Austria - Vienna

We arrived in Vienna on July 7th just after 6am.  Thankfully we had beds on the train last night, but it was still uncomfortable nevertheless.  Another sleepless night :( I really wish I had taken a photo to show you how small the compartment was with 6 beds.  There was barely any room for our bodies, let alone our luggage. We were fortunate in that the top 2 beds were not reserved so Matt lifted my 20+ kg bag onto the top bunk.  The other two guests were only travelling for about a week and had little backpacks with them compared to our 65L and 70L packs, so that freed up a little space for them at least!

When we arrived at our hostel, it was too early to check in, but they did allow us to use the guest showers and boy did we need them! It felt so refreshing to be clean! After the shower, I took a snooze on the sofa in the lobby for a while and then we did some laundry.  Finally, we could check in.  We brought our stuff to our room and then headed out to tour Vienna.

This was my 2nd trip to Austria.  The first time I only went to Salzburg (in 2000) and thought Salzburg was great. I remember a giant market, the Mozart Square, Mozart chocolates and visiting the salt mines. Now, I was getting the chance to explore the capital city!

We started off by heading to the Museum Quarter which is exactly that - an area filled with museums, along with cafes and shops.  We then headed downtown where there were many more shops, monuments and fountains to be found.

Here are some pics from Vienna with brief descriptions below!

One of the museums in the Museum Quarter. Did you know that the Museum Quarter is the 8th largest cultural area in the entire world? LOL!

Hofburg - the Imperial Palace

Walking through the downtown sector of Vienna - beautiful!

Rathaus - Vienna's City Hall

Kunsthistorisches Museum a.k.a. Museum of Fine Arts

Schönbrunn Palace - One of the most important cultural monuments in Austria and is a major tourist attraction. There are gorgeous gardens behind the palace (but we were too exhausted to look....)

Instead of visiting the gardens at Schönbrunn Palace, we opted for Apfelstrudel at a cafe located on the grounds. It was pretty good and tasted like fresh apples and cinnamon and with very little sugar! I seriously love that about European bakeries - their products aren't coated with sugar inside and out. Despite being a "sweet", it has a savoury element.  I have the recipe for this strudel too! 

Later in the afternoon, we tried Wiener Schnitzel!  Here is a pic of mine, served at my request, with ketchup.

We visited some other sites as well in Vienna including the Naschmarkt and St. Stephen's Cathedral, but the above were the highlights of the day. Next stop - Budapest, Hungary!!