Getting to Wien (Vienna) was quite the adventure, we went by night train. We left Genvoa and boarded the train to Milano, where we caught the night train which left Milano at 9:30 and was suppose to arrive in Wien the next morning at 8:30 am but somehow in the middle of the night we got delayed and didn’t arrive until 10:30 am. There were four people in our cabin, Nick, Giudi and I with one of the grad students. Until you were ready to go to bed there were benches in the cabin to sit along, but once you were ready for bed you had to call for Chives, the butler (just kidding that wasn’t his name nor was he a butler, but we pretended he was). Chives would bring beverages as you requested, took our order for breakfast the next morning and even put our sleeping quarters together. He was great!
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| Nick getting comfy in his bunk on the train |
The sleep that I got on the train however wasn’t that great, but that didn’t matter because when I woke up I was in Austria. Giudi was kind enough to allow us to shower before taking off for the day, as we had all just been on a train together for fourteen hours!
Our first stop was St Stephens cathedral, where we were able to tour the inside and climb to the top. Unfortunately, the area was enclosed and very small, but it did give you a nice view of Wien, if you were lucky right to be able to get up to one of the windows, as it was pretty crowded.
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| St. Stephen’s Cathedral – Wien |
Afterwards we broke for lunch where I enjoyed a delicious chicken caesar salad and my first Austrian beer!
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| Nick & Giudi |
After lunch we toured more sights of Wien, including The Spanish horse quarters, a store designed by Adolph Loos and then we visited The Albertini, probably one of the best museums I have ever been to (next to The Van Gogh). The works of art housed here were absolutely amazing, I could have stayed in here for days. Once the group broke for the evening Nick, Giudi and I headed to a restaurant that I found on Trip Advisor, it had the best authentic Austrian food and of course beer! We were lucky enough to go earlier in the evening and get a table as they were all reserved for later on.
I enjoyed the goulash, which was like nothing I have ever had before. Of course I snuck some bites of Nick’s wiener schnitzel and potato salad, which was equally as delicious. With our bellies full and lots of laughs had we headed back to our hotel in hopes of getting a good nights sleep!
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| Matisse |
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| Austrian Beer |
Sunday morning was Europe’s day light savings and little did Nick and I know that both our phones and the tv in our room would spring ahead for us, so while we hurried down for breakfast we learned we in fact had an hour and half before we had to depart!
Tuesday was full of more architecture which I didn’t necessarily understand but it was such a beautiful day that being outside was just wonderful. We stopped at two parks where I enjoyed two small naps in the sun, one upon a hammock. I don’t normally fall asleep during the day when we’re on our trips, but I am battling a head cold and migraine, so I was enjoying soaking up the sun!
For lunch we broke near Wien’s amusement park which houses the oldest farris wheel.
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| The first ferris wheel |
I enjoyed my first hot dog of the trip in the park outside the amusement park, and again had a nice little snooze. After more touring of Wien we went as a group to a bier garden, which also happened to be a local brewery. I had too much food, I ordered several things not knowing they would all came at the same time and being as large quanity that they were! I had my first spaetzle of the trip and it was amazing!
Our last day in Wien was spent touring more of the city’s architecture and of course in my case eating and drinking my way through the city.
For dinner we joined Giudi at a pub close to our hotel because she told us they served very good nachos and she was right. Giudi ordered the nachos and I had chili con carne and shared some of her nachos with her. I got my Mexican fix 🙂
Wien was nothing like I was expecting, it was nice, but I figured that it would be this small Bavarian town, which it was not. It was a large, bustling city with some strange architecture, but with delicious food!
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| Wien |
The next stop on our trip was a short day trip and stop over in Graz, Austria. Neither Giudi nor Nick had ever been, but both really wanted to visit so we made a quick stop over there on our way to Venice. Like Wien, Graz was larger then I thought it would be, however it was a little more what I had expected of an Austrian city. Upon arrival we grabbed a quick lunch at restaurant near our first stop of the day, Kuntzhaus. This building is referred to as The Friendly Alien, while I’m not quite sure why it’s called that it sure was different. Inside was a museum that was even more interesting than the building that housed it, I was completely lost! But eventually I started interpreting the art for Nick and Giudi, which then made the visit more enjoyable 🙂 For me that is, likely not for them!
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| Lunch in Graz |
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| Kuntzhaus |
Our trip was interesting because we are used to being lead around by Giudi all day but since she had never been to Graz before she was acting more like a tourist, it was great. We leasurily walked through the streets, stopping in gardens to relax and walking into buildings that we weren’t sure we were even welcome in. We sure did see some interesting architecture in this city though. Our day ended atop the mountain in the middle of Graz over looking the city, enjoying beers in the coolest bier garden, watching the sun set. It was a perfect way to end our trip to Austria!
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| Graz |
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| Gardens in Graz |
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| Finally! Some tulips! |
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| Austrian beers overlooking Graz |
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| Graz Bier Garden |
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| Sunset over Graz |
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| Kuntzhaus at night |
