Austria - Vienna

We managed to do a little traveling before I returned to Singapore this time. For this trip, we visited Austria (*bet you didn't know...according to a survey by Mercer, the capital Vienna is the world's most livable country). We started at the capital, Vienna where things were pretty quiet due to the summer holidays. Many shops were closed for the month of July/Aug.

We stayed at the Leopoldstadt district in Vienna which was near a large amusement park. The trademark of this amusement park is the Wiener Riesenrad Ferries Wheel right at the entrance.

We stayed at Hotel Nestroy, which is conveniently located near the attractions of Vienna.

There is a beautiful balcony that reminds me of the scene where Romeo climbed into the room of Juliet. (I know the balcony does not look like this but this was the first thing I thought of when I saw the balcony)

However that is about all that is good. I cannot pin point exactly what was the problem but the bed was uncomfortable to both of us. Having said so, we only stayed for 2 nights.

We covered most of Vienna's city attractions by foot during our 2 days stayed. One can also rent a bike. The first hour is free. Vienna is a cycling friendly city with designated cycling path but as a tourist, it is a little hard to find the cycling path and on the other hand get to our destination. According to Der, I'm a hazardous cyclist. So we gave up cycling after the first hour.

We visited:
1.  St. Stephen's Cathedral. It is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna.

 

The interior was large and magnificent. 

There were also many horse carriages lined outside the Cathedral where tourist can pay a fee and enjoy a city tour on horse carriages.

2. Hofburg Palace. A palace that housed some of the most powerful people in Austrian history. Currently, this place encompasses almost everything from history, art, cafes, restaurants and so forth.

We selectively chose to visit the National Library, Grand Hall. This is deemed to be the most beautiful library room in the world.

 3. MuseumsQuartier. This is a huge art complex near the Imperial Palace. 

We paid a visit to one of the renowned museum, the Leopold Museum.

I was introduced to the works of Egon Schiele, an Austrian painter. Even though he was a young artist who died at the age of 28, he had many many art pieces. The focus of his work was on his self portraits. I did not take any pictures of the paintings though as I think they can be found easily on the web. I did take a picture of a modern day art by some other artist.. Can you guess what is this?

It is an art piece made out of millions of tiny toy soldiers! hah I thought this was pretty cool.

4. Schonbrunn Palace, one of the most popular attraction in Vienna.

The place was packed with tourist. But is definitely a must visit. There are various kind of tickets for the entrance to different parts of the palace. Due to time constraint, we bought the Grand Tour tickets which included a free audio guide. This tour gave us a good coverage on Emperor Franz Joseph and his beloved wife Sisi. The approximate time of the tour was 50 mins but I'm pretty sure we took more than an hour strolling along the halls of the palace and looking in awe at all the intricate details of the 40 rooms. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed in the palace.

As mentioned, Vienna city is best covered on foot. There are many interesting sights along the way...

We also came across the statues of Mozart and Beethoven

 Besides visiting all the attractions, the most time and $ spent was on food! Yes we realized that majority of our $ was spent on food this time round. I was quite shocked at how much we can eat. I basically goggled Austria local food and tried to sample as many of them as possible!

The first thing that will come to everyone's mind when in Austria is of course... Schnitzel. A thin slice of meat coated in breadcrumbs. We stumbled upon Figlmuller and decided on it due to the long queue outside the shop hahaha We only know that it was pretty famous when we goggled it thereafter. The restaurant is ranked #84 out of 2705 restaurant in TripAdvisor. We did try a few other Schnitzel in the subsequent days we were in Austria and our verdict was this should be closest to the authentic version. There is no additional sauces or funky gravy that modern cafes will provide. All it had was a slice of lemon and all the pieces of meat were a consistent 30cm. This is a pretty huge piece of meat, enough for both of us to share. Personally, I would like to give credit to the salad too. It had all sorts of veg with some potato at the bottom. I like the tangy salad dressing.

The 2nd most common delicacy is Apple Strudel. Their apple strudel pastry is unlike the flaky ones we have in Singapore. I still prefer the Singapore version. 

We also tried this other popular dessert in Vienna called Kaiserschmarrn. This should be a dessert lesser known to all. It is like a fried pancake that is being ripped up and covered in icing sugar. It came with cranberry sauce too. A really addictive dessert.

Another famous Austrian cake is the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot filling, eaten with whipped cream. We tried the original Sachertorte served at Vienna Hotel's Sacher. This place was packed with tourist just to try this cake. I sat at the bar for 10 mins and I saw 4 standard sized cake being wiped out. This was how quick the orders were coming in. This cake comes in various sizes and are conveniently packed in nice wooden boxes for tourist that wish to bring home a slice of Vienna.

This is about all for Vienna.. As we move out of the capital, Austria starts to get even more beautiful. More beautiful pictures up in the next post!