Vienna Logistics

Even though we were only in Vienna for less than four days, it seems like we fit in a weeks' worth of exploring and sightseeing.  This is definitely thanks to our wonderful tour guides, Traude and Gerhart, who are distant relatives of mine.  They were more than happy to spend three whole days with us to show us their beautiful city and we were so grateful for their assistance and hospitality.

We departed boyfriend's house in Luxembourg at 4:25AM (not my favorite time of day) and connecting through Munich we arrived in Vienna right around noon on Friday.  I must say that we LOVED the Lufthansa amenities while waiting.  Free coffee machine and a wide variety of free newspapers! How awesome is that?!

Free newspapers galore!

This machine coffee was actually delicious!

We followed the directions given to us by T & G and seamlessly transferred from one train to another, hopped on a short street car ride and arrived at our hotel before 2PM.  Note to travelers: take the S7 train into town (3.60€ each), not the overprices CAT (9€ each).  It takes 25 minutes instead of 16, but it costs less than half of the price!

The hotel was also recommended by T & G; the Meininger hotel/hostel was the perfect budget choice in the downtown area.  We stayed at the brand new Downtown Franz location for just 20€ per person per night with a twin room and private bath.  We really enjoyed the hotel with easy access to a street car stop, short walk to the city center and free wifi in the lobby.

Hotel Hallway.

We also bought weekend tickets for the public transportation system so we could ride all the trains, street cars and buses as much as we wanted without worrying about buying tickets each time.  The 72-hour ticket was perfect for our stay and it cost just about 13€ each.  The whole weekend was spent hopping on and off trams and trains, and by the end of the weekend we really had a feel for getting around the city!

Street Tram in Vienna

Just to make sure I don't overwhelm you with the trip details, I'll leave this post as just the logistics and write again soon about all the sightseeing, delicious food and wonderful time spent in the opera houses!