wanderfrau

Thanks Fodorites for helping to plan our recent weekend in Vienna. Special thanks to molker, nytraveler, lincasanova, yk, basingstoke2 for answering my questions and your posts answering other people’s questions. All helped with my planning.

This was a quick trip, so I’m going to write this report in three parts 1) What we liked 2) Surprises (good and bad) and 3) What we didn’t like. This way you can read the good stuff first and skip the rest if you’d prefer.

The Basics:
Who: wanderherr and wanderfrau
When: a long weekend in October; arrive late Friday night and depart late afternoon on Monday
Where: Best Western Das Tigras Hotel, 110 Euro per night on booking.com
What: Our second visit to Vienna. First was Summer 2003. We wanted to do some of the things we didn’t get to do the first time

Part One coming soon.

Echnaton

Waiting for more..

wanderfrau

Part One – what we liked

- The Austrian Air flight from FRA to VIE. This was our first time flying with them and if this flight was any example of their service, we’ll fly with them again. The classical music playing when we boarded immediately put us in the right mood for our trip and the gorgeous tourism video playing on the drop down screens did just what it was designed for – we started thinking about another trip to Austria. The freshly made (the sticker said so) salmon sandwich and free drinks (including beer and wine) added to our enjoyment. And, everyone on this completely full flight got served in less than one hour.
- The friendly airport bus driver who helped us with U-bahn directions after I realized we took the wrong bus
- The convenient public transportation alternatives that got us to our hotel quickly even though we weren’t were I planned for us to be
- A huge comfortable hotel room with cozy duvets
- A wonderful assortment of tiny square rolls at breakfast
- Tasting a caraway “pretzel” stick
- The redesign of the MAK displays including the “room inside a room” concept, the strong paint colors and the interesting gift shop
- Lunch at Café Prueckel
- Everything about the Café Imperial – Imperial Cake, the piano jazz, the wood paneling, the plasterwork on the ceilings, the fabulous service, the WCs
- Three non-touristy heurigers at the Tram D terminus
- Hearing the Vienna Boys Choir sing High Mass for free
- The Lipizzaner Stallions performance; the gorgeous horses, the talented riders, the building, the dances, the jumps
- Cake and coffee at Demel, even if we had to sit in the smoking section (no one was smoking at the time)
- Watching Demel make apple strudel; I never saw a batch as big as a tabletop
- The ushers at the Staatsoper
- The beer and the food at the Alte Brauhaus
- The library at the Liechtenstein Museum
- Seeing “Design Week” displays around town, especially the twice the normal size dining room at the Liechtenstein
- The exhibit of Michelangelo’s drawings at the Albertina
- Lunch at the Palmengarten that included Austrian pumpkin soup and pumpkin oil salad dressing

wanderfrau

Part Two - Surprises
- The 50’s retro look of the Aida Café chain
- The unhappy waitress at Demel
- The very long line of people waiting for a table on the second floor of Demel
- What seemed like huge crowds of tourists, everywhere
- We actually enjoyed the opera (we’re not big fans); we loved the building, the music, the conductor, the drama, and the fans
- The people who dressed up (gowns, heels, tux) for standing room at the opera
- How intimate the opera house is; we saw people waving to each other

yk

Hi wanderfrau,

I'm loving this so far. Which opera did you see?

I agree with most of your "what we liked", except "the ushers at Staatsoper". What did you like about them?

Based on your lists so far, you go A LOT accomplished in a mere 2.5 days! Do you remember what kind of cake you got at Demel?

wanderfrau

yk – thanks for your kind words

We saw “Lucrezia Borgia” and are very glad we did. The ushers at the Staatsoper were polite, helpful and even entertaining at times. They wanted to be sure all the standing room folks were lined up properly and followed all the rules. We loved how they interacted with the guests who weren’t cooperating. They took their positions were seriously. They were almost like a prop to the show.

I think my cake at Demel was hazelnut crème and wanderherr had café mocha. They were both excellent, but not quite as interesting as the Imperial Cake at the Imperial Café.

Looking back, I guess we did accomplish quite a bit, but, we scheduled well so it felt relaxing.

wanderfrau

And finally
Part Three – What we didn’t like
- The Austrian tourist video on the airplane didn’t include the names of places
- That I didn’t double check what airport bus we got on
- The croissants at breakfast; the worst croissants I’ve ever tasted (worse than Sara Lee)
- Loud drunks outside our hotel window; the window I really didn’t think we’d need to open, except the room was hot and stuffy when we arrived
- The lack of any kind of ventilation in the bathroom in the hotel
- Paying for toilets in the city that weren’t stocked and weren’t very clean
- The Alpine Garden was closed
- The Botanical Garden is not well maintained
- Not making reservations for a heuriger and ending up eating at the one with the least interesting menu because the others were full and/or reserved for the night.
- Standing in line for free tickets at the Burgkapelle only to have the attendant come out and tell people to move so those at the head of the line lost their places
- The rude tourists who tried to take the front row standing places while the people in those places went to communion at Mass in the Burgkapelle
- The rude tourists who wouldn’t stop talking during the Lipizzaner show and the lady who kept hitting me in the head with her huge bag
- Not being able to see the inside of St Stephan’s without taking a tour; everything was gated or roped off and the lights were off
- Feeling hot and claustrophobic during the opera and not being able to leave when we wanted because the aisle way was packed with people
- Only one golden carriage at the Lichtenstein Museum; we were expecting more

yk

wanderfrau, thanks for your honest opinions.

I've never been inside Hotel Imperial. I just looked at their website and saw photos of its cafe. Were most people eating there quite dressed up?

singfree

I am in awe of how much you accomplished in such a short time! Very good report, but could you describe in more detail your experiences? We love to read everyone's travelogues!

annw

Brought back memories of our 3 day visit to Wien several years ago; thanks for posting.

wanderfrau

annw - you're welcome; glad you enjoyed the report

yk - The people in the cafe at the Imperial were dressed nicely, but not what I would call dressed up. A bit more upscale than some cafes where you see all types, but I saw folks in nice jeans.

singfree - what would you like to hear more about? I have a tendency to get much too detailed in my trip reports, so I tried the simple approach this time.

valtor

Thank you for the report, Wanderfrau. I find it very useful, as we plan to visit Vienna in the spring, for a week (it will be our second visit, the first was 27 years ago !).

How you like your hotel? Is it central located and near underground station? Has it an elevator?

wanderfrau

valtor - We enjoyed our stay at Das Tigras. It has an elevator and it is very centrally located,plus it is near an U-bahn stop, a tram stop and the airport bus stop.

returntoyourseat

thank you for this report, we are going to Vienna for Christmas week and this answers some questions for me. We are not opera fans either and to be stuck in one, I think you would need to be a fan. It sounds like the good outweighed the bad, honest reporting.

wanderfrau

return - even with being "stuck' at the opera we enjoyed it. We thought many times, "if we enjoyed it under these circumstances, just think how much better it would be in a real seat." If you don't go to the opera, go see the opera house itself. It's a beautiful building.

Let me know if I can help with other questions.

I know there are other threads on Vienna at Christmas.