Three visit Vienna

Tina Hopkins on 12 August 2018
Vienna is a bit further away than some European cities at just over two hours flying time from London. However, the time (literally) flew by as I chatted with my mum and cousin and we arrived about 13:20 local time. It only took half an hour to get into the city by car and before we knew it we had arrived at our lodging, Hotel am Konzerthaus.

Check-in was very efficient, and we were given a wallet with lots of pamphlets and details of attractions, which I thought was very thoughtful. Breakfast was a little chaotic – possibly because there weren’t enough staff on duty to clear and re-lay tables quickly enough. There was a good selection of both continental and some cooked items. My only criticism was when food ran out it wasn’t replenished quickly enough!

The hotel is very well placed, and it took us just 15 minutes to walk right into the centre of the city. Our first impressions were of a very clean and well laid out city, navigating on foot is easy with a map. It is quite a large city though and I would recommend buying a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket to see the main sights. We had a 48-hour ticket and couldn’t fit in all the routes on offer within that time span.

We visited the Prater which is a permanent funfair in the city – with its’ two enormous big wheels. Typically, it had rides for small children, thrill seekers and people like us who just wanted to give our feet a rest and take a trip on the narrow-gauge railway. Although you can buy a book of tickets for the rides to reduce the cost, all rides were also pay as you go which was very helpful.

We spent a whole day visiting the former summer imperial residence of the Habsburgs - Schönbrunn Palace. Only 41 of its’ 1441 rooms are open to the public and we chose an audio guided tour to find out more about them. The gardens are magnificent and if it hadn’t been such a warm day we would have walked around them more! We took the land train up to see views over the city from the Gloriette – walking up the hill didn’t seem to be such a good idea! On our way around we got to see more of the wonderful gardens which also house a zoo.

The following day we decided to see a bit more of the city and used the hop-on-hop-off bus to visit Grinzing a little further out of the city centre. This is a local wine producing area, still within Vienna city limits, and a very pretty typically Austrian town. Here we found a very pretty Heuriger to sample the local wine and enjoy a delicious lunch in the sunshine. Heurigen are specially licensed east Austrian wine taverns were local wine makers serve their most recent year’s wine for a short time after the growing season. Together with local food and a warm welcome they’re a great way to enjoy a meal.

We’d booked a Strauss and Mozart concert at The Kursalon before our trip. It turned out to be just a five-minute walk from our hotel and very easy to find. The venue wasn’t huge, but it was beautifully decorated; the concert lasted a little under two hours including an intermission. Although not a lover of classical music I thoroughly enjoyed the evening which also included a little opera and some beautiful dancing to accompany the music.

We had just a couple of hours on our last morning before we were collected for our trip home and Mum was keen to find The Musikverein. Every year on New Year’s Day there is a televised classical music concert which my Stepdad never missed. Although we couldn’t go inside, mum was pleased to see the venue from the outside where she has watched so many concerts broadcast from the inside in the comfort of her own living room!