Latitude: 48.2° north
Weather: -1, Sunrise: 07:45 Sunset: 16:40
We’d wrestled with the decision on whether to stay in Vienna. I’ve always loved the city – but after the long journeys and my reaction to Wrocław, I wasn’t sure I wanted big city vibes at this stage. In the end, we decided that the 3 trains it would take to reach Vienna would be quite enough in one day, so we should stay the night.
I’m so glad that we did. It’s been quite a few years since I was last in Vienna, and it’s easy to forget just how unbelievably impressive and beautiful it is. From the moment we arrived into the modern, spacious, calm Hauptbahnhof, it felt like a great decision.
After 7 hours on trains, we needed a leg stretch, so opted to walk the 30 minutes to our hotel. The first surprise was that Vienna had obviously had quite a lot of snow. It had mostly gone, but parks had a lovely gentle coating of white – and the pavements, in places where they hadn’t been cleared, were sheet ice. Fun when weighted down by an ever-heavier rucksack (note to self: unpack and work out whether it has, in fact, got rocks in it).
I’d love to share some beautiful cultural experiences from Vienna – maybe an incredible concert, an inspiring gallery, a thought-provoking museum. However, in a shocking act of travel rebellion, we did none of that. What we did instead was two things. Walk, and eat.
To justify the second, we needed lots of the first (we’re aiming for 20,000 steps a day now that we’re out of the snow). The Innerstadt is so beautiful, so in-your-face grand at every single turn, that sometimes you just want to walk and soak it all up. So we walked down wide boulevards and through narrow back streets, past palaces and mighty churches. We watched the horse-drawn carriages and walked under the arches at the Hofburg. We peered into the windows of elegant restaurants and wandered past expensive shops selling beautiful lighting for mortgage-level prices. We look up at ornate cornices and gold rooftops. We strolled past the cathedral and down to the river. Cold air, quiet streets, dusk falling over the city.
The second thing we did was eat and drink. With my love of a good cafe, it would have been rude not to! If you can only do one cafe in Vienna, I think it has to be a beautiful, traditional coffee house. We discounted Sacher and Demel for the queues and instead settled on Cafe Mozart. Shining chandeliers, padded seating, waiters in crisp suits and a tempting glass cabinet of cakes. Unlike the Vienna stereotype, our waiter was friendly, smiley, and very patient as I found my way back into slightly halting German. Add in a gluten-free chocolate cake and it couldn’t have been better.
In the evening we found a tiny tapas bar tucked away in a street near the river. 8 tables, postage-stamp-tiny, walls lined with interesting wines. A wonderful warm welcome from owner Ignacio, the last table in the house, perched almost on a shelf. Good wine, lentil stew and pan con tomate. The restaurant had just reopened after a 2-month break and was clearly full of regulars delighted to have it back. We definitely got lucky squeezing in here, and it was a perfect way to spend a gentle, reviving evening in Vienna.
We were up early today for our train west. Walked back to the station (walking off the tapas). Our fabulous first-class Interrail tickets give us access to the first class lounge in Vienna. I suspect that they don’t get many people wandering in, slightly scruffy after 3 weeks of travelling and laden down with rucksacks – there was a palpable feeling of disapproval from the lounge manager as he checked (and double checked) our tickets. Eventually he could find no reason not to admit us, and we enjoyed a peaceful half hour drinking free tea and watching the concourse below. It’s a great station – full of light and space, well designed and just generally a pleasure to travel through.
We’ve now rolled out of the city on a wonderful, comfortable Austrian train, and the landscape around us is gentle: a few low hills, some snow-dusted fields, villages. We’re heading for Bad Ischl, where we have fingers crossed for a bus to take us round the lake to St Wolfgang for a couple of gentle lake-side nights. Vienna has definitely reset my travel energy; the snowy Baltics already feel in the past, and the magical Nordic countries a distant dream. Elegant city energy has given me a virtual caffeine shot and I’m excited to set off on our next phase and take an Alpine wander.
