Skip to main content

The land of Mozart! Vienna.. in 2 days

Vienna.. the land of art, culture and music. The bustling capital city of Austria is an amalgamation of various cultures - pieces from the Ottommon empire right to the Bohemian empire and ofcourse German culture and traditions. Getting around the city is easy and all the sights are at walking distance. However, I had taken the Vienna City card which gave me unlimited use of the public transport - metro, tram or bus and also some discounts on the entry tickets for the sight. I had booked an Air B&B one stop away from  Stephansplatz and it was very convenient.

As always I started off with a free walking tour ( I have decided I will do this in every city) by Good tours.. I like the little anecdotes shared by the tour guides, something you don't get to read in all the pre-planning research that you do. The tour quickly covers all the main sights but I also had my eyes on a few I had to do which weren't covered in the tour. St Stephans Cathedral is the most popular one, but the one that really had my eyes pop out was the Karls Kirche (Charles Church). A 80m tall church, situated quite close to the other sites, it has magnificent architecture both on the inside and the outside. There is also a lift, inside the church which takes you up to the dome to be able to see the beautiful frescoes up close! I don't really have a fear of heights, but when I looked down at the altar my heart did stop for a second. The church also has a VR facility which takes you on a ride on top of the church.. quite cool I must say..

Vienna was ruled by the Hofsburg empire and they were quite flamboyant. This you would see in the interiors of the Schonbrunn palace and Hofsburg palace which are absolutely gorgeous. Vienna also has a lot of expansive gardens with statues erected at various points of famous people; a good place to chill for a bit. There are many more sights to see but I did have limited time here and hence picked the highlights to visit.

For my evening, I had something exciting picked out. One cannot leave the land of Mozart without attending a concert. I am a music lover; listen to any kind of music and classical music is something that I enjoy. I picked a Joanas Strauss and Mozart concert - an evening well spent listening to the sound of a lovely orchestra playing famous compositions by Mozart and Strauss with a bit of ballet, waltz and opera, all in the beautiful Kursalon Wien venue right in the heart of the city.... 

Being a vegetarian, I had figured that I will live on basic food - forms of bread, egg, fruits etc in Europe. However, I discovered, much to my delight, that Vienna has plenty of restaurants in and around Karlsplatz which are completely vegetarian. I have had some yummy burgers, salads etc here. Highly recommended for all the veggies! For the non vegetarians Vienna streets are lined with the hot dog stalls called Wien Würstel and they are supposed to be good! And ofcourse the Schnitzel (which btw isn't Viennese) 


I was coming to the end of my Viennese adventure and had saved the best for the last....  the Sacher torte! This is a chocolate pastry with a layer of chocolate on top. Simple as it sounds, it couldn't get better than this.. Finishing off the trip to Vienna, seated at the Sacher Hotel cafe, licking the Sacher cake and cream off my fork! #Life'sGood. 
P.S. you get the Sacher cake in many shops but the Sacher hotel is the one where it originated. 

Next up Budapest! 

Tell me what you think!  Comment | Share | Subscribe
























Labels:
Location: Vienna, Austria

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bhutan : Measuring the Gross National Happiness - The Planning & Itinerary

Its been a year or two since we had been planning to visit Bhutan. Finally this October it materialized. The Kingdom of Bhutan is a beautiful country nestled in the Himalayas known to be the happiest nation in the world and that got us curious. Bhutan is pretty big and given we had about 8-9 days we could cover only the north-west towns of Bhutan. Bhutan is a country with a different view every 90 degrees- simple beautiful; right out of a picture postcard! You wont get tired of clicking pics.. Bhutanese people are very content and none are in a hurry to get anywhere. There are no traffic signals, no crime; an easy going life with immense love for the King.  Almost everything in Bhutan is regulated by the Govt including tourism which helps control the number of tourists in the country and maintain the biodiversity.  Its not too much of a DIY country in-terms of planning itinerary and booking your stay. We set out enquiring with a few recommendations we got from friends to find a g
Post a Comment
Read more

Perfect Petra!

Rejuvenated after soaking in the Dead Sea minerals, we started our 3hour drive to Petra. The landscapes in Jordan are amazing and makes for very scenic drives. The route to Petra was a hilly one with some steep inclines with temperature dropping drastically from 21 degrees at Dead Sea to 8 degrees at Petra! Google Maps pretty much worked the entire route and took us to our hotel - Petra Sky Inn.  We reached the hotel around 2/3pm and rested for a bit and then set off towards the Petra visitor centre. The route to the visitor is extremely steep with inclination of 70 degrees and some blind turns - quite a tough drive!   We had planned to be in Petra from a Wednesday to a Friday and I was glad we had done that. Petra by Night is a tour organised by the Petra visitor centre which allows you to visit the Treasury at Petra at night; Lit by 100s of candles! This tour happens only on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. You can simply turn up at the Petra visitor centre and buy the ticket for 17JD
Post a Comment
Read more

Salzburg: Exploring the Sound of Music.. a 2 day itinerary..

Salzburg, the city of the Sound of Music and indeed its everywhere. Here is where the movie Sound of Music was shot and it is the main attraction of this city. Nestled in the Alps, Salzburg is a beautiful city divided into 2 by the Salzach river. The birthplace of Mozart, this city is the hub of culture, music and art. I had taken a train from Budapest to Salzburg and reached around noon. I had pre-booked the Salzburg city card and I would highly recommend it. Not only did it provide Free use of public transport, the Entry to most attractions was Free too!! Full value for money. I picked up my pre-booked card at the Train station and now I was all set for the 1.5days to soak it all up! Along with the other experiences in Europe, one must experience the typical European Youth Hostel as well. I had chosen to stay at the Yoho Youth Hostel; its located quite close to the Mirabell palace and that served me perfectly as it was central. After an initial confusion around my bed an
Post a Comment
Read more