Storyline: 2024 Fall trip to Europe
For this trip Vienna was our hub. We’d touch it a few times as we changed countries and moved from one city to another.
- We flew from Toronto to Vienna and took a bus to Bratislava
- From Bratislava we took the Twin City catamaran along the Danube back to Vienna. We stayed there for 4 nights before flying to Sofia.
- Back to Vienna from Sofia Vienna for one night before we took Vienna to Budapest train.
- From Budapest we took a train to Vienna Central Station and the same day took the overnight train to Amsterdam.
So, for sure we now have a lot of knowledge of the Vienna Central Station (Wien Hauptbahnhof (Hbf)) and its surroundings. But we also managed to do enough walking through and around the city central and some not so central parts to form an opinion of It.
Overall, Vienna left us with mixed feelings. With all its music and art history we expected a warmer and more romantic atmosphere. However, it was Teutonically cold and incoherent. We’ve walked up and down the hills in Lisbon, we’ve walked through London, Glasgow and Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and more. We’ve walked through many other cities around the world and during this trip. So, I’d say, I have a point of reference.
The first time we just touched down in Vienna but didn’t go beyond the airport. We took a very convenient Flixbus from Vienna Airport to Bratislava. About 40 min drive from one capital city to another!
On our way back to Vienna we took a fast catamaran on the Danube. Very pleasant ride. It dropped us in the city centre, on the canal, just 5 min walk to our accommodation for 4 nights. When we got off the boat, we texted our host and started walking.
Our accommodation was on the second (European) floor and I wasn’t sure how we’d get to it. We rented it through Airbnb and it said “Host greets you.” Often this is the case, but in general we’d had to make it to the apartment before we would see a host. Not in this case, and it was understandable since there was a key for the building gate. (Often, as in Budapest this time, we’d buzz in.) As we walked towards the building, checking the street number, we saw a man walking out of a building. I knew it was our building and our host. Wow! Talk about punctuality.
The hosts had good recommendations for eating out. Not that we could try them all, but we did like the Saturday market nearby and a restaurant in the market, where we had lunch. Harry told us that on Sunday all the stores, cafés and most of the restaurants are closed. So, we were prepared for it.
Loved the apartment and its location. Spacious one bedroom, living room and kitchen. And as I was used to in Europe, every room had a door. It was well situated for people like us who love to walk everywhere.
One other thing I found so very close to the home of my youth was their electric heaters. I’ve been trying to describe them, but now I could show it to Alex. It is a heater full of bricks that accumulates electrically-generated heat during the night and a fan blows across the warm bricks to heat the apartment during the day. This was because our electricity then, even some 45+ years ago, was cheaper during the night.
We arrived on Thursday, Sept. 5, and for dinner walked to one of the places our hosts had recommended on the bank of the Danube Canal. I’d taken some of the food and beer left from Bratislava with us. So, it was just for drinks and meze. Not cheap. For a beer, a glass of wine, a small salad and a small bowl of French fries we paid about CAD 46. The waiter though, was very engaging. He has been in Canada. Alex and he had a nice chat. Hard to imagine that just a week later this and many other places on the waterfront would be flooded.
Next day we walked through the centre all the way to the Hbf and found our nearby hotel for when we would be back from Sofia. I asked if they could store our luggage, since we didn’t think we’d need it all for the 4 days in Sofia. Not a problem, they said. In the end we decided to take it all with us. We didn’t have that much to begin with, but Austrian Air had limits of 8kg per carry-on and ours were around 10kg. No one made a fuss or measured them anyway. We walked back through the gardens past Schloss Belvedere, and had some interesting experiences. We’d have them through our entire short stay. The somewhat interesting experiences, that is.
There were a few memorials in the gardens near the central station showing that this was the first South Railway Station (1873/74 – 1955). The artistically most sophisticated station at the time. There was a lot of history on display in this park.
We walked by the Russian Church and embassy. It was the only embassy we saw that was guarded by solders. Of course, the guys were more interested in their mobile phones than looking around and being alert. We walked through the diplomatic area. The UK and China shared a building facade. I think the yards at the back were separated though. From what we saw the Russian embassy was by far the biggest building. Nearby was the Monument in honor of the soldiers of the Soviet Army.
We walked by a big monument with fountains, commemorating the Soviet soldiers killed during the offensive. Built in 1945. It was near the Belvedere-Schlossgarten, 18th century gardens we had passed through earlier.
We were out of season for the concert venues which were quite costly anyway. Still, we found some pockets of fun. We managed to walk by many major attractions: St. Charles’s Church, Vienna State Opera,
St. Stephen’s Cathedral and more. On Sunday, our last day before flying to Sofia, due to time constrains, we had a choice to either visit Sigmund Freud Museum or Hundertwasser House.
I chose the later and did not regret. Verry interesting, I’d say Gaudian-inspired architecture. Had a nice time in a café in front of it.
Then we spent some time in the Prater gardens where many locals go on Sundays. It was like the entire city was in the park. They had an amusement park at one end and lots of forest, restaurants and cafés around the main road. We sat in one for late lunch or early dinner there. The restaurants in the park only accepted cash, but there were ATMs near every restaurant.
Talking about experiences and mixed feelings here are a few notes I jotted then:
One thing that got me immediately was how dirty and stained the sidewalks were. I thought it was just our area, but then we noticed the same everywhere, even in the historic centre. There were dogs’ pee stains every half a meter or so. I thought it was because of lack of trees. Looking around though there were plenty of them with some green around. Not enough??? Can’t tell but haven’t run into such thing anywhere else.
And for those of you that take public transport to just check a few places off your list, you wouldn’t notice it anyway. One has to walk through a city to get the feeling of it.
The dirt, cigarette butts, the stained streets and sidewalks, and more, reminded me our walk from Bucharest north station for about 2 hours through the city to our accommodation. It then was 44C. It is around 34C here. Its twin city Bratislava may be small, but it was also very clean with quiet restaurants by the river or small side streets.
In Vienna, where we were, the main traffic arteries here are at both sides of the canal (river is further north), so unless one pays a premium to sit in a pub down by the canal it is better to find something else.
Restaurants and cafés were a mixed bag too. We were often surprised by various behaviours. Was it because we were tourists or are they the same towards the locals? We didn’t have time to observe.
We know, for example, that in Europe servers are paid a living wage and tips are often just rounded to the nearest Euro or so. Yet at many places here tips were requested. The most up-front (for a lack of another word) was Café Tirolerhof. We ordered a drink each, coffee for me and tea for Alex, and shared a cake. A total of ~ €12. Service was mediocre yet at the end the guy asked for 10 % tip before we even were ready to pay. Alex tossed him a coin of €2 and we moved on.
However, we had lunch at a Ukrainian restaurant (photo below courtesy Google) earlier the same day and people were very friendly. Didn’t have problem with free tap water or anything like that. As we sat, they brought as a glass each.
Recommended some typical Ukrainian food. We tried 3 dishes, a glass of wine for me and a beer for Alex. Alex had a great chat with the owner. He had been to Canada and he had a friend out west who was financially very successful after emigrating to Canada. No tip required or requested.
Before running into the Ukrainian restaurant, we had sat at a pizza place. The lady refused to give us tap water, so we moved on. Not because of the water, but because of the attitude. We had great lunch at a restaurant at the Saturday market. Place was very busy, but serving was fast, food was good and at the end I gave them cash, exact as the bill to the penny. And they did not expect more.
At Prater Park we sat at the Cafe Restaurant Meierei. Nice sunny day. Enjoyed the setting and the food. We asked for tap water and they brought us two glasses of water. What surprised us at the end was that checking the bill they charged us 1.90€ for each glass of tap water! Had they told us we’d use our bottle, which was full of water.
On the other hand, despite all of the above, Vienna is rated as one of the most livable cities in the world. About 1/3 of the population lives in public housing. The public transport is good, although we didn’t need to try it. Stores and more are closed on Sundays and during the weekday supermarkets still close at 7:30pm. So, I guess from the locals’ perspective, life is good. Who cares about dog pee on the streets.
Our hosts told us that there was a bus to the airport departing from Schwedenplatz, across the canal. So walking along the canal we decided to locate it. We walked probably ten times up and down passing many bus and tram stops, yet never saw an indication for an airport bus. Although I saw one speeding down the road. But where did it start from?
It was a pure chance that I noticed a bus on a perpendicular street that said – Airport. If the bus wasn’t there, while walking, and I didn’t see people loading their suitcases in the luggage compartment we would not have found it.
The next day though, it was pouring rain. We didn’t want to be soaking wet during the flight. In the end we Ubered it.
Our third time in Vienna was the one night in a hotel near the Central Station during the storm. Although I had planned to explore more of Vienna, the weather conditions were not in favour. We had taken one of the last trains from the airport to the station before the rest were cancelled, and we bought sandwiches at the station to take to the hotel, walked the 200m in the rain, checked in and then had plenty of drinks from the bar together with our sandwiches.
Next morning we battled the winds and departed for Budapest. Again, one of the last running trains.
Our last time was only a few hours at Hbf. Train from Budapest to Vienna (last stop, although it is a train to Munich in normal times. How lucky we were!) A few hours later we were on the night train to Amsterdam.
There are many places we would love to revisit. But despite the short time and many more attractions to be seen, I am not sure Vienna will be high on my revisit list.
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