Wednesday November 29th, 2017
We land in Bratislava, but we have to wait more or less 1 hour for the bus to Vienna, so we have lunch at the airport. Then we take the bus that brings us to Vienna, and by metro we reach our hotel, Novotel Suites Wien City Donau. It’s really near to the metro and just 4 stops from Stephansdom (the Cathedral), so it’s in a very good location and the price is fair. We leave the luggages and head to Belvedere Palace (we start from Upper Belvedere, in front of which there is a Christmas market. The sky is cloudy, so even if it’s not yet late, it’s pretty dark.
We look a bit at the stalls and then we go down trhough the gardens till the lower Belvedere. While we walk in the garden, they light the palaces. From there, with a short walk we reach Karlskirche (in front of which there is another Christmas market), the Opera and then to Spittelberggasse with another small market (reading the guides, we expected something better). We go back to the city center through the Museumquartier, stopping in the Maria-Thereisen-Platz for another Christmas market, to the Hofburg and then dinner near the Rathaus. It’s raining, so after dinner we decide to go back to the hotel.
Thursday November 30th, 2017
It’s snowing. After breakfast we go to Schonbrunn. We reach it pretty early and decide to go directly to the park. It’s nice to walk in the snow with nobody around. We go up till Gloriette and see the palace from above. From there, before going back to the palace, we exit from the side. At a short distance there is the cemetery with tombs of famous austrian artists, like Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt. Back to the park, we return to Schonbrunn palace and see the Christmas market in fron of it. For me it’s one of the best Christmas markets.
We leave Schonbrunn to go back to city center. We walk along the Kartnerstrasse (one of the main pedestrian streets) and stop in a shopping center to see the landscape over the Cathedral. The weather is still cloudy/rainy, so we decide to wait to climb up the tower of the cathedral (we want a better weather). We stay inside the inner city and go to the Postsparkasse (one of the buildings by Wagner), it’s possible to visit it inside (we are the only people inside). We take a short stop at the MAK (museum of applied arts), just to get some warm.
From there we go on to Stadtpark with the monument to Johann Strauss (there is a group of Japaneses taking pictures of it). We see some more buildings and churches like Franziskanerkirche, Kapuzinerkirche and Albertina.
Then we visit inside the national Library. When we finish, we notice outside it’s already dark. We continue anyway our tour, with the Minoritenkirche, the Café Central (we got a bad experience). Then we cross the Freyung passage till the Schottenkirche and the near Christmas market. We take some more pictures in the city center, then we have dinner and back to the hotel.
Friday December 1st, 2017
Today it’s a nice sunny day. We start our day from teh Greek Ortodox church, the near Ruprechtskirche (closed), Maria am Gestade, Ankeruhr, Alte Rathaus, Kirche Am Hof and the stock exchange. We go back to the Minoritenkirche and we see it inside with more light. And then, as it’s sunny, we go up to the tower of Stephansdom, there should be an elevator (maybe it was in the other tower), so we have to climb up a lot of narrow steps. From up, the landscape is very nice. It’s worth to go up. Then we visit St. Peter’s church, take some pictures to the Hofburg (first time in this trip we see it with the sun).
We should be at 1pm at Rathaus for a guided tour, but we want to stop in some more places on the way, so even if it’s still early we go in that direction. We cross the Volksgarten, to reach the Justice palace. It’s possible to go up the terrace on the roof, where there is a café. Another nice landscape. It’s almost time to go to the Rathaus, we follow the guide inside, and later we have lunch. Then we see the Votivkirche.
On some websites we saw there is a nice Christmas market at Schloss Wilhelminenberg. While we go there by bus, we see we are near Steinhof, so we stop here. There is a park with a lot of snow, and children playing. Inside the park there is another church by Wagner. While we go to the church we see a wonderful sunset. Then we reach the Christmas market, there are a lot of people and few stalls, we expected something better, so we go back to Vienna. We take a short break at Prater to take some pics. We go back to the hotel and later we go out for dinner and walk a bit in the city center.
Saturday December 2nd, 2017
It’s another sunny day. Today we go to Rossau district, then again the Volksgarten. This time we walk more into it, and see the Sissi’s monument and the Theseus’ Temple. We go on to Burggarten with Franz Joseph and Mozart’s monuments. We go then to Secession and the Naschmarkt (many stalls are still closed) and we see some buildings along the road in Liberty’s style. Even if it’s sunny and morning, we change our plan and go to Albertina. We wanted to wait in the afternoon to use better the sunny hours, but in the evening we will go to dinner in Grinzing.
The choice seems to be good, there are still few people, so the waiting to get the tickets is not long. We spend a lot of time inside looking at the representative rooms and the paintings (especially Raphael’s ones). When we finish, the sun is still there (even if it’s going to sunset soon), so we go to Belvedere to take some more pictures with sun, and then to the Univeristy Hospital for the last Christmas market. It’s already dark. We visit inside the cathedral, and after a short break at the hotel, we go to Grinzing. Before having dinner, we see the church, where there are some children singing Christmas songs. After a good dinner, we go back to the hotel.
Sunday December 3rd, 2017
Last day of our trip. We leave the hotel and go to Bratislava by train. After leaving our luggages, we take a bus to the city center. In the cathedral, there is a Mass, so we will come back later. We walk in the pedestrian streets, with the national theatre, the “Cumil”, the market square and the town hall. We have some time, so we go to see the blue church and then back to the city center.
After lunch, we visit the cathedral, and go back to the railway station, stopping at the presidential palace. After taking our luggages, we go to the airport and back home.
