Gemeindebezirk Mariahilf

We were all awake before 6 and slowly came up with our plan for today - See the city using city cycle bikes. This should not be hard, the website is great shows you the stations, how many bikes are available etc. We wander to a cycle station where there are 20 bikes available. One credit card must be registered per bike, €1 for registration , first hour free. My 2 credit cards are declined, a quick phone call to Comm Bank finds I don’t follow instructions very well, I had entered the wrong pin. In the mean time Suzie registered her 2nd card for me.

Jump on the bikes heading for the ring road to travel around the city. The ring road represents the walls of the old city. The architecture is amazing, low rise, statues, marble wash. We pass the opera house, the winter palace and finally find our way to the WU. The WU is the university, architecture is very new, glass everywhere, lots of colour, yellows, blues, brown etc.

The bikes are dropped off within the hour. At each spot, we walk to the next station picking up the bikes for another free hour.

After a couple of false starts we find ourselves on the banks of the Danube, overlooking Vienna central business district

At the WU we pick up our next bike, Suzie card is now declined. Both my cards are declined, Ben and Suzie have their bikes, I’m sadly without. A phone call to city cycle finally sorts it out, I didn’t put my address in correctly. I have a Bike yeah we can continue. So much easier in a city where most people speak English as there second language.

A stop for lunch, we pick up a bike at the next station and head for home. On the way home we pass statues of Groethe and Mozart, I certainly know I’m in the city of great culture.

We have been on the bikes for approx 7 hours, certainly seen lots of the old town of Vienna.Read more