10 August 2022
From Venice we caught a water taxi to the train station, then found our seats in first class. We waited for the complimentary prosecco, but it never came! Instead, we had to pay for shitty train food! (Which we did – we were tired and hungry.)
We left Venice at 4pm, and arrived in Vienna at midnight. This train ride is a feast for the eyes, traversing through the Austrian countryside, hugged by the alps and watching the sunset over cute villages and expansive fields. We marvelled at castles on hills, and marked down quaint lakeside towns to come back to.
We were happily surprised by the ease of public transport to our hotel from the main train station, even after midnight, and settled into our palatial room – Cheers Dad for the hotel points!
After several intense days, and not a great deal of sleep, we headed out to a walking tour that Jared had booked us in for.
As I stood in the busy crowded square, surrounded by trucks, accosted by wasps, trying desperately to hear the guide’s heavily-accented lullaby voice over construction noise, traffic, and other people talking, my eyes started streaming from the pollen in a nearby tree.
After two stops and half an hour of this, I was out. I couldn’t concentrate. I wasn’t taking anything in, and trying to pretend like I was required more energy than I could muster. I said to Jared that he could continue and I’d go find a cafe and meet up with him after, or we could go and do a self-guided walking tour.
He, ever faithful, decided to join me in ditching the walking tour, and we did a few stops of a self-guided walking tour. One took us to the bakery that used to supply bread and cakes to the royal palace, and we decided that was a good place to stop.
After a compulsory coffee and cake break, it was roughly 1pm, and we had plans at 4pm to meet someone. Touristing wasn’t working so we tried napping instead.
A delightfully lazy afternoon ensued, then we got our glad rags on, and took a tram to the riverside to meet David.
I met David in MIQ in Auckland, Jan 2021. He also came back to NZ to visit family after not having seen them for a couple of years, though his reasons for visiting were less festive than mine.
He met us at a beautiful rooftop garden, where we tried various cocktails and lemonades and local wines, and chatted the afternoon away. He showed us a few of the nearby Vienna sights, including a few churches which he was impressed by and a random clock.
He saw us off to the boat for our evening cruise, and we continued on our merry three-course-dinner way. A couple of bottles of wine later, and a stunning sunset, and we were returned to our starting point.
We both really enjoyed seeing the lock in action, and being transported to another level of the river. Watching the sunset on the Danube was pretty magical and the food was really good as well.
The next day, we feasted on the buffet breakfast where everything came in really cute little glass containers, checked out of our hotel, went back to the river cruise HQ hoping to find Jared’s wallet and my headphones because we may have been a little sloshed when we left and left a couple of things behind…
We retrieved the wallet but not the headphones, and continued on our way to the train station, heading to Berlin.
Lauren’s favourite: The architecture of Vienna is just spectacular. Wherever you look there are magnificient buildings – usually home to brilliant coffee and cake which makes them all the more beautiful!
Jared’s favourite: Napping. And watching the lock in action on our river cruise. And the river cruise in general.
