Welcome back to When Wine Calls “The Winter Grape Tour” as we turn for home after our winter Christmas in Austria.
On arriving back in Innsbruck from Seefeld, we had a short transfer onto the neighbouring platform as the Railjet express train pulled in heading for Vienna. Not long after we settled in for the approx. 4 hour journey the staff came around requesting whether we wanted any food and drink for lunch. We noticed that schnitzel was on the menu which surprised us since we were only travelling 2nd class on this leg, but we ordered it with of course, small bottles of Austrian wine. The quality of the food proved exceptional for train food and the wine enjoyable enough to proceed with a second bottle given the length of the journey.
We eventually pulled into Vienna train station and proceeded to head for our accommodation, about 20 minutes away.
On this occasion we had booked an apartment so we could catch up on our washing after the week in Seefeld but after arriving we soon realised the bedrooms were a lot smaller than we were expecting, and the building was very dated. Nevertheless, we were only going to be here for 3 nights, so there was little point in looking for an alternate place to stay.
That night we spent the night in the apartment resting up and playing a game of Bananagrams– it was nice to have some downtime together after the hectic past few weeks.
The next day we found a local café for breakfast along the river. Pauline and I had arranged another surprise activity for our time in Vienna, so we headed for the meeting point where we would be met by a vintage car to take us on a sightseeing tour around the city complete with bubbles to enjoy during the trip. William and Portia were very surprised when the car turned up as they thought it was going to be the usual walking tour. It turned out to be a fantastic way to explore this amazing city and to get our bearings for further exploring over our remaining time in Vienna.
On the trip we visited the amazing Hofburg Palace dating back to the 13th century and today one of the most important treasure chambers in the world housing the treasures of the Habsburg dynasty such as the Austrian Imperial Crown, Crown Jewels of the Roman Empire and the Imperial Crown to name just a few. We would come back the next day to tour through the Palace and marvel at these magnificent exhibitions.
It was then through the historic centre and pass the famous Opera House and the various monuments and focal points to the great musical geniuses such as Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Strauss that have all embraced this city. Vienna is full of so much history it was difficult to absorb it all in the short time we had here.
The next day we went on own sightseeing adventure, this time on foot to explore all the wonderful areas of the city in more depth that we had seen the previous day. First up it was back to the Hofburg Palace to view the magnificent Royal Jewels.
Trams wind all the way through the city as is common throughout Europe, but the landscape made us feel like we were walking around Melbourne.
In walking through one of the many parks we came across the most gorgeous churches, Votivkirche Church, a neo-gothic church built in 1853.
Also in the park was a novel coffee van that caught our eye, which we thought to ourselves “that may work well in Australia”,
Then to our amazement we sighted an Australian pub in the shopping area near the Palace which we found unbelievably intriguing.
You never know what you will unearth when you stroll around a city with no pre- determined destination.
With all the exercise walkimg around the city we decided that we all needed some hydration so we dropped into a small bar for a wine and some nibbles – “When Wine Calls”.
As night fell, we came across some Christmas markets near the Hofburg Palace, so we went for a stroll through all the beautifully lit market stalls.
It was then back to the city shopping mall where all the Christmas lights were glowing and St Stephens Cathedral which we had seen in the antique car tour in the daylight the previous day was now fully lit up – just amazing. The cathedral dates to around 1147 although has had reconstructions and many additions since that time and is an incredibly striking building located in the centre of Vienna.
Since it was our last night, we headed for a local Austrian restaurant for dinner located in a basement. The atmosphere was amazing with the place full and lots of noise and laughter.
On the way back to our apartment we came across a small wine bar that we just had to call into for a night cap to celebrate our couple of fantastic days in Vienna – albeit just not long enough to experience all this city has to offer.
In the morning it was back to the train station to board our train to our next destination, Budapest in Hungary.
Join us then as we experience a different kind of New Years Eve in this vibrant city. Until then.
Bruce & Pauline
When Wine Calls 
Leave a comment