Translation: Sightseeing Vienna
For the remainder of the Vienna posts, I plan on grouping them together in a theme vs. doing daily posts. I am writing this post as I am on the train to Budapest after watching the Grand Finals of Eurovision from the Eurovision Village. The contest went until 1:00 AM, and then we went to a bar. I didn’t get home until 6:00 AM and my train was at 10:30 AM. If I start veering into a fantastical timeline, then please bear with me.
For this first post, I am lumping together all of the sightseeing that I was able to fit in between doing things with my traveling companions.
After arriving in Vienna around 10:00 AM, I disembarked my night train and made my way to the flat my friend, Jerrad, arranged for the Eurovision group. I didn’t plan any major sightseeing for this day because I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel after the night train and with the unknown quantity of a group of friends, some known; some not, I wanted to keep it loose. I’ll talk more about Tuesday and our socializing in the other themed posts from Vienna.
After not sleeping nearly enough for various reasons (malfunctioning window blinds, bright sun, and snoring friends), I got myself up on Wednesday morning, showered and out the door by 9am without a major plan for the day other than what I had pinned to my WanderLog itinerary.
After doing some on the spot revisions to coordinate my day, I made my way to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which is the Roman Catholic religious heart of Austria. Stephensplatz was a shortish walk from the flat, and it was enjoyable to observe the architectural beauty of Vienna along the way. Around St. Stephen’s is a bustling retail corridor with all the high-end fashion and local knickknacks you can imagine.
St. Stephen’s itself is a gigantic gothic cathedral that dominates the area. We could clearly see the spire from the balcony of our flat. Largely built in the 1100s, as is true for many churches of its size, it is actually still being worked on to this day. Originally conceived to have two spires, the north spire was abandoned in the 1400s when money and the gothic period officially ran out.
The church itself is free to enter, though if there are services or concerts happening, you’re not able to enter the seating area of the church. You are allowed to wander around and gawk at the architectural beauty. There was actually a Mozart’s Requiem concert happening, which created a suitably heavy soundtrack to this exploration.
As I established in my previous trip to Europe in 2024, I am totally down for climbing church spires, and I paid the 8€ to go up the north tower, honestly thinking it was the south. Once the ticket was purchased, we were shuffled into a small elevator to go to the top of tower. It is a great view, but I really wanted the go up the larger bell tower.
After a quick search, I discovered that you needed to access the south tower from the outside. So, I worked my way out of the church to do that. While en route, it hit noon, and I was able to experience the beautiful chimes. With so many churches in Vienna, the noise from bell towers can be a lot, but it’s still a great thing to behold.
Once I paid for a ticket to the south tower, I started the climb of nearly 400, narrow, spiraling stone steps to the top. Now, I am in fairly good shape, but I had to take a breather a couple times to get to the top. Once there, I was able to get spectacular views in four directions of Vienna. It really was worth it.
Going down was a bit easier, and once on ground level, I made my way towards the Hofburg Palace, with a short stop to see the Vienna State Opera lobby. The Hofburg is a sprawling complex once the winter palace of the Hapsburg Empire, but now, it is the home of the Austrian President, along with a beautiful lawn that people and multiple tourist attractions like museums and the Schmetterlinghaus (Butterfly House), which is the main reason I was going. After paying the 8,50€ to get in (discounted because I bought the seven-day Vienna City Card, which included unlimited transit in the city core and admission discounts), I entered the greenhouse with several varieties of butterfly friendly plants and lots and lots of butterflies.
It was here that I first experienced the annoyance of modern tourism. This greenhouse was not built for the current “influencer” crowd of people trying to film content (yes, I understand the irony), but you also had people touching the butterflies when it clearly stated they were not to do it. I even pointed out that fact like a Karen. It was a worthwhile visit, but some of the other visitors definitely detracted from the attraction itself.
Upon leaving, I made my way around the perimeter of the Hofburg to the Demel Cafe, which is considered a “must do” tourist attraction, which is also something I tend to avoid, but since I wanted to try some Viennese desserts and needed to sit for a bit, I wandered through the retail shop and up to the coffeehouse, where I was able to purchase coffee spiked with cherry schnapps and two desserts, classic apple strudel with a vanilla frosting and a multilayer Cleopatra Torte, with cake, mousse, and preserves layer. Everything was delicious.
After this, I worked my way back to the flat, and we chilled a bit before heading to dinner and cocktails. Thursday was largely a quiet day on the sightseeing front, but Friday, I moved up some things I had planned for Saturday, specifically heading to the east side of Vienna to see the Hundertwasser House and Village.
Before I started my research for this trip, I did not know who Hundertwasser was, but I loved the surrealist architecture he designed. This was a great, “off the beaten path” tourist attraction to see.
Note: Other than some light editing, the above is nearly everything I wrote on the bleary-eyed trip from Vienna. I am now on a train to Prague after a great visit in Budapest, and I’ve decided I need to break this extra long post into two parts.
