11 Days in Austria – Vienna, The Capital Of Austria (part 1)

Join for four days in Vienna. In this part, we will be visiting Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Schönbrunn Palace, National Library, and more.

Map

In the morning we left Graz and drove to Vienna airport. After a week with the car, we returned it (since it is more hustle than a benefit in a big city). Then we took a train to Vienna. Checked in, and around noon, we started our three and a half days of exploring Vienna.

Map of the area:

First Day in Vienna

Saint Stephen’s Cathedral

Though our hotel was within walking distance from the old city, we decided to save time and use the subway. The subway was easy to navigate, not expensive (2.20 euro per ride per person), and comfortable. We took the subway to Stephansplatz. The square Stephansdom is also known as Saint Stephen’s Cathedral is located on.

Saint Stephen’s Cathedral is one of Vienna’s most popular tourist attractions. And upon entering, I got a feeling of a tourist money extraction system.

You can see very little for free. There is a long fence closing all the inner parts. Thus, for free, you can see only from a distance.

Ticketing System

When you reach the ticket box, we found cashiers tired of tourists and not willing to explain. And the signs are not very clear. The system is not that simple. There are many tickets for different parts of the cathedral. There are tickets for each tower, Treasury, Catacombs, the Nave, and probably other parts of the cathedral. Each of these tickets costs 5-8 euro and a combo around 25 euro per person.

The problem is that you do not know what you will see in each place and thus not sure which ticket to buy and we did not want to spend 25 euro per person. And yes, I checked their website in advance, and it too lacked basic information, like a photo from each part.

In the end, we purchased two tickets with audio guides to the nave (8 euro each).

Interior:

There were around 14 marked stops for the audio guide, around the nave and next to each stop you heard a short explanation.

For example, this is where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart married on 4 August 1782.

There are several big and small organs inside the nave.

Main altar:

Behind the fence, there were many people photographing Stephansdom, so I decided to create a Cinemagraph from camera flashes.

Beautiful stone carved pulpit:

If you take a closer look, you will see a person peeking from the window in the bottom part of the photo. This is a self-portrait of the unknown sculptor gawking. It is known as the Fenstergucker (gawking out of a window in German).

This was one of the nave’s last stops, and the whole audio tour took about an hour.

Then we continued outside. Saint Stephen’s Cathedral exterior:

Flower shop at Stephansplatz:

Saint Peter’s Church

Within several minutes` walk, you can find Saint Peter’s Church. Saint Peter’s Church, also known as Peterskirche, was our next stop.

Facade view that was shot later that day:

We were lucky to walk in within the middle of a free concert held by American students. We enjoyed the concert for about 20 minutes (till the end) and during this time we heard the choir and various musical instruments including the organ.

I made several interior shots of this beautiful Baroque Roman Catholic parish church when the concert ended.

The dome of Saint Peter’s Church:

Main altar:

The organ above the entrance to Peterskirche:

At the entrance:

Austrian National Library

Next, we headed to Austrian National Library.

The library is located in the Hofburg Palace, about a 10-minute walk from Saint Peter’s Church. Austrian National Library is the largest library in Austria, with 7.4 million items. The library complex includes four museums (there are different tickets for each one) and multiple special collections and archives. We visited only the State Hall.

Some book shelves can be open as secret doors:

This is the Prunksaal (English: State Hall), the center of the old imperial library.

The State Hall – built in the 18th century as part of the former Court Library – is a breathtaking 80 meters long and 20 meters high. An intricately decorated dome and numerous frescos provide an Imperial flair. This baroque jewel is home to over 200,000 tomes.

Source: Official Site

Marble statue of Emperor Charles VI:

One of the globes at the State Hall.

If you love old maps and globes, consider visiting the nearby Map collection and Globe Museum.

Evening Walk in Vienna

When we finished our visit to the Austrian National Library, it was around 17:00. Because we could not visit anything else, we decided to walk around the city and absorb the atmosphere.

Michaelerplatz:

Closeup of one of the sculptures at Michaelerplatz:

There are horse carriages tours showing the Old City Center. Thus, if you not sure where to go, you can either purchase a ticket for a ride or follow their path.

Though there are many horses, the streets are clean. Later, I noticed a big bag between each horse and a carriage. Basically, it is a horse’s diapers.

After about 5 minutes we reached Maria-Theresien-Platz. It is a Prominent square with museums around it. We will return to the museums on another day.

Austrian Parliament Building:

Rathaus or the is the city hall of Vienna:
It is a beautiful and enormous building in a Neo-Gothic style. Many event and festivals are held on the square in front of it, but unfortunately, there was nothing on that day.

Second Day In Vienna

Schönbrunn Palace

Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial summer residence and one of Vienna’s most popular tourist attractions. Therefore I ordered Classic Pass tickets online several weeks before our visit.

Model of Schönbrunn Palace:

View from the main entrance:

One of the problems in buying tickets in advance is that you don’t know the weather, and it was a rainy day.

We did the Grand Tour of the Palace with an audio guide. It took about an hour and unfortunately, I can’t show anything. Photographing inside is prohibited. Thus, I photographed this postcard stand to give you a feeling.

Though most people consider it a must-visit attraction in Vienna, it is hard for me to agree. I agree with this statement if you haven’t visited other palaces in Austria or Europe. But, if been to others, like Eggenberg Palace in Graz, then this will be more of the same. For me, it did not have a wow effect and didn’t leave a memorable experience.

Easter Market

In front of Schönbrunn Palace, there was a small Easter market. We took a short stroll and tasted local food.

Bagel anybody?

And of course sausages:

Energized we decided to visit the gardens and Gloriette.

The Gardens And Gloriette

We walked around the palace, and in the distance on a mountain, we saw the Gloriette. Since we already paid for the tickets to the Gloriette with viewing terrace, and they say it offers a great panorama of the city, I dragged my wife there.

The palace and the gardens:

Fountains on the way:

Finally, almost at the Gloriette:

Looking back:

The walk and the climb to the Gloriette took us probably around half an hour. And as you can see the skies were getting darker by the minute.

We climbed on the roof of the Gloriette and I created this Cinemagraph:

As you can see, it has already started raining. So, we opened the umbrellas and headed back to Schönbrunn Palace.

From the palace, we went back to the subway station and headed to:

Natural History Museum

Museums are an excellent place to hide in bad weather, and since we planned to visit the Natural History Museum anyway, we decided to do it at this point.

We started our visit in the minerals, stones, and meteors section.

Precious metals:

At the dinosaurs halls:

Mammoth:

One of the most famous exhibitions in the department of prehistory is:

Venus of Willendorf

The Venus of Willendorf is an 11.1-centimeter-high (4.4 in) Venus figurine estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE. It was found in 1908 by a workman named Johann Veran or Josef Veram during excavations conducted by archaeologists Josef Szombathy, Hugo Obermaier, and Josef Bayer at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria near the town of Krems. It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area and tinted with red ochre.

Source: Wikipedia

Very little is known about Venus of Willendorf, but we can deduce different things from the fact that similar figures were found from France to Russia. People around 30,000 BCE had abstract thinking, lived in communities, used tools, and many others. Or shortly, they were more advanced than many initially thought.

Ritually damaged helmets are one of history’s riddles that modern scientists cannot answer. We are still not sure why it was done.

Many archeologists believe that it was some ritual and maybe had religious significance to the Bronze Age people. But, there is also a theory saying it was made to control the amount of bronze on the market and thus control bronze’s price.

It was getting late, and we were primarily interested in the exhibits on the first floor. Thus we skipped the second floor.

Back to Maria-Theresien-Platz:

As I mentioned, it was getting late, and we decided to finish it for today. But, don’t worry, Vienna’s second part is coming.

Stay Tuned!

Note: all posts from the trip to Austria can be found at 11 Days in Austria.

Additional Resources

Here are several resources that I created to help travelers:

• Trip Planner with Attractions and Itineraries is the page that will help you create your perfect travel route.
• What is the Best Time to visit Israel? To answer this question, we will consider the weather, prices, holidays, festivals, and more.
• Information and Tips for Tourists to Israel will answer the most common questions tourists have about Israel (including safety, passports, weather, currency, tipping, electricity, and much more).
• Israel National Parks and Nature Reserves include a complete list, top ten, map, tickets (Israel Pass, Matmon, combo), and campsites.
• If you are looking for things to do, here are the pages for Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Sea Of Galilee, Akko (Acre), Eilat, Nazareth, Safed (Tzfat), and Makhtesh Ramon.