Vienna Travel Diary: Our Second Week of Family Adventures (+ Some More Hidden Gems)

By the time I get around to posting this recap, our time in Vienna will be down to a little over a week.

That is mind boggling!

A whole month here seemed like an endless amount of time, and now the days are slipping by alarmingly fast. But we continue to fit in lots of fun adventures, and I think we’ll all leave feeling like we truly made Vienna a “home away from home.”

(You should see the confidence with which we navigate public transit in the city now!)

Also mind boggling? The number of photos we have from this trip. I plan to make a dedicated photo book from our time in Europe, but I’m thinking it may have to be a series of photo books. Yeesh. It’s a good “problem” to have, but it can feel overwhelming. That said, I absolutely love sitting down and looking back at everything we’ve been doing!

In the comment section of a recent post, Stephany asked if we do a photo triage once a week.

We do this DAILY.

It would be wayyyyy too overwhelming if we didn’t deal with pictures right away.

Okay, on with the recaps!

• Here’s a summary of our first weekend in Vienna (mostly spent walking through the heart of the city).
• Here’s a recap from our first full week in Vienna (all sorts of adventures… along with nursing two very sick kiddos).

OUR SECOND WEEKEND

I’ve written about our second weekend in two posts:

• Saturday was a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia!

• Sunday afternoon was a trip to the Schönbrunn Zoo.

MONDAY

Oof.

Monday was a TOUGH day. Big emotions, an incredible amount of petty fighting, and I was spent all day driving the Parenting Struggle Bus.

Despite sibling fights, life had to go on. With our current setup, no one can really go their separate ways—we’re living in close proximity for the foreseeable future. So we had to rally, deal with things head-on, and move forward.

And that’s what we did. There were tears, hurt feelings, and I had to use every ounce of my patience reserves. Both kids were equally at fault (so much button-pushing!), but we made progress and ended up with an okay day by the end.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser (a pseudonym) is a famous (and eclectic!) Austrian artist. His building designs are iconic, and we wanted to check out a few of the most noteworthy.

Our first stop was Kunst Haus Wien (Museum Hundertwasser). We didn’t go inside, but admired the exterior.

Nearby Hundertwasser House was far more impressive (at least from the outside). It looks like a patchwork quilt, with trees and shrubs growing out of windows and along the walls. It felt incredibly whimsical, like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Next, we made our way to Stadtpark, which I thought was absolutely GORGEOUS. It’s most famous for being home to the Johann Strauss monument (apparently this is the most photographed landmark in Vienna!).

It was a lovely spring afternoon. The park was full of people sitting on blankets and benches eating and talking and enjoying the lovely weather and early blooms.

On our way out of the park, we discovered this “flower clock” and IT WORKS! How cool is that?

When John and the kids had been at the Schönbrunn Zoo, they got a 25% coupon for Lindt as part of their entry package. It was only valid for a week, so we made our way to the Lindt store and were thrilled to get a discount on a VERY expensive hot chocolate for Indy (it was delicious; the best hot chocolate of my life was from the Lindt Store in Paris and I consider it worth every penny) and some chocolate for Belle, John, and I.

(Not only did we get 25% off, we also got three free chocolates!)

Viennese people must really appreciate fresh flowers—there are shops everywhere, and I regularly see people walking around with bouquets.

I also wanted to stop by the Jesuit Church (also called the University Church), which dates back to the 1600s.

The art at the front… is not from that time. I have no idea who painted this or what it’s supposed to be (a turd? a potato?).

Regardless, it’s stunning architecturally.

From there, we navigated to see Mozart’s apartment (Domgasse 5). You can get tickets to go inside. No one in our family is a super fan of any sort, but it was cool to see the exterior. They had spinning wheels with portraits of Mozart at different stages of his life and every few minutes they would align and you’d get a complete picture.

Indy loved it!

We navigated home and ate leftovers for supper and then John and I went back downtown to see the city at night.

It was spectacular. The sky looked like someone had spilled a bottle of black and navy ink. The crescent moon was shining.

The whole thing was sheer perfection, as Prue Leith might say about a particularly delectable chiffon cake (YES I AM DESPERATE FOR ANOTHER SEASON OF GBBO, why do you ask??)

Votive Church…

City Hall…

Austrian National Parliament…

Hofburg Palace…

A cool window display!

St. Peter’s Church…

TUESDAY

There aren’t many free museums in Vienna, so you can bet your bottom dollar that we were going to make good use of any without an entry fee.

The Wien Museum in Karlsplatz is free of charge for all the permanent collections (which ends up being most of the museum). It covers the history of Vienna and it was excellent. Everything was very engaging and interactive, with all sorts of fun facts, and tactile stations that were interesting to the kids. I could have spent a lot longer exploring everything, but Belle and Indy were ready to go after an hour or so. I highly recommend this as a great outing with or without kids and the price can’t be beat.

Plus, HUGE bonus, they have excellent free bathrooms on site 🙂

Indy LOVED this “build your own city” station. It was a lightbox and had all sorts of different shapes that could be manipulated.

There was some armour that could be tried on, which was shockingly heavy (how did knights move in these things???).

This paper mache model of St. Stephen’s Cathedral took over 10 years to create. It was impressive. And, in a lower level, they had a camera you could move to look around inside the model!

There was also art! Like this painting by Gustave Klimt—his style is not really my “thing” but it was cool to see in person nonetheless.

There were lots of maps and paintings (and models) of Vienna over the centuries.

After leaving the museum, Indy begged to spend some time watching cars, so we headed to the Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain. We had gone there a week earlier and the fountain was empty; now it was full and spraying all sorts of water.

Indy only had eyes for fancy cars.

And Belle caught up on some texts from her grandmother <3

That evening, John and I headed back out. He had read some pointers for great walks in Vienna. Unbeknownst to either of us (I just followed his lead and he hadn’t been with us the previous day), we wound up back at the Hundertwasser houses!

Next was a pit stop for DELICIOUS pasteis de nata at the appropriately named Portuguese bakery Nata (we make an effort to find pasteis as often as we can).

We walked by a variety of churches (we didn’t go inside any of them, content to admire the lovely exteriors).

We walked and explored all sorts of nooks and crannies and alleyways.

We wrapped up the evening by going out for some traditional Bavarian food: Wiener schnitzel and Käsekrainer (cheese filled sausage, in this case wrapped in bacon) served with fries and sauerkraut.

I told John that no vegetables were harmed in the making of this supper!

This is clearly a local FAVOURITE. There were pictures of celebrities on the wall (including Ed Sheeran), the place was packed (everyone had to share tables with strangers; we ended up being with a couple from Athens who spoke excellent English), people were turned away at the door it was so full, service was quick, servings were huge, and it was all wonderfully authentic and reasonably priced. You can tell this is where Viennese people come to have schnitzel.

We had tons of leftovers. And a giant cup of cold water was only €1. I hate, hate, hate paying for water, but this was cold and relatively inexpensive (comparatively).

The name of the restaurant was Schnitzelwirt and it was the real deal. Note that they ONLY accept cash, no card.

WEDNESDAY

Belle had wanted to go off exploring with John before he started work for the day, so they set their alarms and were home from an almost 9 km walk when Indy and I were just wrapping up breakfast.

So… I left Belle home to do some school work and Indy and I set out to explore.

His one and only request?

I’ll give you a few seconds to guess.

…

…

…

He wanted to go look for fancy cars. That boy is easy to please and it doesn’t cost a red cent to go sit on a bench somewhere and watch cars go by.

We were almost finished reading our book (The City of Ember), so I brought my Kobo along and read that out loud to him while he watched cars (he interrupted me periodically to look up at some fancy car I couldn’t give two hoots about).

After we watched cars for a bit, we grabbed something for lunch and then I navigated us to another free highlight in the city: MQ Libelle, a rooftop terrace with great views of the city.

When we got there, I discovered it was still closed for the winter season (and won’t reopen until after we leave Vienna). Womp, womp.

I had also wanted to check out Setagayapark (the Japanese park) to see about the state of the blossoms, especially with wind, rain, and snow coming.

We’d been a week earlier and there were no blossoms and no people.

Well, on this balmy spring-like day, there were both blossoms and LOTS of people. I figured we’d be in and out in no time—it’s a small park, and Indy is an 11-year-old boy after all. But he loved looking at the flowers and taking pictures.

Even more impressive, though, were the dozen or so turtles. He absolutely LOVED watching them and I had to drag him away from the park when it was finally time to go home. There were also lots of fish in the pond and we could see them swimming which delighted him.

We came home and everyone vegged for a few hours while John finished up his work for the day. I had wanted to check out one last vantage point of the city and all sorts of reviews suggested Leopoldsberg Church.

It’s a trek to get there (you can walk, but it is a steep climb). We opted to take the bus. I was so excited to see the church… and then we discovered everything was gated off for construction work.

ARGH.

This was as close as we could get.

We opted to walk home (a very steep descent, but also provides some great views).

It ended up working out just fine in the end; we didn’t see the church, but we got our views, the kids had a great time on the hike, and we were all very hungry for supper after all the walking.

John made pasta with a red sauce and it was amazing.

THURSDAY

This was Belle’s 15th birthday!!!

The day started with a funny card that I’d brought from Canada, a few balloons (I had brought a few—deflated, obviously!) in my luggage.

Originally, we had planned to celebrate her birthday by going as a family to the Prater Amusement Park, but heavy wind and rain put the kibosh on that.

We pivoted, and she requested a trip to the mall.

It ended up being a fun, eventful day.

John needed us to pick something up at a hardware store and we decided to navigate there first. It was torrential rain, we got lost, and ended up walking several kilometers through the inclement weather.

No one at the hardware store spoke ANY English, so I muddled my way through using Google Translate. I found what I thought would work (but couldn’t get a hold of John to confirm because he was on work calls).

Then we headed to the mall.

Google Maps said it was a fairly short walk. Public transit looked like it would be a bit of a faff, so Belle said she was up for more soggy hiking.

What was supposed to be one km must have been at least two, maybe more. We FINALLY arrived at the mall. Our coats were soaked, but both did an excellent job of being waterproof.

We’ve been to three malls in Vienna now and I would say they’re all quite underwhelming, but we had a great time.

At the first mall she found a pair of shorts (needed), we stopped for a waffle with Nutella (not needed, but very delicious). We shopped some more, and took time for a pizza lunch (her specific request).

Then we navigated (using public transit) to a second mall. This one was wonderfully convenient, as it’s located on TOP of a public transit station. She found a pair of adorable sneakers (not needed, but on sale), she got a birthday doughnut, and then we stopped at a grocery store to get some snacks for our movie night (her request; the first Lord of the Rings movie).

When we got home I was COLD TO THE BONE, so I took a shower and was in my PJs eating yummy leftovers + snacks by 5 pm which was AMAZING.

Friday ended up being a very full day (Vienna Crime Museum + Aquarium), so I’ll save that for another recap post because #PhotoOverload.

Your turn.

• Tell me about your most memorable birthday!!
• Would you rather climb up or down a steep hill?