Vienna was a very beautiful city and we enjoyed our time there immensely. But it did not make the cut for one of my favorite places on the trip. It was very full of fancy and beautiful architecture, so if that’s your thing, definitely plan to stop! That doesn’t interest me as much but we spent the day wandering around and exploring different famous sites.
Our first stop was at the Schönbrunn Palace. By this point in the trip all the palaces, churches and castles were starting to blur together. So rather than paying for entrance to the palace and a tour, we opted to simply visit the garden and maze instead (which was cheaper). The gardens are huge and beautiful, and just like at Versailles it was once again raining. Though thankfully this was more of a drizzle than a down pour so we were still able to walk around and enjoy the sites. The palace itself is huge as well and we made sure to get there right away in the morning to avoid crowds and lines- we learned our lesson after Versailles. When we were there there were very few people milling about and it wasn’t until we were getting ready to leave that the floods of tours started to arrive.
Behind the palace is where the gardens and fountains and everything are located. You can also walk way farther to the structure that was built on the property in the distance, but opted to go out to the fountain which was already far enough! To the right of the fountain is where the garden maze and labyrinth were located. Does anyone know the difference between a maze and labyrinth? We still aren’t quite sure and they had one of each in that part of the garden.
I LOVED garden mazes as a child when we would travel with my family and visit them. So I have pretty high expectations and this one was not the best I’d ever seen, but it was more challenging than I was expecting. Would definitely be a lot of fun for kids! In the center of the maze is a platform you can climb up and take a good look around.
We decided to head to the market next and grab some food to eat. The Naschmarkt is pretty large and has all sorts of food offerings in addition to some small souvenirs as well. One my absolute favorite parts of travel is eating in outdoor markets along the way. I wish we had more of these in the U.S. We even found some pastries with my maiden name.
Next up we decided to visit the Wiener Riesenrad, the oldest ferris wheel in the world. It’s part of a whole amusement park complete with all different rides and typical activities you find at a state fair. The ride was fun though nothing too thrilling. The cars are large with around 15 people in each one and you can walk around to get views from all the different sides of it. We did have to spend a little bit of time waiting in line but it wasn’t too bad.
Of course no visit to Vienna would be complete without trying Sacher Torte, their famous dessert. It’s a chocolate cake that has a bit of apricot taste mixed in as well. It can be found everywhere in all different pastry shops throughout the city. We tried searching for one of the top recommendations found in Lonely Planet but after re-tracing our steps multiple times and still not being able to find it we finally gave up and opted for a cheap slice found in the main plaza area. Although the main plaza is formed around St. Stephen’s Cathedral we decided to just admire it from the outside rather than pay the entrance fee. By this point many of the churches were beginning to blur together anyway.
We made a quick pit stop to see Beethoven’s home as well though didn’t feel like paying for an inside look. That’s one tough thing about traveling in Europe, there is so much history everywhere and so many sites of significance but they all cost money to see them. You have to pick and choose what you really want to explore in detail.
The train/trolley system in Vienna was very easy to use. There are bike options for renting by the day or hour and dropping them back off around the city. But after our failed attempts at using this system in Paris we decided to just stick with the public transportation system instead. It costs more, but for us the convenience factor outweighed that. If you have more than one day to spend in the city I’d recommend maybe giving the bikes a try on your second day after you are at least a little familiar with the area!
Next we were on to one of my favorite places of the whole trip, Budapest!
Fire Round the World 