My camera was overflowing with random pictures from Vienna that didn’t necessarily fit a specific theme but I wanted to memorialize them on the blog in some way. Hence a giant photo dump with periodic commentary from my peanut gallery.
Belle and John created their own walking route to a popular viewpoint (Cobenzl Aussicht) and it ended up being a go-to hike for them over the four weeks we were in Vienna.
Here’s the view from the top (it’s a steep climb)!
That same day, Indy and I walked along the Danube and met up with them coming down from the viewpoint.
It was chilly, but delightful to see the sunset.
There’s a giant group of swans at one particular part of the river (they have signs warning pedestrians not to approach them; swans are notoriously territorial and aggressive). The picture isn’t very clear, but I wanted a way to remember seeing so many swans on the Danube! There were probably several dozen? Definitely the most I’ve ever seen in one place.
This must be the financial district in Vienna. We never actually went over to this part of the city, but it was fun to see it lit up at night.
The destination for our walk was the St. Francis of Assisi church. Belle and I had visited during the day a few weeks earlier and we really wanted to see it at night.
We all agree it looks like something that belongs at Hogwarts!
You can see a river cruise boat docked in front of the church. There were at least 10 river cruise boats lined up along this part of the Danube on this particular night!
The next day, we took public transit to the far side of the city to go to Nata, the main Portuguese bakery in Vienna. John and I had visited once before but they had almost run out of pasteis by the time we arrived—the horror! This time we were in luck and managed to buy a six-pack.
I have had many pasteis at this point in my life being married to a Portuguese man, and these rank among the very best! We definitely recommend Nata if you like custard tarts and happen to find yourself in Vienna.
John wanted to see St. Francis in the daylight (he had only seen it at night), so we headed that way. En route, we walked by a building covered in Virginia Creeper. The plant is over 100 years old and is legally protected as a “natural monument.”
Let the record show that I got all that information from a plaque (Google Translate for the win!), while the boys were taking pictures and admiring the building.
The fastest route actually took us through Prater Amusement Park. (This was before we went to celebrate Belle’s birthday.) So we texted her a few teaser photos to make it seem like we’d stopped to check out some rides. I don’t think she was fooled…
We spotted some street art along the way…
And then we were back to St. Francis of Assisi, but this time in full daylight.
It really is stunning!
Now I have to digress with a GIANT complaint about a public bathroom close to the church.
It’s a bit hard to see from the pictures, but it boils down to this: if you have a penis/can pee standing up, the bathroom is free. If you don’t, you need to pay €0.50.
I was fuming about this! There’s a free bathroom that was essentially a giant urinal (OKAY, GROSS), but to have access to a stall you had to pay money. At the best of times I don’t like paid bathrooms, but this is egregious gender discrimination!!! They even show the male sign over the free bathroom and the female sign over the paid portion.
I was very hot under the proverbial collar about this.
Moving on.
Across the river/bridge from St. Francis there’s a man-made island called Donaubeisl. It’s over 20 km long, and is apparently a hub of activity in the summer. There’s a lighthouse (that isn’t functional), and all sorts of swimming platforms.
It was a chilly day in April, so we had to use our imaginations about how lovely the water would be in summertime. We walked most of the way back to our apartment on this island.
There was an impressive outdoor gym at the base of the lighthouse. Indy would have stayed all day if we’d let him. I was incredibly surprised by the quality and range of equipment (and there were quite a few people using the machines).
After all that hard work, he needed a break…
One of the swimming platforms…
One of the lions on the Schemerl Bridge (located about 5 minutes from our apartment).
Another day, Belle and John walked 10+ km to get to Central Cemetery. It was huge and not as interesting (to me) as Pere Lachaise in Paris.
We mostly went to see the graves of the music greats associated with Vienna.
Beethoven…
Schubert…
Brahms…
Johann Strauss II…
The next evening, Belle and I went to the Votive Church for the Light of Creation Show and the boys went on a walk to see cool cars. I don’t have any pictures of said cars, but I do have pictures of a few sights they saw along the way…
Some jumping had to be involved, obviously.
While there wasn’t much walking involved, I guess this catchall post is as good a place as any to post pictures from the Votive Church! The light show was such a fun experience and I definitely recommend it if you’re visiting Vienna.
Tuesday morning, Belle and John went to their favourite viewpoint to watch the sunrise. They caught the bus up and walked back. Even still, it was an early morning!
Another day, I took the kids to visit Jubiläumswarte, an observation tower in the Vienna Woods.
I resize pictures for the blog so the quality isn’t exceptionally high but you can kind of make out the bee that is going straight for Indy in this picture. Thankfully, he didn’t get stung!
Eeks! It’s getting closer, and Indy is completely unaware.
The kids always lament that you have to pay to use the stationary binoculars. At this spot, they worked without money! We all enjoyed spotting snow-covered Alps.
Such a great view.
This tree was over 280 years old when it came down!!
They had stamps here; I assume there’s some passport of sorts people can fill out while hiking in these woods? We just stamped our hands.
These wooden statues were hilarious. Belle leaning in for a sheepish kiss and Indy has his arm around the woman while she side-eyes what’s going on with her son…
I was originally going to visit the Museum of Natural History with the kids on Thursday (John was in Salzburg the whole day for work), but the weather was glorious and, when I checked the forecast, Friday was looking dismal.
So we pivoted.
Belle was keen for some alone time, so I left her at the apartment and Indy and I went to the end of the public transit line to visit Kurpark.
It was huge, had lots of incredible green space, and we spent several hours exploring the playground. There were fun slides, lots of things to climb and, Indy’s favourite, a zipline.
There were llamas!
Without a doubt, this zipline was the star of the day. He spent at least an hour running back and forth, riding it, trying to figure out the physics of getting the maximum amount of momentum and speed.
Giant swings!
A sanctioned climbing spot.
Spotting fish. Always a favourite.
When he did a tree pose, I immediately thought of Nicole!
Friday was cold and rainy and ended up being the perfect day (weather-wise) to visit the Museum of Natural History.
It was… fine. I’ve decided Natural History museums just aren’t my favourite. Everything is so old (which is the point, I realize) and I left feeling the same way I felt about the one in New York City. I’m glad I’ve gone once, but have no need to ever return. In terms of admission, kids were free and adults were €18.
My favourite part of the museum, by a landslide, was the gems section. So much incredible jewelry that sparkled in the glass cases!
Indy loves gems and stones (plus, we’ve found amethyst “in the wild” before), so he was particularly enthused.
A GIANT diamond.
This was a bouquet made out of jewelry.
These gold discs are more than 6,000 years old! They’re the oldest gold ever found in Austria and the second oldest in the world! They were discovered by a shepherd boy in the mid-1800’s.
They had an interesting section about the future of farming/food production. The kids were ready to leave the museum (past ready to leave, actually), so I didn’t really get a chance to linger and read all the placards.
A sheet of virtual gold stars to anyone who can identify the pop culture significance of this picture. Belle was the one who suggested we try to find a specimen of this particular moth and we found it!!!
Pretending to be a turtle coming out of his shell.
Saturday was our last full day in Vienna and I stayed home, packed, took a nap, and generally felt mildly depressed by the fact we were leaving Vienna.
John took the kids on a GIANT walking adventure; they ended up back at Prater and did a few more rides.
In an effort to conserve our limited luggage space, we left a few cold-weather clothing items that we no longer needed (since we buy almost everything inexpensively second-hand they’ll be easy to replace). I didn’t want to throw out textiles, so was delighted to find a clothing drop-off bin close to our apartment. Conveniently, getting there (and back) served as my intentional walking for the day!
At some point I want to pull together a giant post with all my tips, tricks, and highlights from Vienna. But today is not that day! I have one more post from our time spent in the capital of Austria (a quick post about an epic Easter market), and then I will move on to roadtrip recaps!
But today is the day we transition to Helsinki for a month. So, over and out for now…
Your turn.
- Natural history museums: yes or no?
- Who can figure out our interest in this particular species of moth?
- Which of these walks/experiences do you think you’d enjoy the most?
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