Day 5 - Vienna

Dec 18th - Our first full day to explore Vienna...where to start?? First stop, the tourist info for a good map & then to find a cup of coffee. Vienna is known for it's coffee, but wow, it's not cheap! But it was good :) Once caffeinated, we hopped the underground to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Habsburgs. When we got there, the place was mobbed with people & when we stepped up to the ticket machine to buy our pass discovered it would be a 2.5 hour wait before we could enter. So we decided to bail on that plan & come back tomorrow (Monday) when we figured it would be less busy. Not all was lost for this jaunt though as there was a Christmas Market (called Weihnachts Markets in Vienna) located right in front of the palace, so we checked out the stalls there. When I had asked about the locations of the Christmas Markets at the info office, I was expecting to get the location of 3 that were mentioned in our guide book, but was handed a pamphlet listing 16 all over the city, I guess our guidebook is a little out of date.

Schonbrunn Palace

Next stop we decided to check out the Riesenard (the giant ferris wheel), so back on the underground for us. I have to say we are impressed with the underground system in Vienna...very easy to use and never have to wait more than 5 minutes for a train. The one thing that puzzles us though is there is no check point system to make sure you have a ticket...I guess the Viennese are a trustworthy bunch - we bought 72 hour tickets on arrival, but never once had to show it to anyone or use it to get through a turn-stile (because there are no turn-stiles). So back to the giant ferris wheel - it's definitely not the London Eye, but it is big & very old, built in 1897. It's located in an small amusement park called Prater that also had a few older roller coasters, big swings, and a Madame Toussaud's. We got loaded into our car that held about 12 people & made our turn around the wheel - it did offer a great 360 view of the city.

 

Weihnachts Market at City Hall

After the thrill ride, we headed back to the apartment to take a load off & put a plan together for late lunch/early dinner & the rest of the evening. We found a spot that was close to the City Hall where the main Christmas Market is located. Conveniently, there were two more markets on the way, so I can say we covered 1/4 of the markets in Vienna :) It's a good thing we are travelling with backpacks & don't have a lot of room for extra things, because that takes away the temptation to buy too much - but it is just fun to walk through & see what there is on both the local craft & food front. When we rounded the corner to the Rathaus (City Hall), were were wowed by the sight - the building is huge, and beautiful, reminding me a little of the Parliament building in Ottawa...and the decorations/lighting on the building and in the grounds in front of it for the market were most impressive. We're not sure if any other market will quite top this one, though I do have high expectations for Munich. With our stroll around the market, Rob managed to find straumrollen at one of the kiosks (the yummy looking treat I was oogling in Innsbruck) - we'd been looking for one ever since to try, so we bought one to take back to the apartment.

Last stop for the night was back to 1516 to sample some the other brews we hadn't tried yet. Again it felt like we were back in the US & not in Vienna at all as they were showing Sunday NFL on the tvs at the bar. Unfortunately, we couldn't stick around long enough for the Pat's game though...I checked out their version Hop Devil & Rob the Pale Ale (review of the Hop Devil - not quite exactly like the Victory original, but was good, and it was hoppy!).

Back at the apartment, we finally time to sample the shaumrollen. The verdict - yummy! Very light flaky pastry topped with chocolate on the outside and the white filling was similar to a mix between whipped cream & fluff. For my Canadian friends...it was exactly like the white filling in a Vachon Flaky.

Beers for the day: Villacher Dunkel, Villacher Bieradiesbrau Pils, 1516 'Victory Hop Devil', 1516 Yakima Sunrise Pale Ale Pale