later we went to a pub to meet with a friend and had the first delight: foggy city at night. It was so quiet. When we got there we saw quiet smokers standing in the cold outside the pub. Inside the music was loud enough to dance and quiet enough to be able to speak. What surprised me the most that night: it was not banned to smoke inside. Coming from a place where smoking inside was banned years ago it felt very strange.
Started the day grabbing breakfast on our way to the U-Bahn (metro). We walked on the Saturday Market in Naschmarkt on our way to the station too. Riding from Kettenbrücken-gasse (green line U4) to Wien Mitte – Landstrasse, we walked through streets with imperial buildings and pretty architecture. Even when architecture is not something you realise when you are walking, in Vienna I can assure you will do.
When I first saw Hundertwasserhaus I stood still. Appreciating the pretty and funniest building I’ve had the visual pleasure to see. Shapes, colours, balconies, windows, lines and geometrical columns. Adding ourselves to the group of tourists admiring and taking photos of each angle of the building, we posed and took pictures. Really wish we could have had a higher view to see the building from, but ground floor sight was awesome and definitely the most singular building I’ve ever seen.
Afterwards we took the metro to go to Vienna Prater, a theme park with a vintage look. Deciding the giant wheel (Wiener Riesenrad) took too long and didn’t look very exciting we decided to have a lookout of the city from the Prater Turm. The Prater Turm turns around in the cold air for 5 minutes. The experience was sublime, not scary at all and the views of the city at our feet were impressive. After taking the U-Bahn again we stopped for lunch and continued after sightseeing the Stephansdom cathedral and the Christmas market around it. That one was the first one we saw during the weekend, yet little we knew how many christmas markets we would see.
After lunch and a little walk we saw the Peterskirche and the Pestsäule column, located in the middle of the commercial street.
If the views from the outside of the imperial palace or Hofburg palace where pretty breathtaking, from the inside and the other side , where you can see after walking no more than 200m the parliament… speechless.
Walking along Universigätsring we started seeing this amazing ice ring in the middle of the street. From the outside it looked like there were corridors for fast skaters and circle areas for everyone to skate around. Excited like kids who have never skated on any Christmas markets before, we decided to go. Beforehand we had a waffle pit stop in again another Christmas market right outside the Rathaus. With christmas lights everywhere the Rathaus looked magnificient. We rented skates and a locker for our stuff, and started trying to manage basic ice skating.
Some minutes later, not needing to touch the perimeter for balance, we tried on one of those corridors, and then realized – after going faster than before- they have a 3% slope. I was actually quite impressed after only 30 minutes to feel safe on the skates. I’ve been skiing since I was 3 and only skated counted times so it takes me a while to get used to the moves.
After that we headed to the Quartier museum with yes, another Christmas market. The city gets dark so early that it looked like you were walking at night in a full of life city, but it was only 5pm.
We took the metro after some walking to Karlsplatz, had a kebab and met up with our friend again for some beers in a library decorated bar – it even had a secret chamber, pulling a book you’d get to the beer storage room – so cool.
Had savoury waffles to start the day and walked down to get to Karlskirche. Once there we saw – oh, no! – had another Christmas market in front of it. This one though had a petting zoo for kids as well. I’m sure I’ve never seen more Christmas markets in one city in my entire life!!
Some more walking (about 10 minutes) took us to the Belvedere Palace, where we walked around on another Christmas market and enjoyed a walk through the gardens. Heading back to the city centre, next to the museum quartier where we were last night, we found the National Library.
Right in front of it there was a man selling tickets for a concert, and we ended up buying tickets for a Concert in the Schonbrunn palace. The concert took place almost daily (if I’m not mistaken) and was this time as an exception in the Queens room with a maximum of 90pax.
We rested our feet and warmed our bodies with a tasty Wiener schnitzel and chicken schnitzel right in front of the library and after caught the U-Bahn to the palace. Visits to the palace finished at 17h00 so we walked around the gardens and surprise: another Christmas market, this time with a giant Christmas tree with lights and an orchestral ensemble singing from time to time.
Because the concert was first in-best seat, we walked in early to get to the Queens room. After all, we did see some rooms of the palace. We were in the fourth row, not even 2 m away from the musicians. Two violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 double bass, one piano and a flute gifted us with an exceptional concert. I had goose bumps all the time. Every two songs a soprano and tenor would sing.
I am so thankful I was convinced to go because I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased in my life. That is how good it was.
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