As someone who struggles to make friends and has never really fitted into a group, I rarely have the opportunity to go on a girls trip. But when I landed in Germany to start my study year abroad, it felt like a fresh start. I was determined to put myself out there – and so when I got the opportunity to join a few of my fellow exchange students on a weekend trip to Vienna, I decided to go along. And what a weekend it was!
Friday
At the time of this trip, we were all in pre-sessional German language courses run by the university. Myself and one of the other girls in the group had our classes in the afternoon slot, so couldn’t leave until evening on the Friday. This, and a couple of other factors, led to our decision to hire a car and take a marathon seven hour road trip all the way across southern Germany and Austria to Vienna in the east.
Such a long journey was bound to be a little eventful… I realised I had forgotten my passport around 2 hours in, at a point where it was too late to turn back. The Germany-Austria border is within the Schengen zone, so passport checks are not regularly carried out, but I was still nervous as you are supposed to carry approved ID at all times. Being from the UK, its normally impossible for me to drive abroad (aside from driving onto a cross-Channel ferry, which isn’t quite the same thing) so I hadn’t made the connection in my brain that I would be going “abroad” to Austria. But thankfully I was never checked and I never made this mistake again during my time living in Germany (well, almost never…)
Then there was the saga of obtaining a vignette, a pre-paid sticker displayed in your car windscreen that allows you to drive on faster motorways in Austria. We had researched online and had read that we could purchase one of these at service stations in the border areas, but it turns out that most of them aren’t open 24 hours and it was close to midnight by the time that we were in the region. In the end, after an interesting journey down some Austrian country roads, we finally found a petrol station that was still open and – as the most confident German speaker in the group – I thankfully went to purchase the vignette.
There was definitely a group celebration once the vignette was in hand!
Aside from these hiccups the drive went pretty smoothly – and we even got to try the famous “no speed limit” zones on the German autobahn, which was definitely an experience! We eventually got to Vienna at around 2am, found our Airbnb room and crashed for the night, ready for a day of exploring.
Saturday
The morning got off to a great start, with a “free” walking tour of the city on the agenda. Although these are indeed advertised as free, you are expected to tip the guide for their time and knowledge and it’s only fair for the experience you gain! I had never done one of these before as I had always thought I would prefer to go at my own pace and try to avoid sticking out as a tourist. But in the spirit of trying new things, I was happy to go along with the plan and see what it would be like.
As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. We had a lovely guide who successfully managed to lead a rather large group of us around all the important sights in the centre of Vienna. Along the way we stopped at various points to learn about the history of the city and Austria as a whole, as well as learning about the Austrian way of life today.
At school I hated studying history, but turns out travel history is much more my thing! Being able to actually see places and landmarks in front of you makes the historical background so much more interesting. One of my favourite facts was about the Looshaus (pictured above). Apparently, Kaiser Franz Joseph hated this building so much that he ordered all the curtains on this side of the Hofburg palace to be closed at all times, so that he didn’t have to see it. Just one of many tidbits of information that I would never have gained without coming on the tour!
Afterwards, me and the girls continued to explore Vienna on foot by ourselves. I was honestly blown away by how beautiful this city is. Throughout the centre the architecture is just stunning, even on the residential streets the buildings have a certain grandeur that I’m yet to see anywhere else. The girls were keen to tick off the rest of the main sights, so we did our own little tour of the famous buildings in the city centre.
Perhaps the most famous of these is the Domkirche St Stefan (St Stephen’s Cathedral) with its elaborately tiled roof. It sits squarely in the busiest part of Vienna’s centre and dates back to 1137 – though it has been extended, improved and rebuilt several times since then.
You can get a good view of the Cathedral from the outside, and this is honestly the best option budget-wise as there is little to see inside unless you pay. You can enter for free, but there is a metal fence/gate barring you from walking down the aisle. It is possible to stand here and take photos though – but be prepared to wait a little while to get a spot!
You can also choose to pay to go up either of the two towers in the cathedral or for a tour of the catacombs below (more expensive). The South tower is the tallest of the two towers and has 343 steps to the top, whilst the North tower was never finished, so is shorter and has lift access. As such, the South tower is slightly cheaper, at €6.50 per adult, but we opted to go for the North tower instead (€7pp) as it has an outdoor viewing platform at the top.
A few other notable highlights were the Rathaus (City Hall), the parliament building and the buildings around the Hofburg palace. But honestly, there are interesting architectural features and buildings everywhere you look. I really enjoy the simple act of walking around a place and people-watching, and Vienna is definitely a great city for that.
I was also really keen to experience the cultural tradition of going to a Kaffeehaus (coffee house) for coffee and cake. This concept is also very prevalent in Germany so I was already a big fan, but Vienna has its own local specialties that I wanted to try as well.
Perhaps most famous of these is the Sachertorte, a dense kind of chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the centre. And as for the coffee, the traditional Viennese coffee is known as a melange – similar to a cappuccino but with a milder taste. These can both be found all over the city in various different coffee houses, some of which are more well-known than others.
The busiest of them all is Cafe Sacher, where the original Sachertorte was created. Of course this makes it hugely popular amongst tourists, with the queues often stretching down the street just to get inside. We were not going to queue for that when there are plenty of other options, and we ended up going with Cafe Hawelka instead. Lying just off Stephansplatz by the cathedral, it opened in 1939 and is decidedly more casual than most of the other famous coffee houses in Vienna.
This cafe is actually famous in its own right as a meeting place for writers, poets and other artists, particularly in the post-war period. It is also considered to be one of the most authentic coffee houses in Vienna and is still run by descendants of the original owners today. Again, it was very busy but we did manage to get a table for five and put in our orders.
Unfortunately I was actually quite disappointed with the Sachertorte. I’m not sure if it was just the one at this particular cafe, but it was very dry and nothing really special. It definitely felt overhyped considering the amount of tourism and publicity around it, and the other girls seemed to agree. The melange coffee, whilst nice, also wasn’t anything to really write home about. And the service wasn’t particularly welcoming, although apparently that’s just how it is in Austria!
However, the cultural experience of being in the cafe was certainly a nice way to pass an hour or so and take a break from being on our feet whilst we decided on our next move.
Lange Nacht der Museen
As luck would have it, the Saturday that we came to Vienna was the day of the Lange Nacht der Museen (Long Night of Museums). This is a popular event which takes place in many of the larger cities in Germany and Austria on different dates across the year. As the name suggests, the majority of museums in the city stay open late into the night (around 1-2am) and a single ticket allows access into all of them. We already wanted to visit a museum or two whilst we were in Vienna, so the timing could not have been better!
After getting our tickets (€12 each for students) we decided to visit the Natural History Museum first. I was genuinely stunned by how beautiful this building is inside. It feels like a work of art in building form, and I can’t believe it’s just open to everyone as a museum! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…
The collection inside this museum is vast, with rooms upon rooms leading off from each other. As well as a huge variety of the typical taxidermied animals, they also had exhibits on human evolution, dinosaur history, geology, meteorites and a room full of precious gemstones. We spent several hours here and honestly only scratched the surface in terms of what there is to see.
For me, the crowds of visitors were definitely a little overwhelming and I found the experience quite tiring after a while. However, I did enjoy walking through all the rooms and learning from the information beside each item (often there were English translations but it also helped me to learn some new German words).
I’m not really a big “museum person” usually but I would definitely recommend checking this one out!
The most famous exhibit at the Natural History Museum here is the Venus von Willendorf figurine. This tiny (11cm tall) statuette is considered to be one of the oldest examples of a statue depicting a complete human figure, dating back 29,500 years to the Paleolithic period. It is believed to be associated with fertility and was thus named “Venus” after the Roman goddess of love, sex and fertility. This is of course a modern-day name as the figurine predates the Roman period by thousands of years!
There is actually also an even older statuette in the same area of the museum which dates back to 36000 years ago (above right).
Across from the Natural History Museum is the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum). Usually I wouldn’t choose to go to this kind of museum, but since we had an all-access ticket for the event, myself and one of the other girls decided to spend a few minutes checking it out.
This museum is also spectacular inside in terms of the ornate architecture. I’ll admit I know very little about art history but I did appreciate seeing some of the ancient Egyptian and Roman carvings and sculpture – even to my very untrained eye, they are impressive. We didn’t spend too long in here as we were tired from being on our feet for hours and we had already spent a long time in the Natural History Museum, but it was still a nice quick visit.
And that was our Saturday summed up! I did attempt to go out and find a bar with one of the girls whilst two of the others went clubbing, but we couldn’t really find anywhere that looked suitable, so we just ended up wandering round Vienna centre for a bit. This was actually quite enjoyable in the night time when it was a bit quieter, it was a very chilled vibe. We then just headed back to the apartment to get some sleep ahead of what was sure to be another busy day.
Sunday
We decided to set up our Sunday as a “palace day”, with visits to the Schönbrunn, Hofburg and Belvedere palaces on the cards. First up was the Schönbrunn, the original countryside summer residence of the Habsburg monarchy, which has since been absorbed into the greater Vienna city area. This was just a short U-Bahn ride from our apartment and we decided to get there as early as we could to try and beat the crowds.
This was definitely a good decision as even on this Sunday morning in October, there were quite a few people around. Schönbrunn is hugely popular and I can imagine it gets packed in summer, so I’d definitely recommend going off-peak and off-season if possible!
Each of these three iconic Viennese palaces has its own style and colour scheme, though Schloss Schönbrunn is perhaps the most unusual with its blocky yellow and green design. You enter the grounds via a huge courtyard at the front of the palace – this is where you’ll find the crowds of people taking photos as they arrive. Going through the side gates and around the back brings you to the palace gardens, and it is here where Schönbrunn looks at its best in my opinion.
The back of the palace looks out onto a large courtyard garden, complete with landscaped flowerbeds and lined with white statues either side. Following the large central walkway then brings you to the impressive Neptune fountain, where it’s possible to walk around the back and stand behind a little man-made waterfall. This allowed me to get some creative water shots back towards the palace (I wish I’d had a proper camera so I could do a long exposure!)
From the fountain you can walk higher up a small hill to the Gloriette – a small secondary structure which offers a nice view back to the palace as I showed above.
We spent an hour or so here exploring more of the grounds – but honestly there wasn’t a great deal more that could be seen for free. You can pay to go inside the palace, but we had heard that the Hofburg was better, and being on a budget we decided to get tickets for that instead.
The Hofburg was the winter residence of the Habsburgs and is located in the centre of Vienna. It is home to the famous Spanish Riding School, the Imperial Treasury and the Sisi Museum – which is dedicated to the life of Elisabeth (better known as Sisi), the famous wife of Kaiser Franz Joseph. Sisi was a very beautiful, if somewhat complicated member of the Habsburg monarchy who was hugely popular during her life and remains so today. As our tour guide from the day before put it “she would have been like a Kardashian in her day!”
The basic Hofburg entrance ticket allows you to tour the Imperial apartments, with audio commentary available via personal headsets. It also gives access to the Sisi museum.
This wasn’t my favourite part of the trip as I am generally not very interested in the lives of historical figures, but I still learned a few things and appreciated the decoration of the palace rooms. Photography was not allowed so I have no photos unfortunately – if you’re interested, you’ll have to go yourself! It is definitely worth a visit for those interested in Austrian history or the life of Sisi, but everyone can learn something by coming here.
After a quick meal stop in one of the few nearby restaurants that was open on a Sunday, we headed across to our final palace of the day – Schloss Belvedere. This is significantly smaller and less well-known than the other two, but is home to numerous significant artworks, most notably those of Gustav Klimt. Since none of us were very interested in art, we didn’t go inside but instead went for a walk around the grounds. The weather wasn’t great at this point in the day but we still enjoyed the relative quiet compared with the other two palaces.
From here we decided to head to Prater park for the rest of the afternoon. This is quite an unusual park, being a mix of open green space and amusement park rolled into one. There’s a lot to do here and the others spent some time on the rides, but I was honestly exhausted from the constant socialising and really just wanted to head back to the apartment, which we eventually did. It was then just a chill night in for all of us as we were all shattered and we had a long drive coming up the next day.
And that’s it for this post! We made a stop off in Salzburg the next day during the drive home – you can read more about that here. And I’ve since been back to Austria multiple times so check out the Austria section of my blog for more!
