Vienna, Austria – 28 June – 2 July

After bidding farewell to Sabine and Terry, we boarded Air Berlin for the 90 minute flight to atmospheric Vienna, the city where you feel and taste the culture.  Maybe Graham Greene’s “Third Man” is sitting in a café.  Haydn, Schubert, Strauss and Beethoven continue to be great favourites together with jazz, modern rock and art festivals, all make this city arguably the cultural centre of the world.

Shopping mall Vienna

We were met at the airport by our very good friend, Josef who we first met in 2002.  At that time Josef was serving in the Czech Army.  He now works for the Czech Defence Ministry and has been posted to Brussels.

Josef had driven two hours from Brno, in the Czech Republic, to meet and have dinner with us for our first night in Vienna.  We appreciated this very much.  After booking into the Mecure Secession Wien; a perfect location,  we had hearty traditional Austrian meals of pork, wild boar, German sausage and sauerkraut, all washed down with local dark beer to help us on our way.  After a very pleasant evening catching up with all the news, we walked back to our hotel and bid farewell to Josef, who had a long drive back to Brno.

View from our hotel room

For our first day in Vienna, Regina and her Mother, known as the Great Lady, met us at the hotel to show us around this beautiful city.  We first met Regina on a flight from Paris to Vienna in 2002 and have kept in contact ever since.  We went to the top of the Bahnorama tower (www.hauptbahnhof-wien.at/de/bahnorama  ), which overlooks one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe, the rebuilding and relocation of the Vienna central station, which will be an international traffic hub and controlling centre for Austria’s rail network and is due for completion in 2014.  It will also include green space, apartments, offices and a state-of –the art education campus.  Reaching the top of the tower was picnic time and Regina and the Great Lady had prepared some typical Viennese delicacies for us together with a bottle of cold bubbly; a great welcome to Vienna.  The weather was perfect and with breathtaking views of the city and this huge construction site. 

 The Great Lady, Phil, Regina, Marilyn - top of the Bahnorama

Picnic time

The construction site

After the tower, we travelled the clean and efficient underground rail system and took our time wandering this beautiful and relaxed city.  It was terrific having Regina and the Great Lady show us around the lesser known parts of Vienna.  This city is impressive, with its fantastic shops, food, cultural activities historic buildings and friendly locals.  We visited city supermarkets, which stocked an unbelievable array of produce from around the world, including Vegemite.  It is also a chocoholics and coffeeholics heaven and we were treated to both.  For chocolate lovers, try the Wiener Schokoladekonig located on Freisingergasse. 

Vienna deli

Spot the Vegemite

Vienna deli - Juilus Meini

Lunch in Henry's Deli

Chocolate Shop

A calorie-boosting Vienna Coffee

 

Another great spot was the Naschtmarkt.  This kilometre long market with over 120 stalls was about a five minute walk from our hotel and sold a huge array of produce interspersed with bars and cafes.  This was another favourite spot for us.

 

Naschmakt

Naschmarkt

A guided tour of the famous Vienna Opera House was a must;  one of the many highlights of our visit.  This magnificent building holds over 2,000 people and is full house every night.  For us poorer folk who cannot afford a ticket to the opera, a huge screen shows the full performance outside the Opera House. We were very fortunate to go backstage and view preparations for the final night performance before the summer recess. 

Inside the Opera House

Backstage reshearsal

We also visited the magnificent St Stephens Cathedral and the St Charles Church near our hotel.

St Charles

On our final day in Vienna we travelled by tram to meet our hosts and then a bus trip to the Vienna Woods, on the outskirts of the city.  This area is also famous for its vineyards on the doorstep of a major city and still produces magnificent wines. 

The Danube

Vineyards

We walked to the highest point overlooking the city and the Danube and another delightful picnic at Leopoldsberg and then to Kahlenberg for a short rest before heading down to Grinzing and the famous cosy wine bars to sample the local produce, which of course we did.

Regina and Marilyn at Kahlemberg

Wine Bar

Outside the wine bar

A street in Grinzing

At the end of the day we sadly bid farewell to Regina and the Great Lady.  Again, the time flew, it was not long enough to do justice to this beautiful city.  To our Viennese friends Ist goot ja.

It was an early departure from our hotel to catch the U bahn and our train from Wien Meidling to Ljubjlana, Slovenia.