Vistas of Vienna
The Guinness
At the end of a hot afternoon spent wandering around the sights of central Vienna we found Flannigan’s bar. It’s a large pub standing on a corner. A plaque said it was made from the remains of a pub in Churchtown, Co Cork that had been demolished.
Taking the air outside Flannigan's
We ordered some drinks and I explained to Alistair, the barman from Exeter, what I was up to. He kindly drew the next place out of the hat.
Alistair kindly pouring me a Guinness.
I had to admit that the Guinness drinking was actually a low part of the day for once. We were all tired by now and the venue lacked atmosphere in late afternoon.
Getting There and around
We flew from Birmingham to Bratislava in neighbouring Slovakia on a much delayed Ryanair flight and from there we got a bus to nearby Vienna. In Vienna we made good use of the metro system, trains and busses.
Team Makeup
A family holiday – maybe the last one now eldest son is growing up.
The rest of the team in one of the city's many green spaces.
Accommodation
For the first two nights we stayed with SERVAS hosts and what great hosts they were too. We spent the rest of the time at the modern Wallabies Youth Hostel where we had an en-suite room to ourselves on the top floor overlooking the railway sidings. It was like having a train set out side but I didn’t appreciate it so much in the early hours of the morning.
So that's what woke me last night!
Food
You’d expect me to say that the cakes in street cafes were the highlight and perhaps they should have been but they weren’t quite stodgy enough for me. Instead I very much liked the homemade strudels, both sweet and savoury, made for us by our SERVAS hosts.
Sightseeing highlights
The Schönbrunn Palace – the buildings, gardens, fountains, statues and mazes made it a good way to spend the day.
The many well tendered parks including the Volkspark and the Sigmond Freud park with its various sculptures.
Outside the parliament
The city architecture including the Winter Palace, cathedrals and Opera house.
Now that's what I call a roof.
The refurbished Technical Museum with fun and learning for all ages.
Quirky moments
Surprisingly few on this holiday. The Austrians seem to have got everything working like clockwork so it was very much a straightforward sightseeing holiday.
Out of the City
We didn’t get totally out of the city this time but we did get to the northern outskirts and up onto a nearby hill that gave us good views back down to the flat landscape of Vienna.
Not all of Austria is hilly.
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