Impressions…
- The drive from Steyr was interesting. We came through Ertl, Gaming and Waidhofen, which put us on the “back roads”. They were very narrow and winding. In many places, there would have been no way to meet another car without one car backing up.
- We had no problem finding our apartment and parking was just around the corner in a garage.
- The owners have 3 apartments in this building. We were in the smallest – apartment 52. It was clean, spacious and well-equipped. The location was great – an easy walk to most of the inner city, and very close to a U-Bahn station.
- The U-Bahn is very easy to navigate and is based on the honor system. We got 24-hour passes, validated them as we went into the station, and never had to show them again.
- We had dinner at 2 very nice restaurants:
- Wienerin, a great dinner with friends (Marianne and Peter)
- Zwölf Apostelkeller (12 Apostles Cellar), one of our favorites
- We worked on some assignments by son Rob:
- Käsekrainer at Wiener Wurstl – check
- Gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni – check
- Baklava at the Naschmarkt – next visit
- Two of the markets we visited could be considered “off the beaten path”. We would not have known about either if not for Peter and Marianne.
- International Festival Bazaar – 1 day only (technically not a Christmas market, but very interesting with booths from many countries)
- Adventmarkt im Palais Niederösterreich– 2 days, featuring food and crafts from Niederösterreich
- There are many Christmas/Advent markets in Vienna. We didn’t try to check them off because we know we’ll be back. Our favorite is the one at Karlsplatz. It features genuine crafts and they appear to be sold by their creators. It’s also where we saw the most unusual street performers – see the video below.
Don’t miss…
There are just too many things to see in Vienna – it’s impossible to list them all.
If you drive…
- Driving in Vienna is generally very easy. As in most cities, try to avoid the city center.
- Choose a hotel or apartment with parking and near a U-Bahn station. The U-Bahn is so easy that you go almost any place you want in Vienna without driving.
Beaten path index: 2.3 (See the key here)
- Cameras: 2
- Language: 2 (We heard lots of English from tour groups)
- Path: 3 (1 via Autobahn; 5 the way we came)
- Tourists: 2 (except for the 1- and 2-day markets)
Priority for a repeat visit (1-5): 5
Not even a question…
Performers
These may be the most inventive street performers we’ve seen, and they were collecting more money than most.
We don’t see these very often – old-fashioned hand-crank music boxes.
Some of our favorite photos
Other photos
Some of the places we visited (Careful – if you’re using a scroll wheel it will cause the map to zoom)
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