Our first full day began with a walking tour from a very enthusiastic and passionate tour guide. All tour guides in Austria must have training that is comparable to gaining a degree; the course covers history, art, music and geography and they are trained to relay it to a group of diverse people. We therefore knew we would learn a vast amount with whomever we got.
Heldenplatz is a public space in front of Hofburg Palace and is where Adolf Hitler announced the forcible acquisition, referred to as Austrian Anschluss, to Nazi Germany in 1938.
To segue from a horrific memory, Mozart's statue also lies in the history-rich city of Vienna. It suffered bomb damage during the last days of World War II and was relocated to Burggarten park in 1953 which has continued to be its home.
Unfortunately for us, this day was insanely cold, uncomfortbly so. It got to the point where my sister couldn't even move her fingers for at least 10 minutes after stopping for a coffee despite wearing gloves for the entire tour. As a result, we didn't continue with the group and did our own thing after warming up.
We decided to visit the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek before it closed. This opulent library is what I imagine the library in Beauty & the Beast to look like in real life. Breath-taking.
We ended our day trying some Viennese food for dinner. The options are mainly meat based so it was a bit of a struggle for me. Not to fret pesc/veggies out there, there are some options available for us, I opted for the macarooni looking dish known as Käsespätzle.
Delicious but very filling so an evening stroll was needed before we headed back to our Airbnb.
The next day, we had an early start to get ourselves to Bratislava, Slovakia. You can find the blog post here.
Exploring more of the city was on our list of priorities since this was our last full day of our city break in Vienna.
First stop was to the museum quarter.
Kunsthistorisches Mseum Wien greets you into their grand foyer and is home to the Habsburgs' art collection.
After a couple of hours of gandering around this ornate building we headed towards The Hofburg and straight to St. Stephen's cathedral. We decided to get the lift straight to the top to get a 360° view of the city.
A windy day doesn't help with a slight fear of heights but that didn't detract from the view we got. I would highly recommend that you choose to go to the rooftop of the cathedral when visiting. The adrenaline rush stirred up a rumbling in our tummies so we headed straight for a spot of lunch at Veggiezz. It was a vegan place and oh my, it was good.
Tiring our poor feet to their core, we headed for dinner and a good rest before our journey back home.
Our final day arrived sooner than we liked but we weren't leaving this city without fuelling ourselves first. Before we got on the train back to the airport, we stopped off for brunch at Ulrich. Brilliant service and excellent food. Ginger shots and coffee were inevitably on the cards. Sustenance first, kids!
Our final day arrived sooner than we liked but we weren't leaving this city without fuelling ourselves first. Before we got on the train back to the airport, we stopped off for brunch at Ulrich. Brilliant service and excellent food. Ginger shots and coffee were inevitably on the cards. Sustenance first, kids!
