2016 Europe Trip: Days 10-11 Vienna Budapest

Vienna: 

Day 10: We woke early and made our way back to the train station.  We purchased tickets to Vienna.  It was a beautiful ride through the Czech Republic into Austria.  

In Vienna, we bought a 24 hour pass and jumped on the metro to our hotel.  I was wishing I would have found a hotel closer to the train station, but the Hotel Danua was one of the coolest hotels we have ever stayed at.  We ended up with a free upgraded room.  The rooms on the floor we stayed were all themed.  Our room was Huber & Lerner.   We had a skylights, musically notes above the bed, a Mozart duck, and side tables that were drawers holding printing stamps.  It was a beautiful hotel and we would stay there again! 

We got settled and then set out first to get lunch.  The hotel recommended a café down the street and provided us with a free drink voucher.  Chris enjoyed the buffet brunch and I ordered a veggie omlete and yogurt with fresh fruit.  It was all really nice.  

After our filling lunch, we set out by foot toward central Vienna.  We walked through a university campus and passed a beautiful white cathedral, Votivkirche, on our way to one of Beethoven's homes.

A few blocks away, we came to Pasqualati House where Beethoven lived for a period of time composing.  

After leaving Pasqualati House, we continued down Universtatstring road which took us right to the Parliament building. We were able to go in and cool off a minute to get some water and use the restroom.  

After leaving Parliament, we went back across the street and walked through the Volksgarten to get to Helden Platz and Neue Burg Palace.

Even though I had done it before, it had been almost 20 years since my last visit, I convinced Chris to buy a ticket to tour the Hofbrau palace.  We bought a Sissy combination ticket which allowed us to tour the palace, as well as Schoenbrunn Palace and the Furniture museum.   The first part of the tour takes you through the China and Kitchen pieces.  It is amazing how many different sets of china they had and how they would use a different one for different occasions.  After a tour through the china, we saw a little bit of the palace and then our tour was over. 

I didn’t think we would use the Imperial Furniture museum portion of our ticket, but since it was along our path we decided we might as well check it out.  It was kind of hidden down a side street.  But it ended up being a really cool museum with a variety of furniture and artifacts from various generations of the royal family. Pictures were not allowed.

After the Museum, we retraced our steps back to the underground and took the metro to the Ferris Wheel.  Chris was a little unsure if he wanted to take a ride and decided he wanted to eat first.  We did not see anything appealing around he Ferris Wheel, so we walked back to the metro station and found a Kebab shop.  This shop did the Kebab on a flat bread – like a tortilla.  It was still just as good, but not as good as a pita.  They were also selling fry breads.  Chris wanted to see if they would put our Gyro on the fry bread, but since we were sharing I opted not to go that route. 

After sharing the Gyro, we walked back to the Riesenrad ticket office and purchased tickets.  There was a little museum with a history of the Ferris Wheel depicted by miniature scenes enclosed in small ferris wheel car replicas.  

As you leave the little museum, they take your picture in a ferris wheel car photo window.  Of course, I didn’t plan to purchase any of the pictures, but one of the photos turned out pretty cute and we decided it was worth it for $8-9. 

We only had to wait for one group to go before us, about 5 minutes later, we were loaded onto a car with about 8 other people.  There is a bench in the center for people to sit on either side and windows all around the car.  As our car slowly climbed upward, we enjoyed a beautiful 360 view of the sprawling city of Vienna.  The sun was close to setting, so there was pretty light from the setting sun as well.  It ended up being the highlight of our visit to Vienna. 

We did not find many options that appealed to us for dessert.  So we took the metro back to the station where Hard Rock Café was located.  We lucked out and found a number of restaurants, gelato and dessert places.  After checking the Hard Rock for something of interest, we debating between a few dessert cafes and settled on the one on the corner down from Hard Rock Café.  There were so many choices in the display case, it was hard to choose.  We were glad we had shared the Gyro.  I settled on an apple struedel with warm custard sauce.  Chris saw a cherry cake that looked like to was chocolate.  After making our purchase, we found a bench to sit and eat our treats.  Mine was excellent, especially with the warm custard sauce.  Chris, however, did not enjoy his as he had hoped.  While it was good, it did not have much chocolate flavor except for some frosting.  After finishing up, we went back to the same café since they had the best looking gelato.  Chris got a scoop of chocolate to satisfy his chocolate craving. 

Calling it a night, we headed back to the Hotel Danau to enjoy sleeping in our cool room and on a nice bed.   

Day 11: Vienna and back to Budapest

Originally, we were going to leave our bags at the hotel until we were ready to get on the train.  But since the metro was so crowded the day before and it is a little distance from the train station, we opted to check out and take our bags to a locker at the train station to save the extra trip back to the hotel.  We were sad to leave our room at the Hotel Danau – it was a fun European hotel treat!

After placing our bags in a locker, we looked for breakfast at one of the cafes in the train station  (some of the best choices are in the train stations).  We didn’t have much cash left – the negative to the cafes in the station is they usually only take cash.  I settled on a caprese sandwich.  It wasn’t as good as the others I had been getting, but it would do.  Chris found a pastry and a couple donuts at another shop for us.  The donuts were Amazing.  For not being fresh hot, they still melted in your mouth. 

We had planned to purchase our train tickets for Budapest, but there was a long line at the ticket desks due to a train delay, so we jumped back on the metro and took the train out to the Schoenbrunn Palace.  It was another warm day, but the palace was beautiful.  I think Chris enjoyed the tour of this palace better.  It was pretty cool.   Unfortunately, no pictures allowed.  It is amazing how large the palace is, how many different rooms and spaces and how intricate the designs in each room from the walls, tapestry, décor and flooring. 

After our inside tour, we headed to the gardens in the back.  I have always wanted to return to walk through the large maze in the back.  However, once again, we just did not have time to be able to enjoy touring through it.  In addition, it was quite a warm day and now you have to pay extra to walk through it.  I wanted a few pictures of the palace and the ghrotto at the top of the hill.  Chris found a bench to sit and wait for me.  I hadn’t planned to hike up the hill, but it was the only way to get a good photo of the ghrotto at the top. 

Unfortunately the grounds between the hill and the back of the palace were covered with chairs and large speakers in preparations for the concert they were holding that night.  It would have been fun to go if we hadn’t been leaving that day. 

After returning to where Chris was resting, we made our way back to the metro station and returned to the train station to get our tickets to Budapest.  Luckily there were just a few people waiting in line when we returned so we were able to get our tickets pretty quickly.  We had about 40 minutes before we needed to board our train, so we looked for food.  We were out of cash and none of the café’s in the station took cards and there were no options outside the station.  Luckily we found a grocery store at one end of the station.  Chris picked out a patty in the deli and I had them make it into a sandwich and grabbed a slice of chocolate cake he had picked out.  We also grabbed a couple of yogurts and cereals.  By the time we finished we were able to go board our train.  After we were settled, we ate our yogurts and shared the sandwich and slice of cake. 

Evening in Budapest: 

This train ride from Vienna to Budapest was the shortest in duration of all the trains we had been on and it was just a few hours before we were back in Budapest.  We went straight to our Airbnb, The Diana Apartment on Vaci, to meet up with our host who let us in and gave us a quick tour.  We needed to do laundry, so we started with the machine sitting in plain site in the bathroom.  We got it plugged in and it seemed to work but could not get the door to close.  So after messaging back and forth with the host, we found the working machine in a closet by the kitchen.  This machine was both a washer and dryer.  We did our best to put it on the setting we hoped would wash and dry our clothes and then set off to find dinner.  We walked along the busy touristy street of Vaci and kept walking until eventually we were in near St. Stephans Basicalla.  Chris found a Georgian restaurant, called Vai Me,  that caught his eye and we decided to be adventurous and try it.  

There were many options and all unfamiliar to us.  Chris narrowed it down to a chicken dish topped with kiwi.  The breads looked good (pizza-like) – round with the bread twisted on each end.  Almost all the options had an egg on it.  However, I selected a chicken one without the egg.  Chris was a bit disappointed as he wanted to try one with the egg on it. 

It was good food and fun to try, not my favorite flavors, but we enjoyed it.  After dinner, we walked down to the river.  It was a beautiful night and the famous structures were all lit up, so we walked along the river and across Chain Bridget to capture the beautiful views- it was a beautiful last night in Budapest and Europe!