I enjoyed reading your informative report. We'll be in Vienna June 21 to 24th and we're thinking of staying at the Pension Lerner on Wipplinger Strasse. Have you ever heard of this pension? This will our first trip to Vienna and we found your report very helpful.

padbrasher, I am wondering what other cities you have visited. I think Vienna is a fine city but I am not too sure if it will hold the interest of your kids. Biking on the danube sounds like fun, I guess the heat is hit or miss. But it is hot nearly everywhere in August....

Thanks for an outstanding report! We will be in Vienna next month for 3 nights. Your suggestions will be duly noted!

Richard-
Thank you for an excellent report on Vienna. I am in the process of starting to plan for my 2 wks trip to Berlin-Prague-Vienna-Budapest in July 2005, so this is a great starting point for Vienna.

gald to help, let me know i f u have any questions

This is *the* most comprehensive trip report I've ever seen. I mean, you even included info on vending machines LOL. THANK YOU! We are off to Vienna this fall and I plan to read over all of this very carefully (All 11 pages of it, plus additional 9 pages of posts)

gnr :)

Richard, I really enjoyed reading your trip report! We were in Vienna this past February and loved it, although we had the opposite problem you had...it was FREEZING! There was snow and freezing rain. Even bundled up, we couldn't wait to get indoors. I loved the city but can't wait to go back when its warm and the city is more lively.

We too stayed near St. Stephens,off of Graeben (Pension Pertschy) and agree that its the best area to stay. We were so close to everything.

As far as the coffee debate, we only tried one coffee house but loved it. It was the Cafe Central. The pastries were good, as was the coffee, albeit kind of small, but we aren't huge coffee drinkers and it wasn't a problem. The cafe itself was gorgeous, with cathedraled cealings. To view it, go to http://www.palaisevents.at/ and click on "cafe central" on the bottom.

We went to Cafe Sacher but had lunch (terrific potato soup) and sacher tortes. Very good but the atmosphere was a little too formal for my liking. I know there is some debate here on the sacher torte, but I loved it!

Thanks again for your report!
Tracy

Richard:
We leave for Austria in 13 days and will spend 3 days in Vienna. I want to thank you in advance for extensive report which I am taking with me.

Richard (or anyone)
Being a relative novice to this forum I have a couple of really stupid questions: 1. What does a reply of ttt mean? 2. Read and enjoyed your trip report - would you recommend going to Austria around Xmas time? How does Vienna compare with say Salzberg or other cities? If you only had a week to spend in Austria, how would you do it or where would you go? Thanks in advance for your advice.

Shrink:
"ttt" or "topping" or "to the top" all mean the reader is sending the message to the top of the board so others will more easily see it.

Shrink, I think Austraia will be VERY COLD in December but i bet its enchanting to see it at the holiday time. As far as where elso to go I think Vienna is worth 3 or 4 days at best. I haven't been to any other cities in Austria but I am also not a fan of Salzberg. i thought it was very small. Why not Prague? It's close by...

Shrink,

Oh, I loved both Vienna and Salzburg, but I'm a Mozart groupie. There are a couple of fairly recent threads here about these two cities at Christmastime, so it may be worth a search. If you like small villages, I'd also check out Hallstadt, although I don't know how accessible it will be in the winter. I didn't make it there last time but it's high on my list.

Enjoy Austria!

thank you so much for the great, detailed report. Its been years since you've posted this but it has really gotten me excited about going to vienna . I'm not a person who likes operas and can only go to so many museums so your report was like a breath of fresh air...... not going on and on about museum after museum and the opera. Being from DC where most museums are free I too will think that museum hoping is expensive in Vienna.

Hi Richardab,
Did you try Griensteidl's in Michaelerplatz.For me it's the best coffee house in vienna.

Hi Charlieb,

I like Grinzing too,a beautiful spot isn't,and famous for it's wines.

I go Grinzing primarily to visit the grave of a life long hero of mine Gustav Mahler.