Vienna, Austria - live and learn (1 Day Itinerary)

Our trip to Germany/Austria/Denmark was not our first time in Europe. You'd think we'd learn. Maybe Austria will be different, we told ourselves. It's the peak tourist season, it can't be that bad. What am I talking about? I'll tell you. If you can avoid it, don't visit Europe in August. And for the love of God, if you do visit Europe in August, you have to remember that things are CLOSED. I don't mean major tourist sites like cathedrals and museums. But cafes, boutiques, antique shops...all closed, especially on Sundays. So, it was a 2-fold error. Visiting Vienna in August, on a Sunday. Sigh...so disappointed! But even though nearly everything was closed, I still consider Vienna one of my all-time favorite cities that I've ever been to. The charm and the architecture are simply incredible. I've said time and time again, that I will never go anywhere twice before I've been everywhere else that I've wanted to go. The two exceptions to this are Japan and Vienna.

What I loved about Vienna (and for the same reasons, I disliked Berlin) is that Vienna could argue convincingly, that they kept the historical integrity of their city after World War II. Despite the bombings and devastation (arguably less than Berlin), they rebuilt and restored Vienna keeping it's historic Austrian charm. Berlin, on the other hand, saw an opportunity to modernize their city after the war and only keep certain pieces of their architectural history. I can't fault either city for their decision; I just happen to like Vienna's decision better. But that's my inner historian speaking out. :)

Typical street in Vienna, Austria

As I said in my previous post, our hotel was within walking distance of nearly everything, and Vienna is a very walkable city. Despite our unfortunate a/c incident after the Austrian dinner show the night before, we were out the door and on the streets of Vienna by 8:30 on Sunday, August 11. We visited St. Stephen's Cathedral first which was incredibly beautiful but under restoration. We simply have the worst luck with seeing historic structures whose beauty is masked by scaffolding. We weren't able to stay too long, unfortunately. Why you may ask? Well, what else happens on a Sunday...especially at a Catholic church? That's right, Mass. <<face palm, shaking my head>> It really is unfortunate how the timing all worked out, hence the title of this blog entry... live and learn.

St. Stephen's Cathedral - Vienna, Austria

From the cathedral, we went to the Imperial Treasury of the Hapsburg Empire followed by the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum - all of these were on the same tourist pass that we got the previous day at the Schonnbrun Palace. I highly recommend all of these things except for the Sisi Museum. While it was educational, there were also a lot of rooms filled with old dishes and other antiques that weren't terribly interesting, especially after seeing the treasury. Watch out England, the Hapsburgs can give your crown jewels a run for your money, AND they allow photography. Check out these beauties!

Nothing fancy - just one of the world's largest uncut emeralds

Sisi Museum - see what I mean about the serving dishes?

After a Hungarian lunch at a restaurant I couldn't find again if someone paid me a million dollars, we walked to the Capuchin Church. Do not be fooled by the simplistic exterior of this church. Inside it's crypt includes the tombs of Maria Theresa, Emperor Franz Joseph, among others. There is a definite element of creep when you're walking through a crypt, as if you're expecting ghosts or zombies to emerge, but alas, we enjoyed a spook-less visit.

Tomb of Maria Theresa

After Capuchin Church, we visited the Vienna Opera House with and English tour that included the wings of the stage. This is only permitted when there is no show running. Finally, the ONE good thing about visiting Vienna in August. Being a theater (yes, yes, and history) person, I was like a kid in a candy shop seeing this place. Even if you're unable to get backstage, I still highly recommend the opera house. It's stunning inside and they have costumes set up for kids to pose behind for photos.

Backstage at the Vienna Opera House

You might say that it sounds like we've had quite a full day. And had there been more shops and other local things to see and do, I might have agreed with you. But since there wasn't a lot to do aside from the aforementioned things, we met the other couple traveling with us back at our hotel/car at 2:30 in the afternoon and bid Vienna a fond farewell. 

With a half day left, we did a bit of internet researching to see if we could find something nearby see in the afternoon before heading to Salzburg. As we drove out of Vienna, we read about the small Austrian town on the Danube River called Durnstein. If you google this town and look at the pictures, you will see the most adorable, picturesque town across the river. Unfortunately, in order to get that shot, you have to take a ferry across the river, and we arrived too late in the day to make it over and back across in time. So, instead, we walked the streets of this sleepy, town in the Alps that sits beneath a ruined Medieval castle. We walked up and down the main street and I bought a picture of the town from a local street artist (and for the life of me, I have no idea whatever happened to it...sad). The artist gave me his website, but none of it is in English. Still if you go to www.townbild.com, and on the right side you click "Durnstein", picture #20 in the slideshow is pretty close to the one I remember buying (since we couldn't get the shot ourselves).

We shopped the boutiques (which were open, oddly enough) and saw that they specialized in apricots in the town. We ate dinner outdoors at a local BBQ restaurant with a lovely view of the river. After dinner, we walked back through the town to get to our car. We drove 2.15 hours to Salzburg and arrived right at sunset. In Salzburg, we chose the Hotel Imlauer for out stay, and you can read my TripAdvisor Review if you need a recommendation. Looks like it's still getting great reviews! More on that and our day in Salzburg HERE.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler