Day 12 – Bratislava to Vienna

Austrian Local "City Shuttle" Train

Today was a light travel day. By light, we mean about 10K steps and not the 15K to 18K we have been doing. That is a lot of walking for old people like us who aren't used to it. We took the hotel taxi to the train station, bought two one-way second class tickets to Vienna for 12€ each, and the ride was an uneventful 1 hour and 5 minutes. We had considered taking the boat up, which is only slightly longer but the early sailing was booked and the next sailing wasn’t until afternoon. We were back on the Executive Floor at the Hilton so we were happy to have the Executive Lounge at our disposal again - free drinks and food all day!!!

Sacher and Esterházy Tortes

We took care of a little business (picked up our overnight rail tickets and our Hop On, Hop Off tickets for tomorrow) and then bought 24-hour transit passes and saw the city by metro.  First stop was lunch at the Museum Café. Vienna is famous for their cafés and their pastries and so we sampled a couple of their more famous one – the Sacher Torte (the chocolate cake in the photo) and Esterházy Torte. They were both delicious.

Johann Strauss Statue in the Stadtpark

Then we followed a Rick Steves recommended tour on their tram system around the Ringstrasse and listened to Rick explain what we were seeing along the way. We then went to the Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral) which is at the heart of old town Vienna. Beautiful gothic cathedral but not as ornate as some we have seen. It does contain a painting of Mary and the baby Jesus, which is called “Maria Pötsch” and that many Hungarian pilgrims come to pray to for miracles. We saw about 20 pilgrims praying (or maybe just resting) in front of the painting when we were there.

In the evening, we went to a Strauss and Mozart concert at the Kursalon, which is a famous concert hall here in Vienna. Johann Strauss is of course the waltz king of Vienna and most known for his Blue Danube Waltz. He performed many times at the Kursalon. Mozart was born in Salzburg but reached prominence in Vienna. There was a 12-piece orchestra, two singers and two dancers in the show and it was quite entertaining.