In the morning after breakfast we decide that we would need more than one day for seeing Vienna, so we decide to prolong our stay for one more day. Since we only booked the hotel for one night only, we go to the reception… and they tell us that the cost of the room is twice as much as the price that we got when booking online. The receptionist also assures us that because we booked online we will pay the discounted price that we found at their website (although they do not know about such a discount!) So we decide to go online to search for a cheaper hotel, and… again find the room in our hotel at the same tariff that we paid before. Go back to the reception desk; the receptionists seem shocked yet tell us that surely we can stay at this tariff (although they still do not seem to have any idea where it comes from)…
So that is how we start our Vienna adventure. We take our GPS and go to the centre of the city. Seems to us now that we completely forgot how to find our way without the navigator – since we cannot find the right direction for quite a long time. But then we take out the GPS and with its help get to the very centre of Vienna. What can we say – to our mind, after the amazing picturesque places of the Southern Austria, Vienna is just too urban… Although, of course, to each – their own. We are more of nature freaks than the fans of architecture, but if you prefer to observe amazing buildings you are welcome to the Austrian capital because here you will find plenty…
The first one we see is St. Stephen’s Cathedral – and we even climb to its tower by going 343 stairs up to enjoy the view of Vienna from the top of the Cathedral. The only disadvantage is that there is no open viewing platform and we have to observe the city from the windows.
When we go down, nearby the Cathedral we find the Deutsch Orden Church that is 800 years old.
After dinner we go to visit the Hofburg Palace – the former residence of the Austrian government, and spend some time in a garden surrounding it. In the evening we take a metro to the Prater Park – the most famous entertainment park in Austria. It’s mostly suitable for kids, yet we quite enjoy our being there and even enjoy some of games and attractions it offers. After Prater, we go back to the hotel (the way to which we had to search using our navigator again…)
Next morning we go to Schönbrunn Palace – perhaps, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Austrian capital. The most interesting part of the palace for us is the labyrinth, so we search for it… but it’s a huge disappointment as it seems to be built for kids – its walls only go up to the waist level and we can see it all from the above. Then we just sit and relax next to the famous Schönbrunn fountains. And after than go to see the beautiful Vienna opera palace, the House of Hundertwasser and the Burgtheater. The Bugtheater turns out to be the most impressive place in the whole Vienna for us! Mostly because of the atmosphere that is there in that area. We hear the sounds of opera music and soon discover that there is a huge screen at the square rights in front of the theater. So this creates exactly the impression that Vienna was connected in our minds with.
After the Burgtheater we go to the UNO-city which turns out to be just a complex of four modern rivers on the river bank. At night it is hardly distinct, anyway we are happy that we have seen it. After this we go to the hotel and sleep till the next morning – tomorrow we go to Germany.