Day Trip to Vienna
A cellist walks by the Vienna State Opera
Vienna Waits for You :)
During and after the completion of our 5050 travel project people often ask us; what was our favorite country? How long did you spend in each country? Do you count an airport as a country? We made the rules and in essence, it would have been easy to change them but we never did.
We decided that in order to count a country we would need to leave the airport, at least spend a few hours, and have a meal in a country. That’s it. No need to stay overnight.
Our stays varied depending on the destination. In some cases, we stayed for a month, two months, one week, two days, or for a long weekend. We should figure out what the average stay was. It would be fun to know.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna
Why Vienna?
The reason for this introduction is due to the fact that we only spent about 8 hours in Vienna. This is arguably not enough to fully take in everything a city has to offer and is certainly on the shorter end of what we normally would do.
Austria was country number 45 on our list and we were on the home stretch to reach our goal of 50 countries.
A gentleman takes a stroll by the opera house in Vienna
When it came time to lay down plans for the remaining six countries it made sense to make a detour to Vienna on our way from Bratislava to Budapest where we had planned to stay for five nights.
And that is how Vienna was added to the itinerary. The alternative would have been to visit another country in Southeast Asia which proved to be either an expensive proposition or unpractical given the remaining time we had left to wrap up our project.
When Diana was an exchange student in Denmark and while we lived there we visited Austria several times and loved it. We skied in Flachau, Wagrain, Sölden, and St. Anton and had both been to Vienna on separate trips.
So here we were on a train back to Vienna and we were about to have a marvelous day. Here is how it unfolded.
Arriving to the modern Hauptbahnhof in Vienna
Three Countries in One Day
It was an ambitious plan. Three countries in one day. Departure by train from Bratislava to Vienna and late in the day a bus from Vienna to Budapest.
We had an early start. Di woke up at 3 am, excited about the day and our minds were literally buzzing with thoughts of Vienna, Budapest, where we had never paid a visit, and Christmas coming up in Denmark.
The alarm was set for 5:30 am, and we aimed to leave the hostel by 7 am. We left at 6:55 am for the short walk to the train station. With no coffee in my system and perhaps not quite awake yet, I almost got caught between 2 tram cars.
Hundreds of windmills. View from the Bratislava to Vienna Train
We picked up coffee and yogurts for breakfast and headed to track 4. Di realized we had not checked the board this morning, only from last night, so we went back to double-check. It was a good move as the departure was now from track 3. The train arrived about 15 minutes before the 7:38 am departure.
Settled in our seats, I wanted to go out and take some photos but Di vetoed as she does not like it when I am not nearby before departure. The train was busier than we had expected with commuters to Vienna. Lots of people live in Bratislava and commute to work in Vienna.
A young man, in his early thirties, joined us and was very kind and welcoming. He worked as a software engineer at T-mobile and studied in the Czech Republic. Urbanization and languages were his hobbies so we had an interesting conversation most of the way to Vienna.
He was interested in what we found negative about Bratislava but we told him we were pleasantly surprised and were already planning a trip back to sail down the Danube from Vienna to Bratislava.
Karskirche in Vienna
Vienna Hauptbahnhof and Lockers
We arrived at the Vienna Hauptbahnhof on time at 8:43 am. It is a very modern train station and looked virtually new. The great signage made it easy to find our way to the storage lockers. A €2 locker fee and we had our hands free to explore the city center.
We found Wi-Fi, confirmed our directions, and purchased a 24-hour metro/tram pass for €8 as it worked out to be within €1-2 compared to buying individual tickets. This way, we avoided having to line up to purchase tickets each time. With such a short time in the city, it was worth it to us.
The impressive St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna
Karlsplatz And The Opera
We hopped on the U1 to Karlsplatz. The city was still waking up and it was very quiet. The stalls for the Christmas market were ready for activities later in the day but everything was closed in the morning. After a few issues with google maps, we downloaded the maps.me app and gave it a try.
We found our way to the Opera House and Di listened to the Rick Steves Vienna City Walk Tour. Check out Rick Steves Audio Europe app. It comes with full audio guides, text, and maps and is very helpful.
The Alban Berg Monument in front of the Vienna State Opera
Café Hawelka
It was a cold morning, -4 degrees but felt like -1. We ducked into St. Stephen’s cathedral to look around and warm up. The city was awake by now and was getting rather crowded.
The tour continued to a side street, Dorotheergasee, for some culinary hints and we stopped at an old Vienna coffee shop, Café Hawelka. There was no menu. The waiter is “the menu”.
Café Hawelka has old and current newspapers, old tables and chairs, and is rustic with a cozy character. A coffee, hot chocolate, and apple strudel to share, €13.40.
Doblinger Music and Publishing on Dorotheergasse in Vienna
The strudel was warm, the coffee was good and the atmosphere charming. We found a chocolate store that reminded me of La Glace in Copenhagen.
On to the palace and the rich history. The tour finished at another Christmas Market across the street. By now the markets were open and the atmosphere festive. We ordered bratwurst and repeated our pattern from Bratislava and ordered mulled wine to warm us up. Again it did the trick.
Café Hawelka, Vienna
Tram Tour of Ringstrasse
We had one more item on our Vienna itinerary, a tram tour of the Ringstrasse. Again we can thank Rick Steves for guiding our way. He is very detailed and even lets us know which side of the street to be on to catch the tram.
We were expecting a quiet tram ride but a group of school children on their way to or home from skating boarded the tram so we had lots of chatter. It was fun to listen in on the kids. Tram 2 for a couple of stops and then Tram 1 for half a dozen or more.
There are lots of new trams in Vienna but both times we ended up on the older and quaint models. The tram tour was worthwhile as it gave us a quick glimpse of several important and historical buildings in Vienna.
Wrapping up a sunny day in Vienna with a tram tour of Ringstrasse
Vienna Wrap Up
We were pretty tired, and cold, and opted to head back to the train station to have time to sort some lunch and snacks for our bus ride to Budapest. The time passed quickly but we had time for a relaxing coffee and warm-up before we collected a salad and mixed fruit for the Flixbus ride to Budapest.
We were by the bus stop 15 minutes early just as the bus arrived and we were off, leaving Vienna 5 minutes ahead of schedule with only 4 passengers. We picked up another twenty or so passengers at a station on the outskirts of the city. Up next, was the Hungarian border.
Getting in the Christmas spirit with the festive window displays in Vienna
Final Thoughts
Ideally, we would have spent more time in Vienna. It would have given us an opportunity to catch a concert, visit more attractions, and perhaps explore the parks or go out for dinner. With that said, we really enjoyed our brief Vienna visit and would love to return.
Vienna waits for you!
Travel Tips
Austria is a member of the EU and the official language is German. The currency is Euro.
We had no trouble finding ATMs or using our credit cards. When using ATMs we always decline the option to secure a rate in Canadian dollars as banks charge a higher rate on the spot.
The water is safe to drink in Vienna.
Metro and tram transportation is straightforward and the easiest way to navigate the downtown core. We bought a day pass.
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Middle East
Canada and USA
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The photos in this article are made using a Fujifilm X-Pro2. Lenses: XF 14mm f/2.8 R - XF 23mm f/1.4 R - XF 35mm f/1.4 R - XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR (links to my camera and lens reviews). Editing was done in Capture One Express. I have made use of Fujifilm film simulations for some of the photos.
