Tuesday, January 31, 2012

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!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Vienna Planning

We get to go to Vienna on Friday! I am so excited about this upcoming trip! I grew up going to Vienna just about every other year to visit my Opa (grandfather) who lived there until he passed away in 1996.  Our last trip to Vienna was in 1998 to visit my Omi, my Austrian step-grandmother, who sadly passed away just a couple years later.  My memories are blurry at best because I haven't visited since I was 12, which makes me all the more excited to go back.

My Omi and Opa with my brother and their dog in 1986.
I remember certain museums that I loved (funny, since I'm not so much of a museum person now); I remember the wooden spiral staircase in our hotel that I would run up as fast as I could; I remember playing triominos with my Omi; I remember my Opa with a really long beard.  One of my favorite memories was when my Omi took me to the Prater park and let me go on some of the more daring rides.  Ok, so I don't have a lot of memories of the city itself, but I'm hoping that being there may trigger some memories.  Either way, I'm just happy to have the opportunity to go back.
My Omi and me in 1994.
The original inspiration for our mini-vacation was to celebrate boyfriend finishing his PhD (YAY)!  We had talked about going to Vienna for a while since I wanted to return and he has never been there before.  So, while trying to figure out where to go to celebrate, Vienna was at the top of our list.

The first thing we did was look for airline tickets.  We were a little flexible, just knowing we wanted to go for about four days around the last weekend in January.  Thanks to the kayak matrix we were able to figure out when it would be cheapest to fly.  Even though it was a bit more expensive, we decided to choose flights arriving by noon on Friday and departing around 6pm on Monday in order to make the most of our four-day holiday! Booked! Check! (OK, it was hardly that easy. We debating over days, times, connections, airlines, departure airports, blah blah blah... but alas we booked the flight on January 10).

We have also been in touch with my Omi's relatives who are still in Vienna.  They were able to recommend a hotel for us which seems like a backpacker place in the city center (perfect for us -- we love a relaxing environment and the price was right) which we were able to book online.  They also graciously offered to pick us up from the airport, but since we are travel buffs we declined in exchange for some public transport hints.  We will be meeting them on Friday afternoon to get some advice about what else to do in the city.  They speak a little English, but luckily I'm bringing along my personal translator (boyfriend, hehe) to help with communication.  I love knowing a local to help you get to know the city!

The only additional planning we have done so far is booking tickets for the opera houses!  After a little googling we found two different opera houses with tickets remaining and decided to book our seats.  First, the famous Staatsoper, the Vienna State Opera, had tickets for a ballet on Sunday night for only 8 Euros.  We figured we would want to do a tour of the opera house anyway, so instead we put the money into tickets to the ballet!  They aren't the greatest seats, but it's all about the experience, right?  We were able to book the seats online and even print out the tickets!
Staatsoper, Vienna
Second, the Volksoper, Vienna People's Opera, which had ticket's to Mozart's "The Magic Flute" for Friday evening. What better place to see it than in the city it was originally performed?  We are both excited about seeing this classic opera in Vienna!  These tickets were also available to purchase online and hopefully they will be waiting for us at the ticket office.  We figured that an opera on Friday and ballet on Sunday would make our trip to Vienna a proper one!

We haven't done much planning otherwise; just a bit of searching on TripAdvisor.  But, we are mostly looking forward to just experience the city and figure out the rest along the way.  We are both so excited for this trip! Next week, after returning to Luxembourg I'll be sure to report on all we did!