• Michelle Eichenberg

Vienna - An Overrated City

Vienna has a rich culture of Royal family, art, architecture and cafés. There are beautiful parks and palaces. And still: If you've already seen Prague, Budapest and Krakow...You'll find yourself with nothing more than overpriced tourist attractions. Read more
  • Trip start
    September 25, 2022

    Let's get going

    September 25, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    I'm driving from Göttingen to Vienna with my boyfriend Seb, Jana and Dave.
    We've planned the complete week around a concert that one of our favourite singers Apache 207 would have on the 1st October.
    We're driving through the Czech Republic and arrive at the early evening. We load our luggage of in our very nice apartment and go on the quest of finding food. You'd think in a big city like Vienna, it should be very easy. But the only restaurant that was open and appealed to us, was a small kebab place where we could have a seat and ate some, very not-Austrian, pizza. We've strolled around the city center on our way back and got to see very weird but cute Teddy bears doing everything you'd possibly could imagine.
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  • Prater, Madame Taussaud and River Cruise

    September 26, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We started on the Prater where we went on the ferris wheel to get an overview of the city and the Prater. Jana, Dave and I went on a couple of roller-coasters whereas Seb waited and kept watch over our backpacks. He really dislikes roller-coasters. After that I spend some time on the couch with Sigmund Freud in the wax museum and complained about the high prices with low value behind. Honestly, if the entry wouldn't have been included in the Vienna Pass, I would have asked my money back. In the afternoon we got on the Danube River Cruise and saw a bunch of interesting architecture alongside the river. My personal highlight was the Glühwein on board.Read more

  • Royals, art and butterflies

    September 27, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We woke up early as today we were going to see the training of the Royal Lippizaner Horse School. Tbh, if you don't have a clue about horses, let it slide. I bored myself to death. Isn't worth the hassle. Afterwards we've entered the Sissi Museum which is right next to the Spanische Hofreitschule. Again: If you don't care about the royals, don't go. If you still want to go: Invest in an audio guide, otherwise you won't get to understand loads. After that we went to an Art Gallery where I found some nice paintings. As I'm not a big art-fan-in-a-museum-kind-of-sense it was still very draining. So I found myself pretty happy when we've got into the butterfly garden (which isn't included in the Vienna Pass, costs 6€) and I was surrounded by nature. All this culture leaves me pretty bored but when I can spend some time in the green and watch some cute little butterflies (one even landed on my hand), I'm OK with the world. It still wasn't its moneys worth though... But it brought me happiness for a moment.
    For the afternoon we split up into our couples and Seb and I went to the Welt museum which was quite a lot but cool!
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  • Belvedere, Danube Park & House of Music

    September 28, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Today we started with some culture again, going to the Schloss Belvedere. The parks and the flowers in it are quite lovely even in autumn time. In the Lower Belvedere with spent again some time on art, but this time it was very pleasant and I really enjoyed quite a lot of paintings.
    When we had enough of the royals for a day, we went to explore the Danube Park and its Tower. It is the highest building in Vienna (164m) where you can take a lift up to a nice 360° turning restaurant. The dessert was amazing and the view quite unique.
    After our tummies were filled, we split up again and Seb and I enjoyed an evening drive with the little train going around the Danube Park. Whenever the train passed children, the driver threw out some candy for them and they cheered in glee.
    For the night we spent time in the House of Music which was my favourite museum of the whole trip. It was very interactive and funny. Seb and I danced to the music we "diced" (yes, we rolled the dice to put parts of music together) and waltzed through the pavilion of Beethoven. It was the best night so far.
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  • Schloss Schönbrunn and the Tiergarten

    September 29, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Today we visited the huge Schloss Schönbrunn. We started with a train tour around the whole area of the palace. The tour takes 45 min! I'd really recommend going on that train as you not only learn a lot of facts going around, but you'll also be able to have a 10 min stroll around the Gloria, a building sitting on top of the hill. Therefore, you can not only have a stunning view over the whole palace and gardens - you can take pics of it as well. After we completed the round, we entered the palace and found ourselves yet again in a stream of audio guide following tourists. After an hour or so, we could finally leave the royal history behind and go out to explore the park. It is huge, and I'd recommend having the whole day only for that. However, we took off for the Tiergarten, the oldest and one of the largest zoos I've ever seen. It is so beautiful, I loved it. You really get the feeling, that the animals are treated well there. We spoke to one of the keepers about their deer, as we saw them trying to give one of them a break from the others. It was quite fascinating what we learned from them. You can spend the whole day here as well. There are so many things to do. But we were on a tight schedule so we decided to move on to the Desert House which has quite some interesting plants and animals hidden. As this was kind of the highlight-day, we figured we should really end the day on a high, so we decided to go eat at the Figlmüller - a well-deserved famous restaurant. But be aware: The fame costs money.Read more

  • Museums and Wine

    September 30, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Today we went to see the Natural History museum. You can learn so many things there, but my interest was in the earth itself and how it came to be. I don't know where it comes from, but I'm so fascinated by the movement of the surface etc. But the dinosaurs and animals as well as the history of humans were interesting as well. Although it was kinda spooky to only see dead animals, especially after yesterday's time in the Tiergarten. Going to the next museum, we visited the Sigmund Freud museum, which was a huge disappointment. I don't care how they lived. I care about what they actually did, and this was nothing that the museum covered. Well, we had time for cake then. In the afternoon, we've attended a tour (again, audio guide) through the Winery of Schlumberger. The atmosphere was great, the actual wine tasting in the end not so much. You can drink it, but we like other wines better.Read more

  • The concert we've been waiting for

    October 1, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Today was only shopping souvenirs and preparing for the concert we've actually come here for. I was super excited and couldn't wait until it started. Finally, we were there, and it was everything and more that I could have dreamed for. Apache was funny and chill and such a good singer! Between the songs were videos and jokes. The show was so entertaining. I'd go to another concert in a heartbeat!
    Unfortunately, I can't share any videos of his performance due to my bad audible singing :D
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  • Only chilling

    October 2, 2022 in Austria ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    The next two days were just relaxing, chilling and watching movies between a little stroll around the city centre again. Preparing the long drive back home.

    Songs of the trip:
    Bläulich by Apache207
    The Other Side by Hugh Jackman & Zac Efron
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    Trip end
    October 3, 2022