We stumbled off the coach, into drizzle and the coldest temperature we had experienced in months at the brand new Central Station with no clue in which direction to head in. Unfortunately the "central" station isn't particularly central to all the sights of Vienna. We started in a random direction, using Charlotte's very vague knowledge of Vienna, as she had been there before on a school trip. Halfway down a long straight road we heard a "clop, clop, clop" of horse hoofs and were then overtaken by two pony and traps, we were definitely heading in the right direction. After a couple of turns we had made it, and stumbled across Vienna opera house which seemed to be the centre of everything. To make the most of the short time we had in the city, we thought we'd sell out and buy some tickets for the sightseeing bus, which follows a set route and visits most of the sights. After shelling out our €50 we headed for the pick up point of just outside the Opera House. Bearing in mind the miserable weather it was probably a smart decision to take the bus and not walk everything, save freezing and getting soaked. We got on the main circular route and did one complete loop, in order to get our bearings. We toyed with the idea of changing routes and hopping on the one that went out of town and through the countryside but seeing as this took 2 hours to go full circle and if we got off we faced a long wait, we decided against it and stuck with the city centre. After completing our loop we got off at stop number 3, which is the huge Hofburg Palace, located in the centre of Vienna, not far from the opera house. We walked into the grounds, thankful that the rain had now abated. We strolled through the grounds and bumped into what seemed like a food festival out the back, but not fancying German sausage we carried on through and out the rear entrance. Something that caught our eye on the way round was a large building with columns and statues outside that looked decidedly Greek. We made the short walk along the Ringstraße, which is a ring road around the centre of Vienna, and found the building in question. Rather surprisingly it turned out to be the Parliament Building and was completely different from all the other buildings around it. After a couple of snaps we headed to the local Spar to pick up some food for lunch and sat on a bench to eat it.
With full bellies we decided to walk down what was called "shopping street" on our "hop on, hop off" bus map with the hope we'd find a pin badge but there was a serious lack of souvenir shops so we were left disappointed. We were almost at a point where we were struggling for things to do but after a quick trip to a toilet at Hofburg Palace we found a new area to explore. Firstly there was a small square outside the palace which Charlotte recognised from her previous visit. It had some open excavations of Roman buildings right in the centre and a huge gate that led through to the palace gardens. After following a road down we hit what seemed like the real shopping area, wide pedestrianised boulevards flanked by designer shops, coffee houses and souvenir stalls. This seemed to be where everybody was, horde of people doing their Tuesday shopping. We managed to pick up a badge here, albeit the most expensive one we'd got so far and also went into a chocolate shop and treated ourselves to a bar of chocolate each. One with cocoa beans from Madagascar and one from Venezuela. After walking up and down the streets and taking some snaps of the buildings and churches around it was time to start heading back towards the station.
We just had enough time to head to get to Stadtpark, which is the city park of Vienna. In it are numerous monuments to different people. Most notably, a gilded bronze statue of composer Johann Strauss II and a statue of another composer, Franz Schubert.
Fortunately, our bus pass included a route that went via the central station. So we picked that line up at the opera house and followed it round. We had planned to get off at Schönbrunn Palace for half an hour but due to the rush hour traffic it took us a lot longer to get there than we thought. With our coach departing soon, we didn't fancy risking getting stuck in Vienna, so we just had a quick peek as we passed it on the bus. We got to the central station with just enough time to pick up some food for the journey and some Austrian beer to go with dinner before we headed back to Bratislava.
We really enjoyed our short time in Vienna and both agreed we could have done with a good few days there in order to see all of the city and not feel rushed. It was still a nice excursion from Bratislava, with the 2 cities being so close it didn't make for a really long day like our trip to Luxembourg was.
James and Charlotte
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