I live a charmed life… the only goad I needed to pack my bag for Vienna, Austria was a phone call.  My aunt and uncle, Mary Jean, and Tom Hansen, were on an epic, multi-week, European tour, and called me July 6th to see if I wanted to meet up with them.  Vienna was the closest they’d come to Switzerland, and it was on my list of places I’d like to see, so I said of course!  Unfortunately their plan was to be there from a Sunday until a Friday, meaning Melissa would have to spend vacation days, which, even though she starts with 20 a year, she was running out of.  So it turned out being just me going on the trip.  I booked my flight out on Monday July 18th, and my return flight on Wednesday July 20th.  In addition to meeting up with Mary Jean and Tom, I also found time to meet up with Sandy Zwanzinger (who was an exchange student with the Johnson’s in high school, and visited Melissa and I at Christmas) and her boyfriend Bob.

The timing of my flight on Monday wasn’t the greatest, but it was the cheapest.  I left Geneva at 6:25 p.m, and touched down in Vienna just after 8 p.m. Then it took me an hour and half of walking and navigating public transit to check in to my hotel. Since I figured it was too late to go sightseeing, I contacted the Hansens and Sandy to organize meet up times, then jumped in bed to rest up for the next day’s full schedule.

Tom and Mary Jean had a rental car, and planned to pick me up at my hotel at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.  I was up and ready to go earlier though, so I went out exploring in the area around my hotel until they arrived.  The Danube river, deep and wide enough in Vienna for river boat cruises, was my first stop.  It’s about the same as any other big river I’ve seen, but it’s famous and now I can check off the box that I’ve seen it.  My morning wondering next took me to an amusement park called the Wurstelprater amusement park, which was strangely open to walk through, but had all its attractions closed.

At 9:30 a.m. the Hansens found me at my hotel according to plan, and we set out for our sightseeing.  The first stop of the day was going back to the amusement park where we now found the rides running.  It turns out the park is always open and free to walk through, but the attractions don’t open until 10 a.m., and each  one charges individually for admission. The Hansens wanted to ride the famous giant Ferris wheel, called the “Wiener Riesenrad”, which being so tall was easy to find.

After buying our tickets, we learned a little history about the Ferris wheel, like that it was built in 1897, as we walked through a room with various miniature displays showing historical periods of Vienna.  The ride itself was one revolution that brought us to a peak height of 212 ft, in a large car holding about 10 or 15 people, that took a total time of about 10 or 15 minutes.  At the peak height we had a great view of the city and the large Prater park which has an area of approximately 2.3 square miles, with the amusement park only occupying a small corner of that.

Once we were back at street level, we returned to the rental car and made good use of it by driving just outside of town to the Schönbrunn Palace.  This huge 1,441 room palace on approximately 400 acres of gardens used to be the summer home of the Emperor and his family.  It is Austria’s most visited tourist site, and when we came to the front gate we found it lived up to its reputation of being filled with tourists.  We wanted to go on the tour, but after standing in line for 45 minutes we were informed that there would be an additional two hour wait after buying tickets. That seemed too long, so we instead opted to explore the palace gardens, which were free and open to see immediately.

Our garden exploring took us along long straight roads with perfectly trimmed hedges and trees,  past multiple fountains, and to a hedge maze.  For a 5.20 euro admission we could walk through three different hedge mazes, but ended up only doing two.  The second one we went through was tough, taking more time than we thought it would, and they put up fences in the hedges so you can’t cheat by sneaking through them.

The gardens are so large that there was even a zoo on the grounds, which being constructed in 1752 is the oldest still running zoo in the world.  After the mazes we checked it out, and all really enjoyed it. The zoo has all the famous animals you expect to see, but unlike an american zoo it seemed like we could get much closer, without as many safeguards keeping the humans out, or animals in.  The highlight of the zoo for me was its bat cave.  I walked into this exhibit first, pushing aside strips of plastic hanging down as the entrance curtain and came into a dark hallway filled with bats… not bats in cages, but tons of flying rodents flapping inches from my head.  It was very unexpected and I left too fast to take a picture.

Around 3:30 p.m., as we were standing next to some wallabies making it feel more like Australia instead of Austria, Sandy texted me to see where we should meet.  We still had a little more of the zoo to see and a long walk back to the car, so we decided on Tom and Mary Jean’s hotel at 4:30 p.m.  When we pulled up to the hotel a little late, we found Sandy and her boyfriend Bob already waiting outside.  The five of us then rode the metro into central Vienna for Sandy and Bob to show us around.

It was awesome to have two natives give us a tour.  As they showed us all the famous sights they answered all our questions and gave us history we wouldn’t even think to ask about, such as showing us a nail tree dating from the middle ages that people would drive a nail into for good luck before going on a journey, and an ornate column built in 1693 celebrating the end of a plague.

Most of Vienna’s famous tourist sights are packed closely together in the central city, making a walking tour the easiest way to see them all.  Our tour started with Vienna’s main cathedral, called St. Stephan’s, that dominated the view as we exited the metro.  We then strolled along a wide pedestrian only street, with a mix of older and newer buildings, until we came to the Hofburg palace. This former imperial palace is larger than the Schönbrunn Palace listed as having 2600 rooms, and being the second largest palace in the world.  At the palace entrance was a small archaeological dig into Roman ruins, and a long line up of horse drawn carriages with drivers dressed like Mozart.  We didn’t have time to take the palace tour but decided to come back the next day.

Our tour than took us past the grandiose balcony of the palace, to two museum buildings facing each other that looked exactly same. Next we saw the parliament building, modeled after the Parthenon and complete with a gold plated statue of Athena guarding the entrance.  Then we walked past the city hall that was build so lavishly it looked more like a church, and finished our tour by admiring the architecture of a theater called the Burgtheater, and the main building of the university of Vienna.

It was then near 7 p.m., and everyone was getting hungry.   Sandy and Bob hadn’t steered us wrong yet, so we let them pick out the restaurant and they did a great job again.  The restaurant was unremarkable from the street, but had a large outdoor courtyard visible only after walking through.  The three Americans all had a delicious meal of Weiner schnitzel and beer, and enjoyed the last bit of time with our wonderful tour guides.  After dinner it was sadly time to say goodbye.  We walked to the metro stop together then split up to ride to our separate destinations.

On Wednesday I made my way over to the Hansen’s hotel right after waking up.  Our sightseeing began with a ride on the metro, back to central Vienna, and then a walk back the the Hofburg palace where we planned to take the tour.  Fortunately this palace tour didn’t have a long line or wait time to get in.  We were given different options in tickets to buy and  decided on one that included three sections of the palace: rooms turned into a museum for Empress Elisabeth, the imperial apartments, and rooms used to display the Habsburg silver collection.

We started with the museum dedicated to the Empress, called the “Sisi Museum” after her nickname.  Elisabeth was born a princess of Bavaria in 1837, and became the Empress of Austria when she married Franz Joseph I in 1854.  She was a tragic figure, probably suffering from depression and other mental illness who died in 1898 by assassination in Geneva.  The long reign of her husband, which ended in 1916, seems to be romanticized in Austria similar to the way the English romanticize the Victorian era.  It was fascinating to see so much history about a very famous person, who I had never heard of until entering the museum, and fascinating to learn she was assassinated at a Geneva pier I’ve walked by multiple times.

The next part of the tour, walking through the imperial apartments, took us through the living quarters, offices, and courtroom of the royal family.  I couldn’t help thinking that the long dead royals must be spinning in their graves with all the tourists wondering through and learning about their intimate lives. When we were through the apartments it was nearing noon, and we felt like we had seen enough of the palace, and skipped going to the silver collection.

For my final tourist stop in Vienna we walked to a famous market called the Naschmarkt.  This market stretches for nearly a mile with two aisles of shops and restaurants selling all kinds of food. After soaking in the atmosphere we sat down for lunch, where I ordered the plat du jour.  I couldn’t read the German and ended up with a salad, but it turned out to still be tasty.  After lunch it was my turn to say goodbye.  

My trip to Vienna was great for all the sights I saw, and great for the people I could see them with.  Now I hope I can go back again soon and bring Melissa with!

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