Day Trip to Vienna
A cellist walks by the Vienna State Opera
Vienna Waits for You
During and after completing 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 it would have been easy to change them, but we never did.
We decided that to count a country, we would need to leave the airport, at least spend a few hours, and have a meal in that country. That’s it. There is no need to stay overnight.
Our stays varied depending on the destination. Sometimes, we stayed for a month, two months, one week, two days, or a long weekend. It would be fun to know the average stay.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna
Why Vienna?
The above introduction is because we only spent about 8 hours in Vienna. This is arguably not enough time to fully experience everything a city has to offer, and it 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 plan for the remaining six countries, it made sense to detour to Vienna on our way from Bratislava to Budapest, where we had planned to stay for five nights.
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 impractical given the remaining time we had left to wrap up our project.
While Diana was an exchange student in Denmark and we lived there, we visited Austria several times and loved it. We skied in Flachau, Wagrain, Sölden, and St. Anton and had been to Vienna on separate trips.
So here we were, on a train back to Vienna, 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 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 a.m., and we aimed to leave the hostel by 7 a.m. We left at 6:55 a.m. for the short walk to the train station. With no coffee in my system and perhaps not quite awake, I almost got caught between 2 tram cars.
Hundreds of windmills. View from the Bratislava to Vienna Train
We picked up coffee and yogurt 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 a.m. departure.
We settled into 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. Still, we told him we were pleasantly surprised and would love 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 a.m. It is a very modern train station that looks virtually new. The excellent signage made finding our way to the storage lockers easy. 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, which 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 the Rick Steves Audio Europe app. It is very helpful and comes with full audio guides, text, and maps.
The Alban Berg Monument in front of the Vienna State Opera
Café Hawelka
It was a cold morning—-4 degrees but feeling like -1. We ducked into St. Stephen’s Cathedral to look around and warm up. By now, the city was awake and getting rather crowded.
The tour continued to a side street, Dorotheergasse, 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 a rustic but 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 was charming. We found a chocolate store that reminded me of La Glace in Copenhagen.
The tour continued to the palace and its rich history. It finished at another Christmas Market across the street. By now, the markets were open, and the atmosphere was festive. We ordered bratwurst, repeating our pattern from Bratislava, and 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 us. He is very detailed and even tells us 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 boarded the tram on their way to or from skating, so we had lots of chatter. It was fun to listen in on the kids. Take Tram 2 for a couple of stops and then Tram 1 for half a dozen or more.
There are many 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 Vienna's important and historical buildings.
Wrapping up a sunny day in Vienna with a tram tour of Ringstrasse
Vienna Wrap Up
We were pretty tired and cold, so we opted to head back to the train station to have time to sort out 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 passengers at a station on the city's outskirts. 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 allowed us to catch a concert, visit more attractions, explore the parks, or go out for dinner. That said, we really enjoyed our brief visit and would love to return.
Vienna waits for you!
Travel Tips
Austria is a member of the EU. The official language is German, and the currency is the Euro.
We had no trouble finding ATMs or using our credit cards. When using ATMs, we always declined 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 the easiest way to navigate the downtown core. We bought a day pass.
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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.
