Vienna is the capital and the largest city of Austria with approximately 1.6 million people. It is located 40km away from the Slovakian border. The city of Vienna is divided by the river Danube.
- Trains operated by ÖBB, Austrian federal railways.
- InterRail pass is valid on the S-Bahns (some exceptions in Salzburg and Graz)
- Generally in hotels and restaurants a service charge is included, but it is still polite, and recommended to leave a little extra to the servers, and if you're staying in a hotel, something to the maid. This service charge, or tip culture, varies in every European country, so it might get confusing, but they say Austria is like Germany with the tips. Cash is accepted everywhere, cards might not be.
According to Wikitravel there are some railway station constructions going on until 2015 and currently one big station, Südbahnhof, is closed completely for construction and the others are open but they are under construction now.
There are nighttrains and high speed trains going to neighboring countries and back frequently. Some are direct trains and some are not so direct trains from cities such as Budapest, Zürich and Prague.
Some examples of travel times:
- Vienna-Budapest 2h 55min
- Prague-Vienna 4h 5min
InterRail passes are valid on some private railway lines as well, but only those that are ROeEE or GySEV. Some ÖBB buses are free with the InterRail passes (Graz-Klagenfurt and Klagenfurt-Venezia Mestre)
More about InterRail discounts can be found here.
Places to see:
- Stephansdom, a gothic Cathedral, inside the Ringstraße (Ring Road) by Stephansplatz. On Sundays and public holidays there is a service at 9:30am in July-August. 10:30am other times. Catholic.
- Ringstraße (Ring Road), was once surrounded by city walls, but they were torn down in the 19th century. The Ring Road has many things to see so it is definitely a place to check out. The Rathaus (city hall), Natural History Museum and the Austrian Parliament, State Opera House for instance can be found on the Ring Road.
- The downtown area of Vienna is on the UNESCO World Heritage site, so it's worth a visit.
- St. Peter's Church. I know, this is like the third or fourth St. Peter's we are going to see, but I just have a healthy obsession with St. Peter's Churches. Wherever I go, if there is a St. Peter's Church, I go there and if possible I climb up the tower. I've seen the Hamburg St. Peter's and climbed up to the tower, the St. Peter's in Riga, and went to the tower. Then I saw the St. Peter and St. Paul's Chuch in Prague.
- Museums quartier I hear is recommended.
- Hofburg Palace is now the residence of the Austrian President. It once served as the residence of Austria-Hungary rulers. To get the the main entry we go to Michaelerplatz, which is good to see anyway, and then from there to the Hofburg Palace.
Places to spend the night:
Meininger in Vienna. This says that we could get a 10% discount from the Vienna Meininger if we reserve beds online.
I will write about camp sites later to this post.
2 comments:
That cathedral looks really cool! Oh and in case you haven't noticed, I added more info to my Copenhagen and Zürich posts :)
"[...] the idyllic oasis to the north of Germany [...]" Wow. :D Where did you pull that from?! :D
I feel like I'm just reading about churches and not as much about other places worth visiting in the cities... I might have to go add some parts to the posts.
I added the country as a tag to myt posts. The countries where we are going to several cities could all be grouped as one by the country, you know?
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