Vienna

On the weekend I took the night train with friends to Vienna for some Christmas markets and a tour of the city.

I've never taken the night train before and it was really really good. I highly recommend it as a way to travel. You can book rooms with beds for 2, 3 or 6 people (we were 4) on the train and can sleep on the way. Our train left Switzerland around 10:30pm and arrived in Vienna just before 8am. You arrived in town just in time to start the day. Sleeping in the car was very comfortable, they wake you up before your stop and bring you some breakfast (hot drink and a small bun). The noise of the train didn't keep me awake and you just need to be lucky that no one in your room snores.

Here's a picture of our room, it was pretty tiny and the high beds had no barrier to stop you from falling down!

The train car had a whole line of beds and there were several cars with beds. You could also travel on this train sitting but you wouldn't save a lot.

We arrived in Vienna and everyone met up and we headed out to the explore the city. First stop was Schloss Schonbrunn which had these strange lion/woman statues in front of the building. Check out her claws on her front paws.

As we arrived there was a huge number of tour buses dumping people in front of the castle, it was amazing to see how many people were showing up! We went in to buy tickets and had to buy a slightly more expensive ticket (which lets you see more of the palace) to get in right away, otherwise there was a two hour wait! In front of the palace was a huge Christmas market.

Poor lion is really getting it from Hercules.

After our palace tour we wandered through the huge grounds. They weren't as big as Versailles, but still pretty big.

Here's a nice view looking back over the palace and the grounds and towards the city of Vienna.

 While we  were in Vienna we were instructed to try Sachertorte, a chocolate cake invented at one of the fancy hotels. The place we went for our cake was Aida, a chain of cafes which had a huge eating area and only a tiny tiny washroom where they charged you for entry and there was a huge line. So I can't really recommend this place. The cake was ok, the cafe ambience was crap.

Also, all over Vienna they sold newspapers with these bag things. It was based on the honor system. I guess it was a way for them to sell papers without having lots of large boxes taking up lots of space.

In the main cathedral downtown we joined the mob of people entering. They had the place lit up and it looked a bit like being underwater.

Then it was back out and walking around the streets with all the Christmas lights and huge crowds.

Later on Saturday night we went to the Christmas market at city hall. It was incredibly packed, you could barely move. It felt like March of the Penguins, and was certainly warmer than wandering around on the streets! However, we didn't stick around since you couldn't even see anything because of the crowds.

Instead we went to a concert in this hall. It was very pretty but the concert was clearly for tourists. They played something like the top-40 of classical music and had some waltzing dancers to entertain the crowd at the slow parts. It was good though, and frankly I'm usually rather bored at concerts unless I really know the music because I've played it, or I know the people really well. During the concert I felt a bit like the end of the movie Amadeus, where he is playing at cheaper halls for the public (instead of the Emperor). Just like in the movie, people would sing along with their favourite songs and half-stand up to get a better look when something happened on stage. So the concert was a bit of industrial tourism but a lovely night.

In the evening we stayed at Hostel Ruthensteiner which was in walking distance of our train station (there are several in Vienna) and I note it here as a recommendation and for my memory. It was nice, cheap and had lots of helpful hostel features (like free wifi, nice kitchen, patio).

The next day I went to see the Spanish Riding School performance. Again, definitely industrial tourism but I'm glad I went. The building was beautiful and the stallions were really well trained.

They had about 14 horses doing all the special on ground and above ground dressage movements, much of which I've never seen before.

Then it was visits to museums and dinner. In Vienna they haven't banned smoking yet in restaurants so we had to pass a place because of the stink, it's been a very very very long time since I've been in a restaurant with smoking allowed.

Our night train back to Switzerland was almost as perfect as the starting journey except for the rail accident in Hungary. Half of our sleeper train had to be rerouted and arrived late. However, in the station in Vienna we were able to board our half of the train and go to sleep. I was asleep when the train pulled out of the station and slept very well the entire trip. The night train is much nicer than flying, we were able to have a nice Sunday evening in Vienna without having to rush to catch our flight early. So right now I have stars in my eyes regarding night trains and plan to do more trips by train rather than flight.