Today was the first of our “checkout” days as we head off to Vienna, Austria.
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| Joy on the way to Munich Railway Station |
Our train leaves at 9:30 so we made sure we were early and glad we did. When we got on board there were only a few people and we stored our suitcases and took our (reserved) seats. The announcement said that the trains reservation system wasn’t working – not sure what that means, maybe reserved seat numbers would be different colour, who knows [Found out later they light up with detail such as ‘Munich to Vienna’]. By the time the train was ready to leave 1st class was full and several people had to move as they were sitting in reserved seats but hadn’t reserved them. There were some upset and annoyed passengers with some heated exchanges, but hey, if you don’t pay to reserve a seat that is your choice. 15 minutes after the train left Munich people were still trying to sort out seating arrangements.
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| People trying to get their seats organised. The fellow in the centre was upset but he had not reserved seat. |
We had a train trip of approx. 4 hours to Vienna via Salzburg. Beautiful scenery but in Austria there are lots of sound barriers along the track and several long tunnels so not as nice views as in Germany.
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| Snow covered contryside |
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| Salzburg with snow. |
Arrived in Vienna at about 1:30 and headed to the accommodation – this is where things went downhill!. When we arrived there was no one waiting to show us around and give us keys. We tailgated someone to get into the warm foyer as it was minus 3 and windy outside. Waited until about 2:15 and then tried ringing the number we had but after several attempts that went to voicemail where we couldn’t leave a message we were getting really annoyed. After checking various information found that one site said to collect keys from a certain address that was about 2.5 km walk away and we have our suitcases with us. Sent a message via the app for Booking.com and it said they would reply within 24 hours! At this stage we were thinking we would need to find some other accommodation. Then got a message that we had to collect keys from the address 2.5 km away so we found a taxi just down the road and off we went. Taxi was 16.60 Euros but tipped the driver and paid 18 euros or about $30. When we arrived we explained what had happened and they explained that they sent an email 4 days previously (we never received it) and that they tried to ring on the Travel Sim but it didn’t work (partly Les’ fault, partly Sim Card fault). They booked us in and gave us a water bottle and some chocolate wafers and arranged a complimentary shuttle (ie taxi) to the accommodation. Don’t know why they couldn’t have just got a taxi to send the keys and save us the trip to them.
The accommodation is very modern and on the 17th floor so has great view of the city but there are a few issues.
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| View from Accommodation |
As far as layout goes the toilet is the opposite end of the unit to the bedroom and bathroom. There are no tea towels (they do supply dishwashing detergent), no oven mitts, no proper tongs, no vegetable peeler, no cling wrap, foil, baking paper, no oil, salt, pepper, etc, no laundry detergent, no soap holder in shower and the bathmat is smaller than the hand towels! And the complimentary toiletries they so proudly mention are the tiniest plastic containers of bath gel you can imagine. So, with the bad start, is the apartment worth it for the view? We will have to wait and see.
Sunday 18th Dec 2022
We are having a rest day as most of Vienna closes on a Sunday. Les did some washing (with water and no detergent) and sent message to the manager of the unit and did the diary. Got message from manager late in the day with unsatisfactory response. Will review accordingly – but only after we get our security deposit back. In the afternoon we went to the Christmas Markets in the grounds of Belvedere Palace just up the road. Very cold. The pond in front of the castle is frozen!!
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| Belvedere Palace with frozen pond. |
Bought some gingerbread, much cheaper than the stuff from Munich and MUCH nicer. Tastes of ginger!!
Monday 19th Dec 2022
Up at a reasonable hour to head to the train station for an 8:58 train to Semmering. Checked the web site and it showed most of the seats in 1st class were reserved. Reserved some seats and by mistake managed to reserve 4 so cost us double the normal cost. As it turned out the carriage was less than half full. We waited until after the last stop before Semmering then moved to better seats. The train is a fast train and after it left Vienna was up to 160 kph. The train slowed as we moved into the hills and got down to 55 kph. Also much more snow around. Some great scenery but the windows on the train were a bit dirty so no great shots. Arrived in Semmering to cold windy weather minus 2 but felt like minus 7. Headed off on the walk to the ’20 Schilling View’ which is a view that appeared on the Austrian 20 schilling note in the 1980s and 90s, over some of the tunnels and viaducts. Most of the walk was on walking tracks, covered in snow, and just a small amount on road, also covered in snow.
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| Snow covered trails |
We got to a lookout from a wooden tower and Les let Joy do that on her own. Finally made it to the main lookout and a great view. While we were there, 3 trains passed along that section of train line.
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| 20 Schilling View |
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| Train passing by |
We were lucky as about 95% of the walk had been sheltered from the worst of the wind. When we had just passed the section where we had to walk on the road there was a van with trailer that tried to drive up the road and got stuck with the front wheels (the drive wheels) spinning madly on the ice. They made a second attempt and no luck. When we got back there probably an hour later they were still at the bottom of the hill and a black 4wd sedan just turned up to tow the trailer up the hill. We didn’t stick around to see if they made it.
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| This is as far as the van got. |
Tuesday 20th Dec 2022
Out of bed at a reasonable time as we had to be in Vienna at 10:00 for the Spanish Riding School. The first time of travelling on public transport in Vienna so we went for a ticket that allowed unlimited travel until 1:00 am the next day. Bought the tickets online and was very easy. Off to the local tram stop and into Vienna. Managed to find the right stop to alight from the tram and arrived at the Riding School early to find long queues. Followed the stream of people only to find out they weren’t “English Language”. As we had booked tickets we went through fairly quickly and took our seats at the very front. The show was interesting, and we got to see some of the actions the horses do but they were just practicing as individuals and we didn’t see any of the group tricks, etc even though it is billed as “Training Sessions”. After we finished there, we went across the road to some Christmas Markets. Bought a jam filled donut (made from donuts-like mix but with no hole in the middle). It is bitterly cold so we headed to the Butterfly House. What a mistake. Cost 7 euros each and there were only a few butterflies. Very crowded and also very humid so our cameras fogged up badly. Only spent about 10 minutes before leaving. Actually it took longer to go to the toilet due to the queue for the Ladies than it did to see the butterflies. Next stop was somewhere for lunch. Even though we had brought our lunch with us we decided it was too cold to eat our rolls so ended up in an Italian Restaurant, as you do in Vienna.
After this we headed into the centre of Vienna and wandered around. Went to St Stephen’s Cathedral and even went inside. After some more wandering we visited Capuchin's Crypt, church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. So that is 2 churches we have visited in 1 day!!.
We wanted to wait and see the lights so wandered a bit more then found a café and Joy had a tea and Les had a cup of warm milk. I think it confused them as they said they wouldn’t charge for the milk! Saw the lights in the centre of town then after a few mis-directions finally found our way to the tram station and headed for home.
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| St Stephen's Cathedral |
Wednesday 21st Dec 2022
Today we were off to Schloss Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens. We had to change trams and mistakenly got off the 1st tram 1 stop early so just had to wait a few minutes for another tram. Once there, we found the correct location to get on the next tram, to the Palace, and we did get off this one at the correct stop which wasn’t hard as you can see the Palace and the stop is called Schonbrunn. Short walk through the Christmas Markets, where Joy had hot chocolate and Les had hot apple punch,
and on to our guided tour which is an audio guided tour. A huge palace with 1,441 rooms – we saw 40 rooms. Each one seemed to only have 1 purpose. As an example, the Empress Maria Theresa had a room for her secret meetings which was a different room than for her official meetings. She also had a beauty room for preparing herself each day – which could take hours! After this we wandered through the gardens which are very bare at this time of year and walked to the top of the hill for a panorama photo. Les struggled a bit getting to the top but made it.
Next stop was the Schonbrunn Zoo next to the palace. This is the oldest zoo in the world, established in 1752. It is a sad looking place in winter and some of the ponds are frozen over. Would even be sad in summer, though, as most of the animal enclosures are the old style ones, and most of the animals look bored. For example, the Siberian tiger was just pacing from one end of the fence to the other. I’m not sure they get much in the form of enrichment in their lives. Wandered for a while and eventually stopped in the heated Hippo house to eat lunch as too cold outside. Got to see the Panda Bear but not the Polar Bear.
By mid afternoon we had had enough walking so headed back to the tram and home. No missed stops, etc however Les was worried as we spent so much time underground. The tram ride in the morning was mostly above ground.
Thursday 22nd Dec 2022
We were off today from Vienna to Salzburg to meet up with the rest of the Onley Family to celebrate Christmas. On the train we had reserved seats in 1st class but didn’t need to as the most in the carriage at any time would have been about 12. At Salzburg, where the train terminated, there were only 5 of us. But better safe than sorry. Our experience in other trains has shown us that reserving seats is a good thing!
Caught a bus 2/3 of the way to the accommodation and then had to drag our suitcases through the markets and on cobblestone streets to the accommodation. Headed out at 6:15 to walk to the ice rink to watch an ice hockey game between the local Salzburg Red Bull team and Lubljana, Slovenia. It was a rather one-sided match with Salzburg winning 7 – 0.
There were also several large drums being played and several wooden spinning rattle ratchets which were very annoying.
It meant you couldn’t hear the game like we could when we went to some games in Canada. This meant the game was nowhere as enjoyable as the Canada games.
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