Thanks all for the suggestions. Here's what we did between checking in at 2pm on Wednesday, and getting the U-bahn to start the journey home yesterday at 12:30pm
To the Cathedral. We paid to go up the North Tower. Decent views, not busy. Inside, there's a Dom Shop at the corner of the nave. Don't waste any time looking for a Dick shop in the opposite corner. Oh, and the Cathedral was as breathtaking and magnificent as any other medieval cathedral.
Walk up to the Ringstrasse to catch a No 1 tram to take us three-quarters round the ringstrasse - contrary to expectations there wasn't a route right round it, unless we missed it. Nevertheless it helped us take our bearings and see the Rathaus, the parliament bulding, the Hoffburg Palace, the Burgtheater and the StaatsOper.
Then, after a brief walk back through the InnereStadt and an outdoor würstchen meal, time for a U-bahn trip to the Prater and a turn on the Riesenrad. I can recommend doing that at night. I can also recommend doing it on Valentine's day. A gay couple had hired a gondola for a romantic meal for 2 - white tablecloth strewn with rose petals, candles. All very lovely and romantic, but at the top and bottom of the cycle the plebs in the neighbouring gondolas get to see in, point, laugh and take a photograph. Then a walk round the generally quiet Prater amusement arcade. Quite an odd atmosphere. Most of the rides were open but there weren't people around to use them. To my children's disappointment I observed that they'd missed a trick by not calling one of the rides a Vienna Waltzer.
Next day. Out to the Upper Belvedere for a palace/gallery combo. Two birds with one stone and taking about 3 hours. All good stuff. A mixture of periods, but a concentration of Klimts. We had tried to get tickets the for a StaatsOper tour but they were all booked up. So instead, and relutantly eschewing the Kunsthistorischemuseum because of a lack of time and surfeit of art ,we took a tram back to the InnereStadt and a quick bish-bash-bosh of Freud house andmuseum/combined ticket for Esperanto Museum and Globe Museum within the National Library/Kapuzinergruft (Hapsburg crypt as recommended by RZ) /Museum of Illusions (to match the one I'd ben to in Athens last July), and a return to the hotel to recharge metaphorical batteries for an hour before for a stroll around the Graben/DomPlatz,
a Schnitzel meal, and another stroll before bed. The Freud house and consulting rooms was very well done, I thought. The Esperanto and Globe museums not so good. Only go the the globe museum if you really, really, really like globes and even then, be prepared to be disappointed. I couldn't work out if the crypt was calming or disturbing. Weird to think of the combined power of those c.160 Hapsburgs reduced to bone and ash within their sarcophogi, some of which were plain, others garishly decorated. And the only info with each was name, date and place of birth and date and place death.
Yesterday morning it was a case of chilling out with a walk along the strangely deserted Donauinsel and a return to the centre for melange coffee at the delightful Cafe Hawelka.
We had plenty of coffee over the 2 days but the only torte we had was as a dessert to the scnhitzel - it didn't really fit in with our other eating - and no Central Cafe, Sacher Hotel, Schönbrunn Palace, Opera, Hofburg Palace, dancing horses, singing boys, live music, sewer trip. There's a cinema near the opera that has been showing The Third Man three times a week for years. That would have been good, but none of the nights coincided with when we were there, and even if they had I doubt the children would have been happy to ditch other activities in its favour. Still I'm pleased we managed to fit it what we did.
The hotel was good - the Boutique Hotel Nossek . More Pension than hotel. Mozart apperently lived in the same building at one time. My impression of what we saw if the centre of the city was of a prim and proper, clean, polite, well-heeled, slightly kitschy place. Very walkable, with loads of fascinating buildings within a stones throw of each other. And a good transport system for those attractions outside the ring. Being February it was generally quiet, with no crowding at the attractions we visited. And we were lucky with the weather.
