4 Day Trip to Vienna

To be honest, Vienna was not one of my dream destinations.
But I was planning to join Fatih for a few days on his Europe trip. First I planned joining him and his cousin on his way to Budapest, but because of a really expensive train ticket and also time schedule I canceled this idea and deceided to meet him again in Vienna.

So I went to Vienna for 4 days together with my Mum....

1. Day:
We went to Vianna by train... I really don t like trains... they are always too crowded, they are late, you need much more time than going by plane...
anyway.. we took the train cause we got a special price ticket  for 88 Euro all together (1 person) what was really good.

We started in Offenburg at 8:30 in the morning and already in Offenburg's station the trouble began because of a bomb warning. So all trains were late or canceled.
We were lucky and got ours. But in Nürnberg, where we had to change the train, again there was some trouble... Normally we had an ICE from Nuernberg to Vienna. But this train was canceled and only an (older) IC were going. Luckily we were able to sit in 1st class what was even better that 2nd class ICE cause we had more place there.
So after almost 10 hours sitting in trains we were arriving in Vienna!
After we checked in in our hotel we started a first city tour in the evening through the museum quarter what was really nice.
Vienna seemed to be much more interesting as I thought before and I was looking forward the next 2 days :-)

2. Day
At 10 a.m. we met Fatih and his cousin Ahmet in front of St Stephan cathedral.
Together we started a tour through the historic center of Vienna that is part of UNESCO's world cultural heritage. We saw the "Hofburg" as well as we took part at a really interesting guided tour through the krypt of St Michael Church.
After lunch we continued our tour and went to the Belvedere castle, where we were walking through the big gardens from upper to lower Belvedere.
After that we went back to the city center and had a rest in one of the typical Vienna Coffee resturants. Than Fatih and his cousin went back to the station cause they were really tired this day and they wanted to get some rest before continuing their trip in the evening.
So my Mum and I were on our own again. ;-)
In the evening we deceided to visit the "Prater". We stayed there the whole evening walking around and watching all the roller coaster and fun rides.

3. Day
Today we started with a visit at the Vienna Spanish Riding School. We saw a 2 hour impression of the Morning Exercise with music in the famous Riding Hall with the "Lipizzaner" horses.
After that we drove to the "Zentralfriedhof", Viennas biggest cemetery. This cemetery is really big and looks like a park. We found the graves of famous Musicians like Mozart and Schubert.
After walking around there we went to Schönbrunn palace, "Sisi"s former summer residence. This is a really large imperial baroque building. We were walking around the park to the "Gloriette" and back again.
The evening  we went to the "Herman Bar", a really cool beach bar with a DJ playing located at the Donau riverside. That was a perfect last evening in Vienna even the weather was not as good as the day before.

4. Day
Day of returning home again. After having breakfast we went to the station to start our almost 10 hours in a train way back home.
At about 18:00 we were arriving in Offenburg again.
It was really a great short trip to Vienna - much more interesting and great as I expected before ;-)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My favourite things to do / see in Vienna:

• of course - seeing the historical citycenter (Hofburg etc.) of Vienna
  
• Palace of Schönbrunn (but not necessary to buy one of the entrance tickets but also just walking around in the park is really great)
• St. Michael Church (a really wonderfull place also to find some calm in the trouble of the city) - in my opinion much more worth to see then St. Stephan cathedral inside
• walking along the main shopping street with all it great shops like Tiffany, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace.... even only looking in the shop windows is really fantastic
• spending one evening in the "Herman Bar" near the Urania cinema at the Donau
  
• visit the Prater in the evening, all the lights are really great in the evening