Austria
Vindobona

Discover travel destinations of travelers writing a travel journal on FindPenguins.
Travelers at this place
    • Day 3

      2. Wien

      August 2, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      Von wegen es fährt nur ab und an ein Zug. Übernachtet haben wir außerhalb von Wien in Mödling. Pizza, Inder und Schattenparkplatz sowie Hofer/ALDI und Bahnhof direkt vor Ort. Leider auch die Haupverkehrsstrecke der Züge.
      Aber, eine Nacht geht 😀 🚆

      In Wien Hop On Bus genutzt für den einen Tag und von der Oper bis zum Schloss Schönbrunn alles angeschaut. Für uns ein Wiener Schnitzel und fürs Kind eine Wiener Würstel 😀 Zum Glück hatte es kurz vorher geregnet, so dass es nicht so heiss war. Aber morgen dann 🔥
      Read more

    • Day 3

      Quer durch Wien

      August 4, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      Heute erkunden wir die Stadt mit der U- und Strassenbahn. Nach einem kleinen Frühstück machen wir uns auf zum Stephansdom, eines der berühmtesten Wahrzeichen von Wien. Die Fussgängerzone ist schon am Morgen ziemlich voll! Der Tourismus scheint in vollem Gange zu sein und alle möglichen Sprachen sind in den Läden und Cafés zu hören.

      Weiter geht's dann zum Augarten. Was als Jagdschloss begann, wurde über Jahrhunderte erweitert und verschönert, bis die Anlage dann später der Öffentlichkeit übergeben wurde. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg kamen die markanten Flaktürme hinzu, die aufgrund der strategisch guten Lage mitten im Park landeten. Ende der 1960er Jahre wurde versucht, einen der beiden Gefechtstürme zu sprengen, aber erfolglos. So sind sie jetzt Teil des Parks geworden, in dem schon Grössen wie Mozart und Beethoven Konzerte gaben.

      Nach der obligatorischen Siesta stärken wir uns mit Kaiserschmarrn und Eismarillenknödel, bevor wir den letzten Teil der grossen Fussgängerzone erkunden. Mit dem Tram umrunden wir das Stadtzentrum und lassen den Tag in einem der vielen Parks ausklingen.
      Read more

    • Day 215

      Vienna

      January 20, 2020 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

      A wonderful stay with Verena and Albert in Vienna.
      We met this lovely couple in Italy many months ago when we started chatting in a restaurant. With great generosity and heart they gave us their details and invited us to stay in their apartment in Vienna, at any time. We were delighted to take up this kind offer and we were treated to an amazing home cooked feast. In fact we sat down at this table at 11 am and spent the next 13 hours talking, drinking and eating - such a memorable afternoon and evening with wonderful company.Read more

    • Day 5

      Vienna

      August 13, 2023 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

      Fantastic city. So pretty 😍 loved the architecture and food. Found a fantastic park yesterday that the children ran around until it was dark. The Palace and Cathedral were really something. Goodbye Vienna onto Bratislava now by boat 🚢 hope the children don't get sea sick 🤢😁Read more

    • Day 25

      Augarten Flugabwehrkanonen

      January 6, 2020 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 3 °C

      To spare the over-processing waste, here's some information previously prepared on these ominous towers in Augarten park, eerily surrounded by playgrounds.

      "Flak" is short for "Flugabwehrkanonen" in German – i.e. 'anti-aircraft guns'. They are gigantic bunkers, between 7 and 13 stories high, built towards the end of WWII as bases for heavy anti-aircraft gun batteries on the roof. The lower floors also served as air-raid shelter space for the city's population.

      These towers always came in pairs – one for the actual gun batteries, called the "Gefechtsturm", the other, the "Leitturm", was for radar and other tracking devices, which needed to be separate from the guns in order to work properly.

      Three cities in the Third Reich (on the territory of today's Germany and Austria) were thus supposed to be better protected from the increasing Allied bombing campaigns during the second half of WWII: Hamburg, Berlin and Vienna. The latter two had three pairs each. Only in Vienna, however, do all towers still exist. 

      The guns didn't do much to prevent the large-scale destruction from the air, but they did serve their second role well – that of providing air-raid shelter space for the densely populated cities. They also served a propaganda function, creating the illusion of safety despite the fact that this war already was as good as lost at the time these towers were erected.

      After WWII, the Flaktowers in Berlin and Hamburg were largely destroyed but those in Vienna remain.

      The pair in Augarten are almost 180 feet (55m) and rise from the open plain of the Augarten (the city's oldest park), visible from far away. The larger Gefechtsturm is also of a unique design: it's 16-sided, i.e. almost round. The tower within the army barracks is of the same design, but you can't see it from anywhere, at least not from street level in public areas. The round structure was apparently meant to be more efficient and economical – it was the latest of the three designs of these uniquely (Nazi-)German bunker structures. The Augarten pair was only finished in early 1945.
      Read more

    • Day 12

      Letzter Abend

      March 23, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Am letzten Abend ging es dann nochmals in ein Musical diese mal haben wir uns mal Cats angesehen. Das letzte mal ist mindestens 10 Jahre her. Vor habe wir noch einen kleinen Japaner gefunden der sehr gute Ramen angeboten hat. Das Musical selbst war wieder sehr schön. Morgen nach dem Frühstück geht’s dann leider wieder nach Hause.Read more

    • Day 2

      Sep 27 - Arrival in Vienna

      September 27, 2023 in Austria ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

      Sep 27 – Arrival in Vienna

      Our flight landed right on time, about 8:30 a.m. Vienna time – that’s 2:30 a.m. Ontario time. We breezed through passport control and retrieved our luggage. There was a driver waiting for us to take us to our hotel – the Vienna Hilton Park. The hotel was full of people in business suits. There is a huge conference going on right now – the 57th meeting of the EPCA – European Petrochemical Association. We were able to check in, but our room wasn’t going to be ready until normal check in time of 3:00 p.m., giving us almost six hours to fill up. Not ideal, given our lack of sleep. I did a Clark Kent clothing change in the washroom since the forecast high was 28 deg. C. We put our luggage in the secure lock up and set out to explore.

      We generally set our aim to be St. Stephan’s Cathedral in the heart of Vienna. We got a sandwich and a drink in a little corner store and then had chocolate croissants for dessert. We spent hours window shopping and walking and exploring. The architecture is fabulous and could be a theme for exploring Vienna all on its own. Vienna is a haven for high end shopping – designer clothing, gorgeous jewelry, traditional Austrian clothing, expensive pens, Swiss watches, handmade hats, tin soldiers, blown glass, ceramics, even fancy schmancy sardines. Little shops with huge bouquets of fresh cut flowers are on almost every corner.

      Vienna is a very young city – full of students and young families and hordes of youngish businesspeople, all extremely well-dressed. Business casual for men here means “no tie”. The city is incredibly clean – nary a scrap of litter anywhere. And the streets are hosed down regularly after the horse-drawn carriages make their way around with tourists happily sipping champagne.

      By 2:00 p.m., we were hot and tired. We sat in the park by the hotel for a while doing some good people watching, but we were fading fast. We took a chance that our room would be ready, and thankfully it was. We unpacked fast and hit the sack. In predicable fashion, Doug slept for three hours, and I didn’t sleep at all. About 6:00 p.m., we set out for dinner. We had spied a steakhouse in our earlier and without much trouble, we found it. Smoking is rampant here in Austria, and while not allowed inside in restaurants, it is allowed on the outdoor patios. It was a lovely, warm night and would have been perfect for outdoor dining, but the smoke was off putting, so inside we went. We had a lovely dinner and a celebratory drink each, and then found caramel gelato for dessert on our after-dinner stroll. The city is still alive and active in the evening.

      No firm plans for tomorrow yet, except to sleep in and avoid the early morning rush in the breakfast room. We might take the hop-on-hop-off bus tour to give the old pegs a bit of a break. My step count for the day was 18,400 – that’s about nine miles. That should offset the chocolate croissant, the gelato and wine. See you tomorrow.
      Read more

    • Day 3

      Sep 28 - Exploring Vienna

      September 28, 2023 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      We both slept like logs in the lovely king-size bed – we needed it! Breakfast is included, so we trotted off to see how the Hilton chain does a breakfast bar. Wow! It was the nicest, most extensive breakfast bar, complete with a made-to-order hot section, that we had ever seen! The décor was lovely too. There is a little coaster on each table – turn it up to show “reserved” when you are getting your second cappuccino of the morning so no one will scoop your table. Great idea. Well done all around, Hilton! In a major departure from my normal routine, I had waffles and two cappuccinos to fire me up. Healthy cereal can wait for another day!

      Well-fed and watered, we set out to explore on another warm, clear, sunny day. High forecast of 26℃. There is a huge park near the hotel, so we walked the length of it. The Wien River runs through it. The brick and stonework along the canal are the star attractions, not the water which is just a stream these days. This river, in its earlier days, would have been an important commercial transportation route for the city. It joins the Danube just a few kilometres from where we are staying. In the park, we saw “Mom and Baby” fitness classes going on, teachers with kids doing phys. ed classes, couples canoodling before noon, and lots of people like us just enjoying being outside on a lovely September morning.

      From the park, we headed to St. Stephan’s Cathedral, hoping to do an inside tour. St. Stephen (or Stephan) was the first Christian martyred saint. He was stoned to death in about 34 A.D. after being accused of blasphemy. But the church was a mob house. The entire city today seemed to have twice as many people exploring it as yesterday. We did get tickets for an organ recital there tonight, so we didn’t feel guilty all day turning down the guys flogging tickets for music concerts that mostly feature Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, a suite that we’ve heard many times before.

      I was in Vienna last December on the Seven Sisters Loud and Crazy Christmas Markets Tour. Along for the fun were four of my sisters and two of our sisters-in-law. (If you want the blog link for that extravaganza, let me know!) We did see inside the church then, so my interior photos are from that visit.

      We nixed the Hop On Hop Off bus idea – the price, we found, was way beyond what we were prepared to pay. So, we walked and walked and walked. We started at the Opera House and headed generally west, stopping every couple of minutes to admire another stunning building or complex wrought iron works or to goo at another window display of things only the extra ordinally rich can afford. We spent lots of time on Kärntner Strasse, a wide, traffic-free zone with great people watching opportunities. This is the same road Crusaders marched down as they headed off from St. Stephan’s Cathedral for the Holy Land in the 12th century. In years past, a gate stood near here, through which a road led to the Kärnten region of southern Austria, hence the name.

      We stopped at the Monument Against War and Fascism, located in the Albertinplatz. The monument commemorates the dark years when Austria was under Nazi rule (1938-1945). The granite pedestals were cut from the infamous quarry at Mauthausen concentration camp. A very evocative and contemplative monument.

      One building overlooking the Albertinaplatz is the Albertina. It was once the home of Empress Maria Theresa’s daughter Marie Christina. A sleek, titanium canopy affectionally known as “the diving board” shelters the entrance way. The Albertina is now a museum for modernistic paintings (Monet to Picasso). The views from the balcony are delightful.

      Craving some shade, we popped into the Burggarten, once the private garden of the emperor. It is home to a famous statue of Mozart. He died just before his 35th birthday but left over 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. In a delightful touch, the flowers in front of the monument were laid out in the shape of a treble clef. Only in Vienna!

      From there, we headed to Maria Theresa square which sits between two fabulous museums, the history museum, and the natural history museum. Maria Theresa was the ruler of the Hapsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780. She fostered institutional, financial, medical, and educational reforms. She also promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and reorganised Austria's ramshackle military, all of which strengthened Austria's international standing. On the negative side, she despised Jews and Protestants and often ordered their expulsion to the far reaches of her realm.
      This square was the site of a delightful Christmas market. How interesting to see how it usually looks!

      Still craving shade, we popped in to the Volksgarten with its beautiful rose garden. People can a commemorative rose bush/tree to remember a family member or friend, living or deceased. What an oasis of calm in a busy city! Last December, the bushes were all shrouded in burlap, giving the place an eerie, ghostlike appearance.

      We heard a military band playing and followed the sound. Sure enough, a troop of young soldiers was being inspected. Doug loves all things military!

      We bought our favourite lunch, chicken Caesar salads and a couple of cold drinks, and found a bench for al fresco dining. We remarked on how many elegantly dressed women of all ages there were. Vienna could give Rome a run for its money in contest for best dressed ladies.

      One more stop before heading back to the hotel for a lazy afternoon for Doug and a writeup session for me. Back in December, I found Läderach, a Swiss chocolatier. This is a mecca for all chocolate lovers. All the chocolate in made in big sheets, and you just show how big a chunk you want (note, I did not say “need”). We bought way too much and headed back with 14,000 steps to show for the day. Going to need at least 140,000 steps to wear off this treat!
      Read more

    • Day 3

      Sep 28 - More pictures from Vienna

      September 28, 2023 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

      Each footprint can have only a maximum of 20 photos, so here are more pictures from this day in Vienna.

      We headed back out after our afternoon break, opting for a light dinner after snarfing down chocolate all afternoon. Our son, Patrick, calls us “The Grocery Store Gourmets” because of our propensity for eating from grocery stores when traveling! We found the ready-made section of the local grocery store and ate in the adjacent mall. Then we hit the streets again for more window-shopping. This time we found authentic Austrian wear. Fabulous. Oh yes, and Doug found chocolate gelato for dessert!

      The organ concert was most enjoyable. We were seated very near the organ console so we could see the organist playing the five upper registers with his hands and the lower registers with his feet. The sound in the cathedral was glorious.

      Time to call it a day. It's been another good one in Vienna. Step count - 23,000! That's over 10 miles - whew!
      Read more

    • Day 3

      Salonplafond

      December 15, 2019 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

      Rich is pretty tickled by that photo of me with the currywurst. I think we're both in a better mood now we've had our first meal in Vienna.

      Salonplafond is the restaurant attached to a design museum, we both had a melange coffee, Rich got schnitzel with cranberries and potato salad, and I got a dense stack of wholemeal bread, avocado, bacon, a fried egg, and chilli mayo.

      Spotted another dog under the table, they are very pup friendly here which is brilliant. Kick off at Generali-Arena is at 2.30 so we aren't in a rush...
      Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Vindobona

    Join us:

    FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android