Three nights visiting Austria in the monsoon
| Holiday Ratings | |
| Recommended days | 3 |
| Budget | £ |
| Difficulty | Easy |
This was another quick Vienna city break, tagging on an overnight visit to Linz. Vienna has a huge amount to see and as well as the usual sights I wanted to visit some museums this time. As we had a train trip I travelled light and managed to fit everything into my rucksack!
It is so nice just having a rucksack, no worries about boarding early to get space in the overhead things. After a short flight I landed at Vienna into ….rain! No coat! The downside of travelling light!
I managed to find the correct local train (not using the city express this time) which was substantially cheaper and also used the underground correctly. Go me! I got to the cafe where I was meeting Nat in time to read the menu before she arrived.
Vienna: Cafe Eiles
Cafe Eiles was another of Natalya’s ‘places to go when someone else is paying’ choices. I had a huge chicken salad and then a massive dessert with plum jam, apparently an Austrian favourite. It was a lovely cafe actually and a good choice for brunch.
The weather had dried so we wandered around the centre for a bit before arriving at the hotel. I dumped my stuff, grabbed the camera and walked out into another rainstorm. We did more wandering, Nat was obviously blase about the sights by now so we just wandered and chatted and then went into another cafe for coffee.
By this time (5PM!) I was shattered so I headed back to the hotel and let Nat go home on her own.
I sorted myself out in the room, got to bed just in time for a 15 minute example of bell ringing, bloody lovely!! Woken two or three times in the night by very loud people coming to their rooms, such thoughtlessness is very annoying!
Vienna: Augarten Flak Towers
The next morning I awoke to the joyous sound of the rain at around 7. After watching an episode of Killing Eve then had a shower, deliciously warm! Grabbed a coffee whilst working out the route to see the flak towers. Went outside and the rain was torrential so amended the route to include trams! The tram stop wasn’t far and was under cover which was good.
The tram was maybe 10 minute trip to my stop and then I went back out into the rain. Walked to the park, took some photos and then back to the underground station. In that time the rain had literally soaked me to the skin. The flak towers were very impressive though – huge structures built in the war to mount AA guns and searchlights on.
Vienna: Kaisergruft (Imperial Crypts)
There were two in the park but I couldn’t be arsed to see the other one as it was so wet. Got on the train to head back to the centre and there was a little pool of water slowly collecting around me as it dripped off my clothes and hat. I grabbed a croissant and coffee in the station and then walked the short way to the Hapsburg Burial Crypt.
The crypt was damned impressive, some superbly artistic tombs, as befitting an Imperial dynasty. I spent maybe 30 minutes there but it was interesting to see the same designs and motifs occurring despite the monuments spanning 300 years and most of them could have been Roman for all of their originality.
All the info was in German so, other than identifying particularly well known historical figures, I have no idea what they said. Well worth €7.50 though.
Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum
I still had loads of time to kill before Nat finished work so I decided to go to the History Museum as the weather was so bad. This involved a nice walk through the centre (again) and out into the museum quarter. I was quite shocked that it cost €16 to enter plus another €7 if you wanted the audio guide, one benefit though was that they had lockers so I didn’t need to lug my damned bag around!
I only spent any real time in the Ancient Egyptian and the Roman sections and these were, if you’re into that kind of thing, amazing. The Egyptian section included 4500 year old jewellery, mummies in the original wooden caskets, loads of statues and carvings but again, no English translations.
The Roman section also had some incredible artifacts and the detail and emotion on the figures equalled anything we can do now. My favourite was a sphinx which actually had the cut outs for the wings, like an Airfix kit.
Vienna
I still had time to kill so I sat down for lunch which was gorgeous – chicken in mango – at a little Vietnamese place. I then caught the underground to the main station and waited until Nat arrived so we could get the train to Linz.
Being saddos we then both spent most of the trip glued to screens – Nat doing her Tourism dissertation and me watching Killing Eve. We did look at the countryside a bit but it mostly involved trees and rain.
Linz
Once we arrived we had a short 15 minute walk to the hotel and after a brief interlude where I headbutted a glass shelf and rolled around on the floor clutching my head and laughing we then headed out to get some food.
Going with Nat was actually a mistake. After an hour we had managed 2 pieces of cake, 2 coffees and a huge ice cream dessert, nothing with any nutritional value but all damned lush! It was now distinctly cold so we headed back to the hotel, past all the sensible people who had coats and trousers.
I didn’t sleep that well as Nat had left her bloody whale music on so I kept waking up to an aquatic serenade, not exactly restful! Got up around 7 and stood under the shower for a while until I felt almost human. As we’d paid for breakfast and it was a buffet we made sure we got value for money and ate until we were in actual pain. The weather was only overcast so we headed to our first stop, Nat’s choice, an art installation.
When we got there the woman at the desk was very helpful and explained the route and we headed off. Honestly these places are amazing. Even though I don’t respect these artists for their artistic abilities their marketing and sales skills are supreme.
A room with a piece of string in? Sounds wonderful, let me write you a cheque. Wow, you have a huge room with a sheet on the floor, sign me up and name your price! I know it should be taken seriously but I have no idea how, self indulgent crap.
Anyway, after a very quick tour we reached the roof which was the bit I wanted to see as it had views over the whole town. As usual the obligatory cranes spoiled some of them and the churches all seemed to have scaffolding up but it was good to see the hills in the distance and the sheer number of churches in Austria is always impressive, more so as they are usually the only tall buildings so they really do dominate the skyline.
We headed back to the hotel as it started raining to collect our luggage and go to a tea house Nat had discovered. Once we headed out raining became a totally inadequate word for the tropical deluge that descended on Linz.
Noah would have felt at home as we sheltered in an underpass and watched the torrents of water flow past, sweeping up stray dogs, small cars and cafe tables like so much urban detritus.
We made a run for it to the tea room and managed to get inside to amused looks from the lady serving as we stood, dripping, in her doorway. She showed us to a tiled area of the restaurant where we dumped our stuff and slumped into our chairs. The tea menu was extensive and the brewing and pouring ritual explained to us when our orders arrived. The tea was delicious and most welcome but sadly not as welcome as the accompanying chocolate and banana cake!
From there we headed to the highlight of our trip to Lindz, the Ice Museum. This was meant to have some amazing ice sculptures so we were both looking forward to that. Which made it all the more distressing to get to the location, following faithful Google maps, to find nothing there.
Further investigation revealed that, despite Google playfully describing it as ‘Open’, it had actually closed on 1st of July. Bugger and thrice bugger. On the plus side we did manage to get an earlier train back to Vienna.
Vienna: Schloss Belvedere
We had a chilled journey, finalising Nat’s dissertation plans and watching another Killing Eve before we headed our separate ways, Nat to go home and get some dry clothes and me to go to my next hotel. I decided to walk via Schloss Belvedere as I preferred that to a tram ride.
This time the weather gods were with me and I walked through the park and palace grounds and then found the sign for the hotel entrance before the heavens opened again. The hotel was lovely, a 19th century building with period decor and it was lovely to get in, dump my damned heavy rucksack and sit and have a coffee whilst looking at the downpour outside and being thankful I wasn’t on the ground floor.
Nat arrived about 6.30 and we headed out for dinner, luckily a place she wanted to try that was only 10 minutes walk. The rain had abated to an insipid drizzle and, after a brief diversion to look at another flak tower, we headed into the restaurant.
We had a superb, very filling and bargain priced Chinese meal that was so good we didn’t actually want dessert! By the time we left the sun was starting to come out although it was getting chilly too so we ambled slowly back, looking unsuccessfully for somewhere to get a coffee.
Nat and I sat and chatted for an hour and then went to the hotel cafe where I had warm apricot pancakes – absolutely delicious! Spent another hour or so yakking which was lovely as I won’t see her again until September. By then it was about 11 and we were both shattered so that was the last evening in Austria done this trip.
Well, as expected, we woke to blue skies and sunshine. Packing didn’t take long and we headed out onto the main street to another place Nat recommended. This was a very posh cafe (obviously, as she’s not paying for it!) and to be fair the food was delicious, at €20 for my breakfast I’d bloody hope so though!
We headed out and into the park to go our separate ways, me on to the train station and her back home before starting work. Despite the weather it was a lovely city break, great to see how happy and settled Nat is and how much she’s enjoying her life in Austria and also enjoy visits to Linz and Vienna.
2019
Thanks for the help