I know, I'm so far behind on this blog. I'm trying to get back to finishing it. I think I have put off writing about Vienna because it was a bit of a letdown for me, as we didn't plan well.
Today was one of our few 'rest' days. That's in quotes because we walked over five miles that day, in the muggy heat, which really wasn't a rest day as far as I'm concerned. Luckily, I've lived in Texas for over 25 years, so I'm used to the heat and humidity. We were not centrally located to the old part of the city in Vienna. We were staying in the area near the Vienna University, so we had a bit of a walk if we wanted to see the old city. If only I had downloaded the Bolt rideshare app to my phone at this point instead of deciding to do it the last day of our trip to get around Budapest. We really could have used it in Vienna.
I must say I was really looking forward to Vienna. I'd heard a lot about it, was excited to see it and when we got to the old city, the architecture was very impressive. I loved looking at all the old buildings. They are so well-kept.
However, there were so many tourists, it felt claustrophobic. There were several large groups of riverboat excursions walking around along with many other tourists. I was hoping for quaint shops, but as we walked along the main thoroughfare, the stores I saw were all high-end shops of brands I'd heard of but probably couldn't afford. It felt so touristy and commercial compared to the other smaller cities we had stayed in. Also, we paused for one minute to get our bearings, and we were approached by a man with a binder trying to sell us expensive tickets to a classical music concert. After we politely refused, another shopkeeper approached us and tried to get us to visit his shop. At that point I felt overwhelmed, and my main goal was to get my Christmas ornament commemorating our trip and move on to a less commercialized area. I was able to do that rather quickly and easily as there were many souvenir shops.
It was then I realized that the out of the way places appealed to me more than the hustle and bustle of a big city tourist area.
We didn't feel the need to tour the interior of the cathedral or other public buildings that day, so we just walked around looking at things and ended up near the palace, which was impressive. My husband decided he wanted to walk through the Theseus Temple when we came across it, so we did that (below). Once we exited the temple, we walked around Volksgarten, which is a lovely garden with beautiful flowers and roses and they were all in bloom, as it was mid-May.
I was very hot after our jaunt around the garden. I wanted to have a beer, take a shower and relax. After all, it was back on the bike tomorrow. We headed back to the hotel. I saw this along the way and thought it was interesting:
After our long day, we nice meal outside where my husband forgot his sunglasses and had to walk back to the restaurant to get them.
That evening in the hotel lobby, we had a meeting with the tour operator. This was the meeting for this part of the Danube tour (like the one that the tour operator never gave us at the beginning of the tour). We were having this meeting because we were moving from the Germany and Austria part of the tour down into Hungary and Slovakia. There was one other couple at the meeting who were just starting their tour. Finally! A chance to ask all the burning questions I'd had over the past several days. The routes are 'suggestions....' you don't have to go the way they suggest (uh yeah, just going to ride off into the unknown.. Sure! That's a plan....). He confirmed the routes get you 'near' your hotel, but you have to find it yourself. He also gave us some good advice about what to follow and what not to follow, which I really listened to. There was this thing about getting on a train with the bike which we had a ticket for, but the schedule was hazy (we didn't take the train). There was also this ferry you could take but it only ran on certain days (we blew that off, too). He did tell us where the route got rough and such. I asked about money and credit cards because we'd had problems in Austria with restaurants not taking credit cards.
I felt a better prepared for the upcoming days after that meeting.
If you would like to read more about our three week-long bicycle tour starting in Prague, Czech Republic and ending in Budapest, Hungary, here are the links to our entire adventure:
Day Zero in Prague (Weather or not I wanted to)
Day One.... The Hills are Alive .... and I am not
Day Two....Vistas and Grocery Stores (and an angry cashier)
Day Three.... Are we Hiking or Cycling? (Today it was hard to tell....)
Day Four.....My Favorite Place on the Entire Tour (and a nod to the Beer of Kings along the way)
Day Four and a Half (I couldn't do it justice in one post)
Day 5 ...... Will This Day Ever End???
Day Six... Pausing in Passau (AKA This is the way we wash our clothes.....I think....)
Day Seven - Off down the Danube (If we'd only had that meeting.....)
Day Eight - We needed a day like today.....
Day Ten Cycling the Danube - Cloudy With a Shot of Melk
Day Eleven Cycling the Danube... A rare short mileage day!
Day Twelve Cycling the Danube - Aahhhh Vienna!!!
Day 13 - Our Day in Vienna (It's not supposed to be this HOT)
Day 14: Vienna to Petronell-Carnuntum (Apparently, I can speak some Italian.....)
Day 15 Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria to Bratislava, Slovakia (Rain and broken Chain...)
Day 16 Bratislava, Slovakia to Gyor, Hungary (There's a snake in the grass....)
Day 18: Komarno, Slovakia to Esztergom, Hungary (A tense tummy and a tense moment......)
Day 19: Esztergom to Budapest, Hungary (A long ride for the last day)
Day 20: A Day in Budapest (We had to see the last of the "Stevens/Stephens")
