Vienna, Austria

After waking up in the morning, the plan is to explore Vienna. Because we have some differing interests, we decide to split up in the morning. Papa Minion and I will be heading to Schonbrunn Palace. Meanwhile Mama Minion and The Sister will take it easier in the morning before exploring central Vienna. Then we’ll all meet up and continue to explore together.

Schonbrunn Palace

Schonbrunn Palace is a little outside the central core of Vienna. So Papa Minion and I head out a little earlier to catch a train on a beautiful Vienna morning.

After a brief 20 minute train ride, we arrive at the station closest to Schonbrunn Palace. From there it’s a short walk to the main gate and it opens up to a huge courtyard. Unbeknownst to us,  there is an Easter market setup for most of April. So there are some extra festivities happening in what is normally a sparser open courtyard in front of the palace.  Papa Minion and I also stop off at a cafe for a light breakfast before heading into the palace.

The Palace

Upon entering the palace, you can pick up audioguide that will walk you through a majority of the palace interior. It speaks of the history of the Palace and its relation to both the city of Vienna and Austria. The path through the palace is linear and every room serves a specific function and is beautifully decorated. Papa Minion and I spend an hour or two going through each room and admiring the lovely designs.

Schonbrunn Gardens

After concluding our visit to the Palace, we head behind it to explore the Schonbrunn Gardens. The Gardens are a huge park which most people are free to explore. To be honest I didn’t expect for it to be so expansive and can see how someone could probably spend a whole day in the Park and still find new things to see! It’s also neat because its generally open to the public, so anyone in Vienna could probably make a day of it and have this beautiful greenspace to enjoy. At the other end of the gardens is a hill at which anyone can walk up to get some stunning views of Vienna as well. So that’s what Papa Minion and I did!

The Gloriette

At the top of the hill is The Gloriette. A gloriette is a building in a garden usually at an elevated position. The Schonbrunn Gloriette is one of the most famous examples of these buildings. And besides the palace probably one of the most identifiable features of the entire park. Not only is the actual building super cool to check out. But as you walk up the hill and get to the top, the view of the palace and Vienna in the background is stunning!

The Maze

Another neat feature of the park is the Maze. At first I thought this is an area for families and children to enjoy. However, it’s actually something that’s been around since the 1700’s. It’s been reconstructed and now is another fun thing to do at the park. Papa Minion and I spent a little time in the different hedge mazes available trying to face each other to the centre and also to be the first to escape!

The Easter Market

After getting our fill of the Gardens, we make our way back to the front of the Palace to explore the Easter Market. In the morning most of the market hadn’t opened yet. But now it’s fully open and very busy! Papa Minion and I stroll through the different booths a little and find a nice spot to sit and enjoy the vibe. We’re also trying to coordinate meeting back up with Mama Minion and Sister at the same time. Similar to my previous trip to the Benelux region, getting to explore a market over the holidays is awesome. They really know how to put on a good market!

Meanwhile…

The difficult part about splitting up is I’m not able to write about The Sister and Mama Minion’s experiences. However, they did share photos with me and it looks like they also had an amazing time exploring the city. Maybe I will try to get a guest post out of The Sister in the future, but for now enjoy photos of their morning exploration of Vienna!

Cafe Museum

After our respective mornings, the family reconnects for lunch at Cafe Museum. Because its such a nice day, we opt for an patio seat and order different items for lunch. I order a weekly special that includes soup, meatballs and mashed potatoes. Papa Minion has an assortment of sausages. The Sister orders goulash while Mama Minion also enjoys a soup. The other item of note are the desserts. This is our first opportunity to try strudel and I’m happy to report that it doesn’t disappoint.

Happy Hour

After lunch we return to our hotel to rest a little. The hotel has a happy hour where the Sister and I partake of. I really like being able to sit on the sidewalk and just people watch. The Sister and I spend a little over an hour enjoying our drinks and watching people go by.

Vienna in the Evening

After a little while, we all decide to head out again. Our first stop is the Museum Quarter. It’s a large area that consists of various art galleries and museums. As it’s late in the day we didn’t enter any of the museums. But simply walking around the area you can still appreciate the awesome architecture of some of the larger buildings.

From there we head towards the Imperial Palace area and retrace some of the steps Mama Minion and The Sister did in the morning. The beautiful architecture continues to be on full display and simply strolling through the area is a treat!

From there we walk through some of Vienna’s pedestrian only shopping streets. With no real aim, we all just wander the different streets and doing a bit of window shopping at the same time! Along the way we stop at a few different points of interest like the Column of Pest, St. Peter’s Church and St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Schachtel Wirt

After a little more walking our thoughts turn to food. We head over to Schachtel Wirt which is this small little shop that has a rotating weekly menu. After looking at the menu a lot of the items really jump out at us, so we end up ordering one of everything on the menu and sharing! My memory is a little fuzzy now, but we end up with two types of pasta one with Chicken and other bacon. There is a pork crackling and dumpling dish, a schnitzel dish, deep fried mushrooms and a salad.

One other thing of note is that throughout our walk, Papa Minion seemed fascinated with Sisi, who is the former empress of Austria. When we noted a Sisi inspired beverage on the menu the family knew we needed to order it for him! All in all every menu item is delicious! To the point there was contemplation of ordering another round of food! And with that in mind I wouldn’t hesitate recommending this spot to others.

It’s been a very full day and after dinner we make our way back to the hotel. Unfortunately we are heading to the airport tomorrow morning. We didn’t have a long time in Vienna, but I’m happy we got to experience everything we did today. Tomorrow we will be heading to Germany where the majority of this family vacation will take place.