I got my run in, which I’d planned in haste. I’d avoided crossing any big roads, so it worked quite well, but God, no green spaces at all. I’d planned to run through a red-shaded area which I’d thought would be an old town area…it turned out to be the university hospital… which was VAST!
More like a small town than a hospital. Very impressive. I stumbled on a park monument to the 65000 Jews from Vienna killed in WWII.
Breakfast was provided by Backwerk (many places were closed, as it was Sunday) and then we were off to Schonnbrun Palace on tram 60. It is well worth a visit. Astonishing opulence and importance – a building which hosted Mozart’s first performance (aged 6!), Kennedy meeting Krushchev and where Napoleon stayed when he’d taken Vienna (twice). The apfelstrudel bakery show was good fun and the mazes excellent. Lunch was good too – we spent nearly the whole day there.
Dinner at an Asian Fusion place nearby which ticked all the boxes.
The next day, we took a tram into the centre for a bike tour. There were 14 in the group, which was too many. There were lots of red lights, and you could get 8 people through, but not 14, so it was heavy going. Eddy the tour guide (well in his sixties, I’d say) was affable, and spoke like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but his patter was irritating. The basic thesis was “we were great for hundreds of years, now we are less great, but still amazing” He kept banging on about having only 53 homeless in a city of 2 million people – this was manifestly false as I’d personally seen at least 20 on my run, many sleeping in children’s playgrounds, and one was asleep on a bench outside one of the churches he took us to. So then you can’t believe anything he says. Oh, and how many times Vienna had won CNN’s “most liveable city” award. Well, it doesn’t get my vote.
Good things about Vienna:
- Beer, tried quite a few local brands, including a gluten free one, all great
- Coffee – they do do nice coffee
- Water – lots of water fountains, and the water is, definitely, great
- Almadler (including a shandy “Radler” made with Almadler, genius)
- Trams & metro – lots of options, frequent. Reasonably priced (2.40 euro adult, 1.20 for kids)
Bad things
Nit-picky about a LOT of things. Requiring cash in lots of places is utterly ridiculous for “world’s most liveable city”.
Wienmobil app not bad for booking tram tickets…but needs date of birth of app owner and names of travellers. For tram tickets?
Lunch at a nice outdoor place (Treu am platzl) near the bike hire place. We found a park where G had a nasty fall, grazed leg. The International Apotheke (one lady did speak English there, true) sold us some disinfectant and bepanthen cream. (I’d already been to a different pharmacy earlier as G had a single ring of ringworm…the pharmacist had said I’d need to see a doctor. 😟 But same pharmacist had cheerfully handed over a tube of stuff for athlete’s foot (“fußpilz”, or “foot mushroom” 🤣), which is basically the same thing.)
We made it to a coffee and cake place called “Sluka” which restored us physically while we also patched up G’s leg. Back to the hostel for some washing and rest. I had a lovely chat with two young New Zealanders doing an epic trip, I wish them well with their future travels, careers and the Budapest music festival! 😃
Mamy & Papy went to a concert and we had a quick dinner then bed.
Timsformational 