Oh. Vienna

[Nuncio]

I will be visiting Vienna with my two (grown-up) children in a couple of weeks time. It will be a 2 night/3 day visit and the current plans include

- Prater and (3rd Man) Ferris Wheel
- St Stephen's Cathedral
- Belvedere Palace
- Possible StaatsOper tour
- Eat a schnitzel somewhere
- Have a Kaffee und Kuchen (sachertorte?) somewhere
- Kunsthistorisches Museum

What else should be on the list, or replace a list item given the limited time? We will be staying by the Graben. I wouldn't mind a sewer tour but the other members of the party each have a veto and won't be shy about using it. That might also limit our music options. The Hofburg Palace looks too big to do it justice in the limited time we have.

[Jurek]

If you use the Metro system don't, for one moment, think that you can hold the doors open like you can on The London Underground.
You can't.
They'll have your arm off.
DAMHIKT.
Oh and, it means nothing to me.

[L CC]

* following with interest, am planning a similar trip in November with my mum & my daughters *

[Cudzoziemiec]

Possibly the Freud and/or Jung museums, if that appeals. The trams are good.

[Rod Marton]

Go to a Heuriger.

[Bluebottle]

Walk in the cold air?

[bhoot]

Visited many years back, but seem to remember we liked the Hundertwasser Haus, also there is a tram route around the inner ring road which is good for a general view of many notable buildings I think.

We are also considering Vienna for a visit and will be consulting the man at seat 61 as we would like to try out one or more of the new sleeper trains to get there.

Also not sure whether it's something you are interested in at all or whether there are any recommended tours or walking routes, but Vienna is considered to be an exemplar of city social housing I think.

[MikeFromLFE]

We went to Vienna last year as part of our Austro-Hungarian adventure.
We were travelling by train and went to Vienna from Lake Balaton, and used the night train back to Amsterdam.

Vienna is a very walkable city and it has excellent, easy to use, public transport.

The palaces are huge, as are their grounds - you really need to devote an entire day to any one of them - we didn't and it was a mistake.
Agreed on the tram route around the Ring - it's easy to do, and there are a number of online suggestions for making it slightly more interesting.
We were going to visit the Freud museum, but after talking to a couple of people who'd been, decided to give it a miss (too dry without enough interpretation).
Unlike other similar offerings, we found the Vienna Card to be good value.

We found the night train exhausting - despite having a double, en-suite compartment. I didn't have a relaxing journey, finding the berth uncomfortable and the movement distracting. If I were to do it again, I'd programme in a day afterwards to recover (ie for *me* it doesn't save a hotel night) - and I love trains & train travel.

[Mr Larrington]

Eat CAEK?

[spesh]

Eat CAEK?

Mmmmmm.... sachertorte... <drools>

[Wowbagger]

Does any of you play the piano? If so, visit the Bösendorfer show room. It's in the same building as the Goldensaal/Musikverein. Ask to play an Imperial grand. It has 97 keys (the standard number is 88). Tremendous experience.

Of course, there are lots of concerts. They seem to concentrate very much on Mozart, which is interesting given that Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert all lived and worked there. And the Strauss mob, rather later.

[felstedrider]

Reading with interest.

We have gig tickets on a Wednesday night so will do another week of trains.  J wants to get the sleeper but Seat 61 recommends getting a day train from Zurich for the views.  It worked for the trip to Como in October.

[jsabine]

Go to the opera/ballet? I remember tickets being pretty reasonable, and certainly we ended up in a shared box without me grumbling about price.

(That said, the production of La Fille mal Gardée we saw suggests that you spend years at ballet school, you join the corps de ballet, and you end up wearing a chicken suit.)

[perpetual dan]

I went with my teenager a couple of years ago, and we enjoyed it.
Memorable things we saw were: the Belvedere, Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, a music museum (connected to the opera maybe), Karlskirche for a look round and a performance of the four seasons, Freud’s house, Prater, food, and a good walk around.

[perpetual dan]

We took the night train, and that was fine for us, with a cabin to ourselves, apart from the emergency stop in the morning. But I don’t find getting to and staying asleep hard.

[T42]

Local greeting is Grüß Gott, but Great Scott works too.

When I was there I found the wine rather shit, but that might have been because a tech in our crew insisted on going to some trendy night-life area and everything there was a bit shit.

By all means have a chunk of Sachertorte, it helps the thin coffee go down.

Look out for the lobby with 900 windows.

[ian]

I once fell asleep in the taxi to the airport (stupid one-day trip, 5 am-ish flight from Heathrow), a journey which seemed to cost about 10 times what the earlier trip had and during which the taxi driver completely lost his previous ability to speak perfect English. Anyway, they never found the body, so all good.


Very odd day that one, had a meeting with some doctors at the hospital, who'd forgotten the meeting, but managed to squeeze us in while they had their morning coffee and cake and didn't offer us anything.


I've had better trips to Vienna since then.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Isn't there a famous ferris wheel?   

Harry Lime: You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Don't be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays.”

[Jurek]

There is.
The gondolas are like wooden sheds.

[phantasmagoriana]

Isn't there a famous ferris wheel?   

Yes, but that's already on Nuncio's list.

[phantasmagoriana]

Last time I went there (admittedly quite a few years ago), I hired a bike and went off cycling in the woods.

I also ate lots of cake.

[Nuncio]

I did look up what was on at the StaatsOper. First night was a ballet, second was a Puccini opera I'd not heard of, neither of which appealed. I think we'll have to play it by ear (which sounds like we'll be taking part in open mike Strauss event), but  Music will play second fiddle to art.

Does any of you play the piano

2 out of 3 but not to any great standard. I wouldn't have the brass neck to ask to play and then go up and bash out chopsticks (not a euphemism), though I could honour Mozart with a one-handed Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (also not a euphemism).

Unlike other similar offerings, we found the Vienna Card to be good value.

It looks like it gives 'free' entry to at least 3 of the the things we're planning to do. And to the hop-on-hop-off bus, though the inner ring tram sounds more gemütlich.

[rogerzilla]

Kaisergruft and Schönbrunn Palace.

FFS don't pronounce Prater "pray-ter" as we heard an American tourist say it.

[FifeingEejit]

You will likely find musicians from the various ensembles handing out leaflets during the day, around the presidential palace and dom.

OF course the main event is Caek.

[Mr Larrington]

The Spanische Hofreitschule, if anyone is keen on the gee-gees and they’re not elsewhere for the summer which, to the immense disappointment of Mrs Larrington (decd.), they were in 1969.