We are getting better at using local transportation. For only the second time we took a train from the airport into town, the S-Bahn (S7) from Flughafen Wien (Vienna Airport) to Praterstern. From there it was a five-minute walk to our Airbnb. This easily saved us over €30 compared to the cost of a taxi.
One mild scare took place at Flughafen Wien. The S7 train arrived at a different platform than as indicated on the board. Over 100 waiting travelers, with suitcases, briefcases, and/or backpacks, noticed this change at the same time. After much excited yelling and pointing, everyone took off running up the stairs, across the concourse, and down the stairs onto the next platform over.
At the time we were somewhat uncertain of what was transpiring. But we had enough common sense to figure it out rather quickly. Assuming most other waiting travelers were heading into the city, we followed the masses. Luckily our hunch was proven to be correct.
Airbnbs in Vienna’s inner city are more expensive than we want to pay, even with a monthly discount. Instead of busting the budget, we rented a nice one bedroom apartment in Leopoldstadt, Vienna’s 2nd District.
The downside is that we have a 40-minute walk to the center of Vienna (per Google maps, 1.75 miles each way). The upside is month long metro passes on Wiener Linien that we purchased with a portion of the savings. We became very familiar with the Wien Praterstern metro station during our month here.
Naturally our first trip on the metro was not to a cathedral, museum, palace, or even the zoo. It was to Interspar Take Away, a large grocery store in Floridsdorf. Our second metro ride was not much different. We headed to a small Mexican grocery store, Casa Mexico, in Spittelberg. Stephanie was on a quest for salsa (success!) and fresh jalapenos (nope).
Without fresh jalapenos Stephanie cannot make pico de gallo, which is a problem.
Across the street from our place is Prater Vienna, an amusement park. Other than the absence of large roller coasters, the rides are similar to what you will find at King’s Island, Busch Gardens, or Six Flags: bumper cars; swings; free falls; smaller roller coasters; go karts; a train; slide; haunted house; log flumes; Ferris wheels; and, arcades, among many other spinning and rotating attractions.
Several of the rides are available in two sizes – small and large. The less expensive, smaller versions are for kids and the costly, larger sizes for adults.
We stroll through Prater weekly. There is no admission fee to enter, instead you pay per ride. The small kiddie rides are €2 or €3 per ride; the largest rides are €10 to €15 per ride.
Food and beverage choices vary from “American Churros” to pizza, pretzels, ice cream, cotton candy, cokes, and full service beer gardens and restaurants. There is also a Burger King and Jelly Belly store.
In most American amusement parks sufficient space is allowed for each ride so that riders are not actually over the walkways and open spaces. Not in Prater. We walked directly under several rides, most of which involved some sort of spinning and circling high up in the air.
If a ride spins high in the air, you will surely find it at Prater.
My first thought was, wow, if I had a beer and got on that ride I’d puke. My second thought was, I better pay attention to the sky when walking under these rides. Miraculously we saw no solids or liquids flying from any ride.
Prater’s most famous attraction is Wiener Riesenrad, the Vienna Ferris Wheel, which opened in 1897 and is over 200 feet tall. At €13.50 per person per ride, we skipped it. That is too much to pay to experience history.
The adventurous can take a spin on Platform 9. Instead of sitting in the housing looking out the windows, you are strapped into a harness and ride the Ferris wheel standing up on a glass platform. This is possible only on weekends, for the low cost of €89 per person, booked online in advance.
Up next, Domkirche St. Stephan (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), located in the center of Innere Stadt (inner city), is prominent on the tourist circuit. We decided to visit on a Wednesday afternoon, figuring it would not be too crowded. Wrong. We quickly decided to come back early the next morning.
Arriving just after the 9:00 AM opening on Thursday, the Cathedral was remarkably tourist free. There were, however, numerous elementary school groups present. At least the little kids were easy to dodge as they stayed in tight groups and walked around on a set route.
Entrance to the very rear of the Cathedral is free, but to get past the gate and see anything worthwhile there is a fee of €6 per person (with an audio guide). This is a bit pricey but it is hard to complain. Overall it is a very nice cathedral.
The tops of the north and south towers are also accessible at an extra cost. We paid another €6 each to take an elevator to the top of the north tower. The view of the city is nice, but not worth the cost. You do get a close up view of the Pummerin, a 21 ton bell. The taller south tower, at the discount price of €5.50 per person, is stairs only. No, thanks.
Tours of the underground catacombs are available for €6 each, paid in cash at the end of the tour. Lasting about thirty minutes, the tour was decently interesting. The guide alternated between speaking German and English. There is a small underground chapel, a crypt for archbishops and cardinals, and a separate section for priests.
The oldest section includes a room for certain members of the Habsburg dynasty, along with urns that hold internal organs separately. Back in the day bodies were divided (body, heart, organs) among several churches after death. The final part of the tour is through the rooms that were once mass graves (several are still full of bones) and bomb shelters during World War II.
Our visit to St. Stephen’s Cathedral lasted about an hour. We griped a bit about the total cost, but not too much.
Incredibly St. Stephen’s Cathedral is cash only. During our two weeks in Scotland most places had “card only” signs. No place wanted cash. Not so in Vienna. We have seen a lot of “cash only” signs in town. Looks like we will be visiting an ATM.
During our first week in Vienna we embarked on a beer tasting program. We went to the three nearby grocery stores, a Penny Markt and two Billas, purchasing one of every beer available in a can. Excluding the non-alcoholic beers, Radlers, and glass bottles, we had 15 beers to sample.
Beers are sold by the can. Very few are sold cold; most are warm. Grocery stores have maybe one small drink cooler with an assortment of cokes, beer, juice, energy drinks, and so on. Buy your warm beer early in the day so it has time to cool down in the refrigerator. You’re not going to buy a cold twelve pack at 8:00 PM. The grocery stores close around 7:30 PM anyway.
With one or two exceptions, the beers are lagers from either Austria or Germany. Each can is 0,5 liters (ballpark 17 ounces) and costs around €1.
We tasted several beers a day over four days. Here are the results, in our opinion:
Tier 1 (our favorites, which we will buy and drink): Gösser Märzen; Stiegl Goldbräu; Landgraf Märzen; and, Wieselburger Bier Gold. Gösser Märzen is a common house beer at local restaurants.
A notable other is Jelen Svetlo Pivo, a Serbian lager sold by a restaurant around the corner, which we have not seen for sale in any store.
Tier 2 (pretty good, which we will gladly drink): Zipfer Urtyp; Zipfer Märzen; Stiegl Hell; Gösser NaturHell; Gambrinus; Wieselburger Bier Zwickl; and, Landgraf Schank.
Tier 3 (no, thanks … but if necessary): Schwechater Beir; Ottakringer; and, Puntigamer. Unfortunately, Ottakringer is the house beer sold in most local restaurants in Vienna.
Tier 4 (we actually dumped this one down the sink – not for us): LöwenWeisse (a Löwenbräu beer).
The overall winner was a split decision:
Stephanie: Gösser Märzen
Garrett: Stiegl Goldbräu
But we compromise at the store: Landgraf Märzen (the cheapest at €0.59 each!)
We later learned that beers sold in cans are the cheap ones. Supposedly “quality” beer is sold in bottles. We are perfectly content with the cans.
So far we are off to a great start in Vienna.
Garrett and Stephanie
P.S. Every great amusement park has a slide. The Wiener Rutsch isn’t very tall or fast, but it will do.
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