Vienna, the capital of Austria is a beautiful and charming city. The city has registered itself into my memory since I was small, probably during general walkthrough on history of World War II. Then, the movie Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation by Tom Cruise where an assassination attempt at Vienna Opera House further enhanced the impression toward this city.
Vienna has more to offer other than its rich history. One of the item that thrilled us is their coffee culture. There are aplenty of amazing coffee house in the city, each with fantastic decorations that I would not feel like getting out once my buttock sticks onto the comfy chairs. In fact, the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in part of UNESCO. On top of that, Vienna gives me an intangible and indescribable lively vibes that we enjoyed. Anyway, the presence of thugs alike scammers that offer roses or donation across the city tainted the city's beautiful image somehow.
Our Central Europe trip is concluded with the last 3 days well spent in Vienna, and in this article wrap up how we spent our 3 days in this beautiful city.
Public Transportation in Vienna
The public transport ticket may be a tad expensive in Vienna, but the vast network which includes bus, tram, train and etc made moving around in the city an easy task. A single ticket cost €2.40, and there are 24/48/72 hours ticket that cost €8, 14.10, and 17.10 respectively. The ticket only valid at the time stamped in the machine, so plan your schedule wisely and you can easily save a few bucks off your wallet. Another type of ticket is 8-days ticket.
If you plan to take the a non-stop train from Hauptbahnhof to Vienna International Airport, you need to buy another ticket that cost €4.10 even your day ticket still active, as the airport is located outside of the ticket serving zone. Do not risk yourself getting fined.
Places to Visit in Vienna
1. Schönbrunn Palace
Schönbrunn Palace, which is the most visited place by tourists in Vienna is insanely big. This marks our first times visiting such grand palace and experiencing it by ourselves after hearing a few people mentioning it. As a matter of fact, there is even a bigger palace in Vienna - The Hofburg, which currently serves as the official residential of president of Austria!
The palace used to be a summer residence for the Habsburg rulers, the powerful royal family in Europe. During the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, the palace was a recreational hunting ground. This well justified the 10 minutes we took just to walk from the main gate to the main building. Today, Schönbrunn Palace is one of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, giving it cultural significance with unique Baroque ensemble.
We were naive to think that the palace only consists of the major building as shown in the above picture. When we were heading back to the gate where we came from, we see there were people going through a side door and access to a neighbouring garden.
Just right at the entrance of the garden we can smell the fragrance of the roses meters. Given its huge size, it is impressive how the gardeners here manage it so well. Great thing is the garden is free to access for public, and we see many people were jogging and taking a stroll there.
If you intend to visit Privy Garden, the Orangery Garden, the maze, the Palm House, the Desert House or the zoo, all within the compound of Schönbrunn Palace, you will need to purchase individual ticket separately. Nevertheless, the garden itself is a magnificent place with many areas to explore. You will probably perhaps more than half a day if you were to explore all of here.
The famous cafe - Landtmann even has a branch inside the garden. Should be a romantic place to organise a garden wedding here!
2. Belvedere Palace
Belvedere Palace is another palace with garde in Vienna but in a smaller scale compared to Schönbrunn Palace relatively. The garden houses a museum, featuring mainly collection and exhibition of paintings, with some even dated back to Middle Ages. Well, obviously we have limited knowledge on the arts so we took an evening stroll in the garden instead.
Well, we had a funny yet scary memory here. As the garden was huge, we have a long walk inside till the sky got dark, and probably there were no other people inside other than us. Therefore, we quickly rush to the main gate where we came from and only to find that it is closed! Suddenly, we got freaked out thinking we got trapped in this big area, and possibly we got to climb the tall gate to escape to real civilization.
God knows how long we have spend inside, wandering from one exit to another exit trying to figure a way out to exit. Probably after another 30 minutes we only realise there is a side gate with a door triggering switch that will unlock the door. The door could not be open from the outside though. Phew!
3) Naschmarkt Vienna
Naschmarkt has a history dated back to 17th-century, and today it is grow bigger from selling just dairy and milk products to a full-scale market. It is the largest and most popular market in Vienna, hosting up to 100 stalls that you can find pretty much everything you need for your kitchen here such as olive, pickles, Balkan food, cheese and paprika. This only came useful provided you have a kitchen at where you stay in Vienna, otherwise just look and salivate to full satisfaction.
Quarter of the market is being occupied by restaurants though, with a wide variety of cuisine ranging from Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese and etc albeit with a slightly price tag. There are a few bars around where you can catch a pint of beers with your friends too.
Seeing the greater number of Chinese restaurants here has gave myself a ponder - how is the Chinese food in Western countries taste like? At one instance, we were really tempted to try it but the price really put us off.
4) Republic of Kugelmugel
Ever been to a micronation (self declared independent country, typically small in size)?
Well, you'd better not doing so as it is considered an act of treason, but this artist with a big dream did so. He declared a ball-shaped house which he erected as a country he owned. Consequently, he got himself arrested and being put behind bar but he left a legacy. His house is still intact today and has earned the name "Republic of Kugelmugel". The word "Kugel" means "ball" or "sphere" in German; and the world "Mugel" is an Austrian German expression for "bump" or "hill on a field"
You can pay a visit to this micronation in Prater in Vienna. It is free from immigration and custom control though, but no trespassers are allowed as it has been barbed wired!
5) Prater Amusement Park
Feeling to take a thrilling or fun ride for the sake of fixing your boredom or get yourself excited? Then check out Prater, or should be correctly referred as "Wurstelprater".
Wurstelprater is the oldest amusement park in the word. No entrance fee is required, and there are a variety of rides that charged individually.
Just looking at the ride and the sound of screaming is more than enough to get my adrenaline pumping. We are surprised at the number of crowd in the amusement park on a Friday afternoon. Reckon that Viennese folks still love those rides even though they have existed for years.
The ferries wheel - Wiener Riesenrad is one of the most visible landmark in Vienna. You can take a ride here and enjoy the panoramic view of the city
Actually Prater encompasses the entire area which include the public park as well. We took an afternoon stroll there and spotted some folks were picnic, cycling and walking there. An ideal place to sit down and relax for the evening.
6) St. Stephen's Cathedral
The moment we walked out from Stephensplatz underground metro station, the building right in front in caught us in awe with a big mouth open. That is St. Stephen's Cathedral, one of the most important religious building in Vienna by being the mother church of the Roman Catholic of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna.
St. Stephen's Cathedral has a long history dated back to 12th-century. Among the most distinctive characteristics are its multi-coloured tile roof, and the south tower of the cathedral towering high at 136 meters. The impressive cathedral also houses a number of relics, including a marble sacrophagus that where Emperor Friedrich III were buried.
7) Vienna City Hall (Rathaus)
Vienna city hall (Rathaus) is a beautiful building especially when the dusk set in, when yellowish light shine upon its Gothic architecture. Guided tours through the building are available on a complimentary basis on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1pm.
8) Votivkirche
From a distance away at Schottentor metro station near to Ringstraße we can see two towers with illuminating light high up the sky. That is Votivkirche, a neo-Gothic style Church that was built as as a gesture to thank God for saving Emperor Franz Joseph's life following an attempt assassination on him.
It looks beautiful far away but we did not try getting close to it after a tired long day.
9) Hundertwasser House & KunstHausWien
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| Hundertwasser House |
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| KunstHausWien |
Both Hundertwasser and KunstHausWien are colourful house and museum designed by Austrian artist. It is designed in a quirky way, or better known as Hundertwasser style which is wavy, undulating floors and a notable lack of straight line. The striking colours is unique on its own way too.
10) Vienna Opera House
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| Big screen showcasing the live show of opera |
Opera means something to Viennese people. It is part of their culture and life, and that is why it propels Vienna State Opera - Wiener Staatsoper as one of the top in the world.
Although it is hard to secure a seat for the opera with advance booking by months before the real show, on top of the premium price and the need to dress elegantly for it. You can now watch the opera and ballet outside the Vienna State Opera via live on a video well in April, May, June, September as well as around New Year's Eve. Everything is free!
Though it may not offer the exact experience compared to being physically inside the opera house but it is still unique. Unfortunately, we missed it. Check out their website for their schedule though.
11) Karlskirche
While walking around Karlsplatz area, we spotted a beautiful building top and walked over there, which happen to be a prominent church - Karlskirche. The church is being regarded as most outstanding and one of the city's greatest church. Featuring a fountain in front of the door of the church, a picture of good reflection of the church can be taken in the pond if there is no people sitting around the fountain. Well, luck was not siding on our side this round.
There is a panoramic elevator that brings visitor to a platform at a height of 32.5 meters that provides a breathtaking view of the city. Subjected to entrance fees though.
12) The Hofburg
While we dining at Demel Cafe, we spotted Hofburg, the formal principal imperial palace of the Hasburg empire. The palace was built in the 130th century, houses 2600 rooms spanning across an area of 240,000 square meters. In fact, it is the second largest palace in the world.
Well, time was running short and we were carrying a big luggage so we did not go and explore the big garden and square. Instead, just a front picture clocking we were there.
EuroPride Vienna 2019
Our visit to Vienna in June 2019 coincided with EuroPride 2019, a movement to support LGBT group. It was very happening, as major buildings in the city such as Vienna University and Burgtheater (National Theatre of Austria) were donned in the colourful flag. Even the staircases of Vienna University and zebra crossing has special colour to denote its support to EuroPride.
That basically sums up where we visited during the 3 days short stay in Vienna. Of course, there are many places to check out still in this beautiful city but we were really running short on time. In a separate post, we will make a summary of the food we had in Vienna.
~End~
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