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Sunday 19 July
Departure from Budapest Keleti at 11:10 to Vienna. 1. Class train is a
hit. You don’t have rush. There is always plenty of room. Then train
journey becomes a pleasure instead of a stress factor.
The trip to Vienna is 3 hours. From Wien Westbahnhof there’s a short
walk to the Pension Kaffeemühle. I get an excellent room, although it
can not meet conditions in Budapest. |
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First walk in Vienna is along the Internal Ringroad where a wide range
of Vienna's attractions are located. First, MQ - Museums Quarter - which
is a cozy area with museums, cafes, sunbeds of yellow concrete where the
locals rests and a really cool toy-racetrack for the children and me. I
continue past the ompressing Natural History Museum and Art History
Museums and via the Austrian Parliament to Vienna City Hall where Town
Hall garten is transformed into a large beer-Garten with at big screen
showing opera every evening. On the opposite side is the beautiful Burg
Theater.
In the evening there is dinner at a local pub before relaxing at
Kaffeemühle. |
Monday 20 July
From City Park to Karlsplatz says the walk in Lonely Planet. And
although there are only a few hundred meters between the start and end -
the walk is 6 km.
It starts in City Park, one of many parks in Vienna. There is a lot of
statues with various classical composers. And the small River Wien also
run through the park. Then it continues past some beautiful public
buildings - the ministries and the main post office - before going into
the Hundertwasser area. First, it’s Kunsthaus Wien and then it’s
Hundertwasser Haus. Both were built by the architect that quite
obviously does not like the straight lines. |
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Then it continues through residential areas and busy shopping streets to
the palace Belvedere. Or rather - the palace’s - there is both an upper
and a lower Belvedere. Between them there is a large park. There are
museums inside both palaces. The trip ends at a second park at
Karlsplatz. From there I go home to rest at the hotel.
Tour 2 is shorter. I take a tram to the center. Here I check out a
couple of must-see sights - Heldenplatz, Hofburg and Stephansdom. There
are lots of tourists and carriages. Then I head for Schwedenplatz and
take the U-bahn back. Vienna has a well-developed public transport,
which means there are hardly no air pollution. |
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Tuesday 21 July
A planned daytrip to Bratislave has been cancelled. There is still much
more to see in Vienna.
Daytrip 1 goes to the countryside north of Vienna. I take 2 different U-Bahns
to reach Heiligenstadt and then a bus 39 to a hill / mountain called
Kahlenberg.
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There are good views acress the city of Vienna and the Danube, but here
in the morning it is disturbed by the back light. However, it is not
this part of the trip that is most interesting. It is the trip down. It
takes place on foot through the beautiful forest and through lots of
vineyards. Austria produces some white wine and down Kahlenberg, there
are plenty of vineyards. It is nice with the views of Vienna and the
Danube in the background. After an hour going down hill I am in
Kahlenbergdorf where I jump on a bus that brings me back to
Heiligenstadt and further connections to the U-bahn.
Tour 2 later in the day goes by tram to the center. And while public
transport is fine - but the information lag - or my understanding does.
2 times I get on a tram that runs in completely wrong direction. Else I
just walk around the Innere Stadt through small streets, hoping to avoid
the tourist hords that walks up and down the pedestrian street between
the major sights - The Tourist Triangle – they call the route. |
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Wednesday 22 July
This day starts with a tramride to the Prater. Prater is a large park
and a colorfull theme park. The park includes the famous Ferris wheel -
Risenrad - which was built in 1897. I take a tour in that. The tour
takes 10 minutes. Otherwise, there is much more you can do in such a
park - for example gamblinghalls. |
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From Prater I walk to another park called Augarten. It is very hot today
- so hot that there are nearly noone in the park - and those that are,
they stay in the shade. The park is also home to the world's oldest
boyband - Wienersängerknaben - and includes 2 ugly flaktürme. These are
concrete monsters from World War II, built in a quality, so it’s
impossible to tear them down again. In the park, I find a good lunch
place - 2 sausages and a Radler. A Radler is a refreshing local drink
which consists of half beer and half lemon water.
Fianally I walk throug the neighborhood Leopoldstadt before I take a
tram back to the hotel.
The evening is a quiet and hot trip around the area where I line and
dinner in a local snitzelhaus – the snitzlens response to McD. |
Thursday 23 July
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It is time to head back home. The trip back is cut into 2. Today, I
leave Westbahnhof kl. 10:40 to Nuremberg. Here I arrive 15.30 - just as
a massive rainstorm hits the city.
I have not booked a hotel, but soon find the nice Lorenz Hotel in mid-center.
The only strange thing is that you must go through a shoeshop to get to
the reception.
Rain has been replaced by rain, so I take a quick photo tour of the
city. There are some old houses, a river, 3 churches, 2 squares and a
castle – that’s it.
Dinner is at the big beerstube Barfüsser. Excellent beer and plenty of
food. |
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Friday 24 July.
Then it’s the final stretch back home. 11.30 from Nürnberg arrives in
Hamburg at 16.00 - and 17.30 from Hamburg is in Aarhus at 22.20. It is a
nice trip on 1 class, though the bistro car in the Aarhus train had
forgotten water for coffee.
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