Vienna

We went out for breakfast out then checked out of our space hostel and made our way to the more centrally located hostel for the rest of our Vienna stay, Wombats. We dropped off our bags, did some grocery shopping and made some sandwiches for the rest of the week for lunches.

We then went out for a big walk around Vienna, walking around the main ‘ring road’ and chatting all day as we went.

We first walked past the St Charles Church, before making our way to the State Opera theatre. Our next stop was the Maria Theresa statute in front of the Natural History and Art Museums. Maria Theresa was well known for having 16 children whom she married off to various countries in order to keep peace and expand the Habsburg rule and the influence of the Austrian empire. The most famous of these children is Marie Antoinette, who was killed in the French Revolution.

We made our way further along the ring road and passed the Parliament and some other buildings. We then left the ring road and and walked along the Danube, our third city where we have seen this river. We continued on to the Prater amusement park, one of the largest ones in Europe (which also contains the oldest ferris wheel). It was fun just to walk through and see all the rides, especially the five dodgem tracks!

We walked through the massive park and back into the city to our hostel where we checked in, chilled for a bit and cooked ourselves a pasta dinner.

We then headed out for a very cultural night of classical music by Mozart and Vivaldi at the Vienna Music Hall (called the Weiner Musikverein) with a performance by the Vienna Music Association. This is called the ‘tourist concert’ because typically the works of Mozart and Vivaldi would never be on at the same concert but it is an excellent way to experience classical music, an integral part of Viennese and Austrian culture. Although we very very little about classical music, the 2 hour performance was definitely impressive and it was beautiful hearing the various pieces and seeing the talent of the musicians! We then walked back around 15 mins to the hostel for bed.Read more