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| Check out Andrew. |
We were lucky on our long flight from San Jose to Frankfurt. We had 4 seats for the three of us, and Andrew got to stretch out and fall asleep.
Day1
We arrived in Vienna around 1:20PM and found our pre-arranged cab. He helped us with our bags, and a 30 minute drive later we were checking into Hotel Steigenberger. The hotel had a complimentary mini bar.
The room was less posh than I had hoped for. But everything was nice and clean. The bathroom used frosted glass, that made light came through when your shut the door.
I tried out this beer they had in the minibar called Gosser, and it wasn't pretty.
We rested and took a little rest, and then prepared to go explore the old city of Vienna.
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| Inside St Peters. |
Our place was on Herrengasse, a short walk to the Graben, which is Vienna's chic pedestrian zone lined with high end fashion stores. I had already scoped out some places to go eat, so I figured that we would walk past them to check them out. We found Bierhof right around the corner, and then headed onwards to St Peters.
We checked out this small church first before heading onto Stephensplatz. We could spy the spires of the massive cathedral from a few blocks away. And we stepped into a very lively and bustling square dominated by the cathedral.
We walked around the square for a while. It was filled with tourists and touts selling concert tickets. The square was ringed by souvenir shops, restaurants , Hotels, and high end fashion brands. Why was quite strange though, was the fact that the stores were all closed. I discovered later that it was strong german and austrian labor laws that mandate the closure of store at a reasonable hour.
Coming from the US, the land of the 24-hour massive stores, this needed some getting used to. We took turns checking out the insides of the gigantic cathedral and then sauntered back to Bierhof.
The restaurant was on the side of a small alley between two buildings. We were seated quickly. The service was nice and prompt. The waitress was very sweet to Andrew. I had a Stein Weissbier . We noticed right away a couple of things. At restaurants serving Austrian food, the choices were fairly limited. Some 7-8 main dishes, and they all largely followed the format of Meat with a side of vegetables.
Tina and I were both reasonably happy with our meal, it cost us ~ 40 Eur. The one good thing about Silicon Valley prices, is that even Europe looks cheap in comparison. Then we headed back to Graben to grab some gelato. We picked Zanoni & Zanoni, For about a 1.5 Euro / Scoop, it beat prices in Baskin Robins by a mile. The ice cream was delicious. It had been a long day, so we walked back by the way of Hofburg palace, and settled in for the night.
Day2
During my prep for the trip , I had found a well recommended cafe for breakfast not 2 mins from the hotel, Cafe Central. The business has been there for over 140 years, housed in a historic building that used to be the stock exchange and once a bank.
Waiters in aprons milled around. The clientelle was a mix of locals and tourists. The inside was really charming and beautiful. The greatest minds of vienna and some of the worst dictators in Europe usef to frequent the place. What was most remarkable about the place was the top notch service and the presentation. And at the end of our meal , we discovered a vienese treasure, Staud's jams and spreads. We liked it so much that we decided to hunt down the source and get some home.
I picked our hotel partly due to its proximity to Cafe Central. Tina is a big fan of a nice breakfast place. And it paid off. After breakfast, I took a quick walk back to Stephansplatz to get some european sims for our iPhones. It cost me a total of 20 euros for both phones. It included 1 GB of data and unlimited calls and messages. This was a ridiculously cheaper option compared to what AT&T was offering me. ATT wanted 80 bucks for both phones for 200 MB of data AND they would charge me per call.
With the phones setup, we set off for Schoenbrunn Zoo. We had to take 2 changes on the train to get there, but still it was reasonably painless, and Andrew was excited with the trains.
The zoo is part of the gardens of the palace of Schonbrunn. The palace and the garden are clearly modeled after Versailles. The gardens looked really nice, but we did not quite have the time to explore it.
The zoo was large, and had all sorts of animals. But because it was so hot, we didn't see a lot of the animals. The penguin cave and the bat cave were the highlights for Andrew. The bat cave was a 10 meter long pathway through almost pitch black darkness, with 20-30 bats flying around us. Andrew was quite brave and we did it twice.
One of the highlights of the zoo was this elevated ramp that they have built that slowly climbs above the trees for a nice view of the city. It was tiring to push the stroller up there but the views were really nice.
We wrapped up our day in the zoo, with lunch in a baroque style KaiserPavilion. The food was nice and I stuck to weissbier.
After lunch, we decided to go hunt Staud's Jams. We found out that its not easy to find stock of the jam in your average departmental store. So we tried to track down the actual - original store. This turned out to be a fool's errand, as we realized half way there, that they were closed .
I dropped Tina and Andrew to the hotel and headed out to the Museum of Natural History. This involved a glimpse of the stately building of the Ringstrasse.
It was unbearably hot, and the wide plaza was dotted with tourists seeking shade in the perfectly trimmed trees and hedges. I got the audio guide and checked my watch. I had about 2 hours to cover the museum while the family napped and regained their strength.
I was blown away by the size of the museum and how grand the entry lobby was. The exhibits themselves seemed a bit dated. And the vast majority of the people there seemed to be high school students.
The museum tour starts on the lower level through a sequence of rooms ending in the same lobby one starts from. The lower level focused in chronological order: Minerals, Fossils, Neolithic civilizations.
Whereas the upper floor focused on a massive taxidermy exhibit of pretty much every animal known to man. I basically had just enough time to just quickly walk through all of it.
My favorite section was the fossil record. There were bird like creatures from 350 million years ago. Another favorite was the 35000 year old Venus of Wilendorf , a fertility symbol of prehistoric man. Then there were metal works of humans from 7000-10000 years ago. What was clear to me was , even back then , people were capable of very adept artwork, sophisticated even by today's standards. Just amazing!
At 6, with the Museum closing, I trekked back through the Volksgarten / Hofburg palace back to the hotel. I picked up Tina and Andrew, and off we went again, for a walk down Ringstrasse.
We walked past the Austrian Parliament, The Rathaus, and also saw the Burg-theatre. The walk ended in a small playground where Andrew played for a bit. People were walking their dogs, taking a stroll, place was very relaxing.
We relaxed for 20 mins and gave Andrew some time to stretch and play, as I figured out which Tram to take to the Statsopera. The Opera house was one the more grander buildings we had seen in innerstadt. But our true objective lay one block away, We were headed to the Sacher Cafe, home of Vienna's famous Sachertorte. Picked up a few slices and walked past the Albertina and the Austrian National Library.
It was time to pick a place for Dinner, and we had already decided that we would try out the well rated Regina Margherita. In the courtyard of a building a block away from our Hotel, the place was packed.
We had a delicious meal, so far, the food in Europe had exceeded our rather low expectation. This establishment made some delicious and fresh Italian food. After dinner , we went back to last night's Gelato place and repeated the feast.... Burp!!!
I had been up since 6, and had walked the whole day... It was lights out!
Day3:
We wanted to take this day a bit easy. Our mission to retrieved the much acclaimed Staud's jam continued. We headed off to Nashmarkt, Vienna's famed market. Just to realize that the store was not at the market. We realized the Staud's store was halfway across town.
Uber came to the rescue. And a twenty minute ride later, we were at Stauds. Tina plundered the store and we were off with our loot. We took the train back to the Hofburg.
The Hofburg was basically three separate exhibits with one ticket:
We walked around the square for a while. It was filled with tourists and touts selling concert tickets. The square was ringed by souvenir shops, restaurants , Hotels, and high end fashion brands. Why was quite strange though, was the fact that the stores were all closed. I discovered later that it was strong german and austrian labor laws that mandate the closure of store at a reasonable hour.
 |
| St Stephens Cathedral |
Coming from the US, the land of the 24-hour massive stores, this needed some getting used to. We took turns checking out the insides of the gigantic cathedral and then sauntered back to Bierhof.
The restaurant was on the side of a small alley between two buildings. We were seated quickly. The service was nice and prompt. The waitress was very sweet to Andrew. I had a Stein Weissbier . We noticed right away a couple of things. At restaurants serving Austrian food, the choices were fairly limited. Some 7-8 main dishes, and they all largely followed the format of Meat with a side of vegetables.
Tina and I were both reasonably happy with our meal, it cost us ~ 40 Eur. The one good thing about Silicon Valley prices, is that even Europe looks cheap in comparison. Then we headed back to Graben to grab some gelato. We picked Zanoni & Zanoni, For about a 1.5 Euro / Scoop, it beat prices in Baskin Robins by a mile. The ice cream was delicious. It had been a long day, so we walked back by the way of Hofburg palace, and settled in for the night.
Day2
During my prep for the trip , I had found a well recommended cafe for breakfast not 2 mins from the hotel, Cafe Central. The business has been there for over 140 years, housed in a historic building that used to be the stock exchange and once a bank.
Waiters in aprons milled around. The clientelle was a mix of locals and tourists. The inside was really charming and beautiful. The greatest minds of vienna and some of the worst dictators in Europe usef to frequent the place. What was most remarkable about the place was the top notch service and the presentation. And at the end of our meal , we discovered a vienese treasure, Staud's jams and spreads. We liked it so much that we decided to hunt down the source and get some home.
 |
| Cafe Central |
I picked our hotel partly due to its proximity to Cafe Central. Tina is a big fan of a nice breakfast place. And it paid off. After breakfast, I took a quick walk back to Stephansplatz to get some european sims for our iPhones. It cost me a total of 20 euros for both phones. It included 1 GB of data and unlimited calls and messages. This was a ridiculously cheaper option compared to what AT&T was offering me. ATT wanted 80 bucks for both phones for 200 MB of data AND they would charge me per call.
With the phones setup, we set off for Schoenbrunn Zoo. We had to take 2 changes on the train to get there, but still it was reasonably painless, and Andrew was excited with the trains.
The zoo is part of the gardens of the palace of Schonbrunn. The palace and the garden are clearly modeled after Versailles. The gardens looked really nice, but we did not quite have the time to explore it.
We wrapped up our day in the zoo, with lunch in a baroque style KaiserPavilion. The food was nice and I stuck to weissbier.
After lunch, we decided to go hunt Staud's Jams. We found out that its not easy to find stock of the jam in your average departmental store. So we tried to track down the actual - original store. This turned out to be a fool's errand, as we realized half way there, that they were closed .
I dropped Tina and Andrew to the hotel and headed out to the Museum of Natural History. This involved a glimpse of the stately building of the Ringstrasse.
 |
| Maria Teresa Platz with Kunsthistorisches Museum in the background |
It was unbearably hot, and the wide plaza was dotted with tourists seeking shade in the perfectly trimmed trees and hedges. I got the audio guide and checked my watch. I had about 2 hours to cover the museum while the family napped and regained their strength.
I was blown away by the size of the museum and how grand the entry lobby was. The exhibits themselves seemed a bit dated. And the vast majority of the people there seemed to be high school students.
The museum tour starts on the lower level through a sequence of rooms ending in the same lobby one starts from. The lower level focused in chronological order: Minerals, Fossils, Neolithic civilizations.
Whereas the upper floor focused on a massive taxidermy exhibit of pretty much every animal known to man. I basically had just enough time to just quickly walk through all of it.
 |
| Grand Staircase connecting the two levels |
My favorite section was the fossil record. There were bird like creatures from 350 million years ago. Another favorite was the 35000 year old Venus of Wilendorf , a fertility symbol of prehistoric man. Then there were metal works of humans from 7000-10000 years ago. What was clear to me was , even back then , people were capable of very adept artwork, sophisticated even by today's standards. Just amazing!
At 6, with the Museum closing, I trekked back through the Volksgarten / Hofburg palace back to the hotel. I picked up Tina and Andrew, and off we went again, for a walk down Ringstrasse.
 |
| Andrew posing in front of the Parliament |
We relaxed for 20 mins and gave Andrew some time to stretch and play, as I figured out which Tram to take to the Statsopera. The Opera house was one the more grander buildings we had seen in innerstadt. But our true objective lay one block away, We were headed to the Sacher Cafe, home of Vienna's famous Sachertorte. Picked up a few slices and walked past the Albertina and the Austrian National Library.
It was time to pick a place for Dinner, and we had already decided that we would try out the well rated Regina Margherita. In the courtyard of a building a block away from our Hotel, the place was packed.
 |
| The gorgeous State Opera House, Vienna |
We had a delicious meal, so far, the food in Europe had exceeded our rather low expectation. This establishment made some delicious and fresh Italian food. After dinner , we went back to last night's Gelato place and repeated the feast.... Burp!!!
I had been up since 6, and had walked the whole day... It was lights out!
Day3:
We wanted to take this day a bit easy. Our mission to retrieved the much acclaimed Staud's jam continued. We headed off to Nashmarkt, Vienna's famed market. Just to realize that the store was not at the market. We realized the Staud's store was halfway across town.
Uber came to the rescue. And a twenty minute ride later, we were at Stauds. Tina plundered the store and we were off with our loot. We took the train back to the Hofburg.
The Hofburg was basically three separate exhibits with one ticket:
- The Royal Silver and Cutlery Collection
- Siri private quarters and her life
- The Royal apartments.
Tina particularly enjoyed the second, as it brought the visitor an up, close and personal look of a begrudging empress. Her life was a sad tale of the weight of a life in court.
We were exhausted after the Hofburg, because it was quite stuffy and hot. It didn't look like the museum expected it to be so hot and the ventilation was just not enough.
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| MinoritenKirche, 13th Century Gothic Church |
We emerged on the back side of the palace and this allowed us to discover another great restaurant, The Giovani at BankGasser. Just 3-4 minutes from the Hofburg, there was not a tourist in sight.
They didn't even seem to have a Menu, just what was written on the board. Someone helped interpret what was on offer. And this place then proved to be the best we had so far.
I ordered something that involved Beef-Cheeks. After lunch, we rested a little bit. I was too tired to go for another trip. So we used our last evening in Vienna just relaxing, doing some souvenir shopping and going back to the same restaurant again for Dinner.
This time, the whole area seemed deserted, it was quite striking to me that Vienna would transition from a bustling tourist centre to a sleepy town in a matter of a couple of blocks.
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