Thursday 27 February 2020

Vienna days 1 & 2 | January 2020

We travelled to Vienna on a Monday morning, so we had the afternoon and evening to explore - but I didn't feel as though it was worthy of its own blog post, so I've shoved days 1 & 2 into one blog post. Here's what we got up to...

Monday 20th Jan | 7,205 steps

We got an Uber from the station to our Airbnb (this is where we stayed, and it was great) where we met our host and the gecko who lives there. After the host had gone, I decided I was absolutely starving and went out in search of food. There was a Subway at the end of the road, and a Billa supermarket slightly further down - I stocked up on all sorts like cucumber, tortilla chips, humous, fizzy drinks, bread, biscuits etc. This came to around €20 which wasn't too bad for everything, and I lugged it back to the apartment for a late picnic lunch.


After our relative success with the trams in Prague, I decided to look into the public transport options in Vienna. I downloaded the WienMobil app, and bought a 48-hour ticket. This cost €14 and you can choose what time you want it to be valid from, and it works on the trams, buses and underground. So we headed over to Stephansplatz where the cathedral is, to climb up the tower. Would not recommend, it's around 300 stairs and you don't get to go out onto a view point like with most towers - you can barely see out of the windows, and it was just a waste of time, money and energy.


We popped into the Hard Rock Cafe for a drink, as we didn't find too many bars around this part of Vienna which I found a bit strange. I think if you want fancy cocktail bars you'll be alright, but we love the Hard Rock so that was good enough for us! After that we headed back to the area where we were staying (the Josefstadt district) to a really cool bar called Chelsea, which shows the football when its on and also doubles as a rock music venue. We loved it here & would definitely recommend if you're staying in this part of town...


Tuesday 21st Jan | 15,838 steps

One of the big things on our list was Mozart's house & museum. So that was our first port of call on the Tuesday morning, after getting the underground back to Stephansplatz. It cost us €11 each for entry and the audioguide, which was really helpful. It's the last place he lived, and there is so much information as well as written music, replicas of how the apartment would have looked and more. We loved it.


Next on our list and just round the corner was a tour of the crypts underneath the cathedral. This cost us €6.50 each and I would sooooo recommend it. I love anything to do with death and history, and we got to explore the underbelly of central Vienna which is filled with tombs, copper vats containing organs and, of course, stacks and stacks of bones. You're not allowed to take photos, but you can see some online if you want. This is one of my favourite things to do in Vienna for sure!


Combining both music and death, we decided to head out to Central Cemetery. We had to get a train and then a tram but it was easy enough. The cemetery itself is ginormous and I'm not joking when I say it took us so long to find Beethoven's grave, the reason we had decided to visit the cemetery. Although we had the plot number, we didn't know how to navigate our way around the sections. We did eventually find it, though, and it's lovely. Very peaceful, too. It's free to enter and fascinating to walk through.


We made our way back to Stephansplatz and headed to St. Peter's Church to admire the organ and the ceiling before going for a wander - we stumbled upon the Hofburg Palace, which is beautiful and free to walk through. On the other side we saw a bunch of different museums, quickly realising that this was Museumsquartier which has its own metro station that was on our line.


By this point we were knackered but not quite ready to head back to the apartment - it was only half three, and we had crammed SO much into the day but there was still time to do more. So we popped back over the Stephansplatz and into Bermuda Brau for some happy hour pints. We warmed up, drank our drinks, admired all the snaps we'd taken that day and then headed back to the apartment to chill out before heading back to the Chelsea Bar to watch some good old premier league football...


Hope you've enjoyed reading about our first and second days in Vienna! Day three coming at you soon - have you seen what we got up to in Prague yet?


9 comments:

  1. I've always wanted to visit Vienna, especially at Christmas. I've heard their markets are the best in the world at Christmas xx

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  2. I went to Vienna last year, but out of all the places you mentioned, I think I only saw Stephansdom - just from the outside though! I would love to see the crypts if I ever go back!

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  3. Wow I bet seeing Beethoven's grave was an experience!

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  4. I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Vienna.. I'm going to be stalking your blog this week for catch ups!
    Rosie
    loverosiee.co.uk

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  5. I went to Vienna last year and I loved it. I totally agree that the crypts are amazing, for sure my favourite thing we did there. We didn't go to the cemetery but we passed it on the train from the airport and I couldn't BELIEVE how big it was! I'd love to go if we go back!

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  6. The buidlings are so pretty! I really need to go x

    Joyce | www.joycelauofficial.com

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  7. Aw it looks so lovely there, definitely putting it on my travel lust list!

    Gemma Louise

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  8. I had both of your posts on this open, the one bout travelling by train and I have commented on that post with this posts comment, eek!

    Vienna really does sound beautiful and travelling their by train is a great way to see more of the country too.

    Amy x
    The July Rose

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