Over my very short summer holidays, I visited Austria & Czech Republic for about 11 days. The itinerary was Vienna > Salzburg (with a day trip to Hallstatt) > Cesky Krumlov > Prague.
We flew via Emirates, so we had a 3h stopover at Dubai airport there and back. At Dubai, we disembarked from the plane outside and boarded a bus that took us to the immigrations about 10 to 15min away. We didn't expect it to be such a long ride so we kept joking that we were getting kidnapped haha.
Air tickets cost us slightly more than S$1900 per person. Expensive because we booked pretty late, as usual.
Day 1 - 15Jul2015
We landed at Vienna airport round 1pm. After our own impressive Changi airport and the equally (if not more) impressive Dubai airport, Vienna's airport was really underwhelming. Anyway, we bought the 72h regular transport card from the tourist information (marked with a green 'i') at 16eur per person. We later realised it's not worth it as train prices are 1.10eur regardless of distance so you need to travel at least 15 times over that 72h to make your money's worth, which we didnt. We also got tickets for the City Airport Train there at 12eur/person.
The train comes every half hour, and the journey to Wien-Mitte railway station in the city takes only about 20min. We booked Adagio Aparthotel for 3 nights. It is in Innere Stadt (the city center) so we could walk to our hotel from Wien-Mitte, though the nearest U-Bahn station is Schwedenplatz.
I really liked the design of the apartment. I was travelling with my sister and parents so we got a room for 4 - a sofa bed for 2 and 2 singles.
Walked around the Schwedenplatz station first. It was pretty crowded and there's this huge ice cream parlour that is always packed!
We planned to go to Ringstrasse so we validated our transport tickets at the blue machines at the station and travelled 2 stops to Stadtpark station. Strangely, there are no turnstiles at the stations so if you're lucky and no one checks, you can get away with not paying for your ride. We also didn't realise you have to press to open the train door hahaha.
The canal just outside the Stadtpark station.
We couldn't find the ring of famous landmarks so we just walked around and saw this statue and that pretty fountain with a rainbow!
It was also really hot so we bought some drinks. Tried their national drink called Almdudler which I love!
Finally, we saw the famous Opera House.
Somehow ended up at Michaelerplatz. The place smelled like a zoo because of all the horses!
We saw a long queue for hotdogs so we just joined the queue (so Singaporean) and didn't know how or what to order so I just said 'same' while pointing to the person in front of me lol. The hotdog was HUMONGOUS.
And walked more to Kaerntner Strasse, the luxury shopping street. By then it was past 7pm so all the stores were closed already.
We trained back to Schwedenplatz for dinner at Greichhenbeisl. We later realised it's actually a very famous restaurant that includes Mozart, Beethoven and Mark Twain among its guests!
Day 2 - 16Jul2015
Day 2 of Vienna!
Started off the day by having breakfast at Anker bakery which is everywhere in Austria. Then took the train to Schönbrunn station and followed the signs and crowd to the magnificent Schönbrunn palace.
We went pretty early so the queue was manageable but we read online that the queue may take hours :O Got tickets for the Imperial Tour at 12.90eur, which is the shortest at about 40min while the rest were a few hours long. We each got an audio guide to guide us through the 22 rooms, with interesting snippets about Emperor Franz Josef and his wife, Queen Elizabeth aka Sisi. It was very interesting and even amusing at times: 'Sisi was usually not present at dinners as she wanted to maintain her figure.' hahaha.
We trained to Stephansplatz after to have lunch and shop!!
Lunch was at Nordsee, which reminds me of a western caifan store.
The shopping was pretty torturous though because they don't have aircons in the shops so I was melting and that dampened my shopping mood a little. (I didn't buy anything but my family did.) We spent an hour at the Nespresso store buying coffee lol. Never seen so much coffee in my life before!
Our research told us that there was a pipe organ performance at 3pm at St Peter's Church so we watched that. We were expecting a normal organ but it's this HUGE instrument. We never saw the player though.
St Peter's is a baroque church and we were so impressed by the super grand design.
One stop to Karlsplatz to visit St Charles' Church. Unfortunately, it was being renovated :(
But it wasn't a wasted trip as there was an entertaining performance just outside! We didn't understand a word so we assumed it's Austrian but the flag they were holding is apparently The Netherlands' flag haha.
And then 2 stops to Museum Platz to visit the Kunthistoriches Museum. We chose a Thursday to visit this as it closes later at 9pm. The design of the museum itself is fantastic, and the collections were extraordinary. The paintings were really really gorgeous. No pictures allowed though which is good cos that sped up our progress. We were practically the last people to leave. Really worth a visit.
Walked to Hofsburg Palace to see it lit at night but it wasn't :( Still pretty though.
Dinner at a restaurant with traditional Austrian Cuisine like schnitzel and sachertorte (the cake).
Day 3 - 17Jul2015
Day trip to Wachau Valley! Headed to Westbahnof station to buy the combo tickets from the OBB counter, consisting of a train ticket to Melk, entrance to the Melk Abbey, a boat ride across the Wachau Valley and a train ride back to Vienna from Krems.
The train ride to Melk took about an hour.
Very pretty town.
We had brunch at a little cafe, then started on the journey to the Abbey which included climbing a flight of stairs. It wasn't that long but it was excruciatingly hot so my tee was soaked.
The abbey was a monastery but is now a museum of some sorts. There's also a supremely cool library that reminds me of Do Min Joon's library.
Superb view of the town and the valley from the top.
Then walked to the jetty area to get tickets for the boat. There are 2 options - we chose the one with the free wifi.
You can buy food and the dish I got (grilled pork with potato chips) was pretty good!
It was very stuffy and warm inside but the deck was very windy.
We alighted at Durnstein and got zitrone ice cream just opposite the jetty. The blue steeple is like an icon of Durnstein.
Walked around the town to see the castle ruins. We were supposed to visit wineries but it was wayyyy too hot. We had to catch the 1633 bus from Durnstein to Krems station so we set off finding the bus station that ended up being this inconspicuous pole.
Because the bus reached at 1657 and the train leaves at 1702, we ran from the bus station to the platform! Very exciting hahaha. Another one hour journey back, then transferred to the U-Bahn train to Schwedenplatz.
Greek food for dinner at Artemis. The kebap and pita were awesome.
And we finally tried the ice cream from the always packed ice cream parlour. Ice cream in Europe is crazily cheap! 1eur, so about 1.50sgd, while we usually pay about 4sgd for a scoop here. We got chocolate and tiramisu, and I surprisingly liked the tiramisu flavour more because the chocolate wasn't as thick as the ones I'm used to in Singapore.
Headed to Salzburg in the next post!