There’s quite a lot of really interesting and good things to do in Vienna and I’d definitely recommend staying in the historic center in the inner city, plenty to do and see just around that area itself.
We stayed at the Guesthouse Vienna (Review Here) which is right in the thick of things and a great location from which to walk around and explore the city, which is what we did the first day. Walking around is nice, especially when you’re up at the times we are as there’s few people on the streets. St Stephen’s Cathedral was first on the list of things to do in Vienna, I’m not one for religion and churches don’t really get much reaction out of me, but you’ve got to go and see it right. It’s a church, a nice one and we’ll leave it at that. Actually let’s not, we walked up the Cathedral which is about a 10 minute walk up some steep and narrow stairs. Piece of piss if you’re even half way fit, might be a bit of a struggle if you’ve been chowing down on Mac’ers every day. Not too much to see at the top except a view of some of the city. Again, nice but you won’t be getting any Instagram love for a pic of the view (that is of course unless you’re an attractive half naked lady).
It’s lovely walking around the city and just a lot of things to do in Vienna in the inner city, pretty much what you see in the photos and what you expect, nothing more, nothing less. The whole area is called the Historic Center and whilst I’m also not one for history, I really enjoyed the walk around and you don’t have to be that way inclined to appreciate and enjoy the buildings and just the city itself. For lunch we ate was to be one of many (MANY) Wiener Schnitzels. More on that in the “You Should Know This” section. We spent the rest of the day just walking around, did the touristy vintage car trip (give that a miss) and visited the Haus des Meeres – Aqua Terra Zoo – basically the aquarium. Check out more on that in “Toucan’s Tips for Kids“.
The next day we spent most of at Schonbrunn Palace which I thought was excellent and one of the better things to do in Vienna. We were there about 7a.m so there were F all people around and you can easily spend a few hours just walking around the grounds which are huge. Didn’t actually get inside the Palace itself, think you need to pay for that. It’s worth walking up to what’s called the Schonbrunn Palace Gloriette, also known as “the thing on the top of the hill”. After that we took Grobbler to the Schonbrunn Zoo ( As usual check out his review of that in “Toucan’s Tips For Kids“), basically in the same grounds and there’s a maze and a bit of a playground with a giant moving eagle swing thing that I had a wicked time on! Schonbrunn Palace is definitely worth a visit with kids or no kids. My Mum and Dad didn’t rate it, but if you live in a city like Hong Kong, you’ll appreciate the space.
By the last day we’d almost run of things to do in Vienna so we went to Belvedere Palace Museum, it’s a bit of the same old, same old, lovely grounds to walk around but again we didn’t bother going inside and Grobbler was happy as Simon Cowell looking at himself in the mirror exploring outside. All in all a good three days in Vienna. Not a “must go back again” visit, but definitely glad to have gone and if we had to go back for some reason it wouldn’t be a problem.
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