Vienna | A Grand City | GaineyTravel

03 Apr 2012

Vienna | A Grand City

Jeremy and Sandra couldn’t stand it and headed for the Casino tonight so I have time to write. We started our day pretty early, not realizing that most places don’t open until 10:00 am. But we had hit the town and started walking around the ringstrasse outside our hotel. We immediately realized that Vienna is HUGE!! We saw the outside of many large buildings including the Staatsoper (State Opera House), Burggarten, Museums, Parliament, various gardens, the City Hall, and other beautiful buildings. We made our way along the river toward the Prater area. Along the way we stopped for an interesting breakfast at a street vendor called Grillwurst. Sooo good – a large long brat/sausage with cheese in the meat inside a baguette – a MEGA pig in a blanket of sorts. We crossed the river and eventually stopped at a cafe for cappucinos and hot chocolate. Finally we made it to the Prater amusement park area full of rides, games, casinos, food stands – another large area. Jeremy decided to tempt fate and rode a CRAZY scary ride called the Turbo Booster but he could not convince any of us to join him. We then made our way to the end of the amusement park to the famous Schweizerhaus restaurant and beer garden (highly recommended by many family members). Ordered a few breWwwwskis and a fabulous lunch of pork knuckle, assorted breads, fresh horseradish & mustard potato pancakes, potato salad, sauerkraut, and cold cabbage salad. I got creative putting mustard on pumpernickel bread, horseradish, pork, and sauerkraut-yum. Next we bought subway passes and made our way to the Schönbrunn Palace area. We took the audio tour of the inside and oppulant rooms of this UNESCO world Heritage Site. It is a former imperial 1,441-room summer palace and one of the most important cultural monuments in the country. Since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs. The gardens around the palace were amazing and to see it all you would need so much more time. There was an interesting Easter market set out in front of the palace where I swear I saw a stall of the infamous poppyseed gut pluggers being served. We soon headed back to our hotel on the subway to rest before dinner. (Well Jeremy and Sandra are back…the Casino was a bust.) We decided to venture to the Heurigen wine taverns area in the Grinzing district for dinner. There are many of these wine taverns on the outskirts of Vienna and a short subway and bus ride away. It was such a cool and quaint area. We had some great food and local white wine from the Zum Martin Sepp restaurant, even bringing back a bottle to our room. There was also some live music. All day I have been comenting on my “cabbage belly” from lunch, so I took it easy and had a local cheese tray and cheese streudel for dinner, plus wine. Bob had spinach dumplings, Jeremy veal weinerschnitzel, and Sandra a hamburger patty and fried potatoes. Now just relaxing before bed. Off to Bratislava in the morning…