Family Travelogue: Vienna, Austria / Family Travelogue 08 June 2013

At Changi Airport in Singapore.

We were checking in for our flight to Vienna via Paris at eta 11:30pm. All air travel for this trip were with Air France. We purchased the ticket in February, we thought we got the cheapest fare. Itinerary includes: 1. From Singapore to Paris; 2. From Paris to Vienna; 3. From Geneva to Paris and 4. From Paris to Singapore.

At the boarding area.

Before take off

Tweety and Ballsy were hungry. The youngest was only 11 then, kiddie meal was served to her. The crew though was wondering where was the child we were with, the youngest was so big to still be considered as a child.

We just arrived Vienna and we were waiting for the city train to take us to the city from airport. We purchased our ticket at the airport.

One way fare to city was 11 euros. You could check the updated fare at CAT site. 16 minutes travel to Wien Mitte/Lanstraße. From Lanstraße, we took the subway U3 to Stubentor. Our hotel was near the Stubentor station

You could opt to take the S7 (suburban train) for a cheap fare of 4 euros but it would take 26 minutes to Lanstraße.

Front door of the hotel we had stayed in Vienna, Appartement- Hotel an der Riemergasse.
We were not sure if it was smart to take train from the airport to the hotel. We were 4 and it costs us a total of 44 euros. We wonder how much if we took a cab.

It was so troublesome, Stubentor station has no lift or escalator (not that we know of). We carried our heavy luggage all the way up the many steps of stairs. The flight of stairs was really high. Taxi cab could cost between 50 and 60 euros.

After checked in, we looked for a local place to eat as we were really famished. And definitely, not a chain.

checking out the menu

We ended up at Inigo Restaurant.

We had our first decent meal in Europe at Inigo Restaurant in Vienna. Biiig servings!!! Around 15 euros per meal. Not bad. We took out the left over for dinner. We did not expect servings was so much.

Akademie der Wissenschaften

Jesuit Church or the University Church in Vienna

off to the Inner City

Zwolf Apostelkeller. Twelve Apostles Keller is a historic stadheuriger with a lower basement built in the 11th century. The building and the lower basement are under monument protection.
Stadheuriger means a wine tavern.
Zwolf Apostelkeller at present serves mainly Viennese cuisine.

Johannes Gutenberg Monument in Vienna, Austria.
Johannes Gutenberg was the inventor of Printing. The monument is located in the center of Vienna, at Am Lugeck near the St Stephen's Cathedral.

Behind the monument is the building of an insurance company, Wustenrot.

walking around the Graben Vienna, shopping street in the city.

STEPHANSDOM or St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria. The gothic building is one of the tallest churches in the world.

Stephansdom is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna.

Stephensplatz, a square in the centre of Vienna, was named after this prominent building, Stephansdom

While the kids went for shopping, the parents purchased a data/call SIM. We were in Austria for 4 days.

Plague Column at Graben (Pestsäule) is a holy trinity column and one of the most prominent Baroque memorial sculpture in the city. It is situated in Graben.

Graben is a street in the inner city of Vienna. The sculpture was erected after the Great Plague epidemic in 1679.

Holy Trinity is a religious monument often built as thanksgiving for the ending of a Plague.

The sculpture shows the Holy Trinity on a corinthian column and nine sculpted angels.
Below the Trinity figure is a cloud pyramid with sculpted angels and the kneeling Emperor Leopold praying

The next morning, we had travelled from Vienna to Salzburg. We took train at Wien Westbahnhof (Vienna West Train Station).

Some of you are probably wondering why we did not visit the major attractions in Vienna such as the castle. We had arrived Vienna around 11am. Vienna was not actually in the itinerary. We have seen the movie "Sounds of Music" and we fell in love with the enchanting alps in Salzburg. The nearest airport from outside Europe was Vienna. Our train travel to Salzburg the next morning was 8am. We thought the smartest to spend the half day stay in Vienna was to explore the city walking around instead of queuing for the castles and other attractions.

These trains take you to another region and could take you to another country. The trains are designed for long travels and they are fast. Most routes around Europe are scenic.

Austrian Federal Railways, in German, Osterreichische Bundesbahnen or OBB is the national railway system of Austria and the administrator of Lichtenstein's Railways. The OBB group is owned by the Republic of Austria divided into infrastructure, freight services and passengers services.