Vienna

We waked up early in the morning for our breakfast buffet in order to get ready for our second city in a row, which was Vienna, Austria. It took us about two hours and 27min from Budapest to Vienna.

The hotel was far away from the city, so our tour guide told us that it would be easier to do a city tour first and then head back to the hotel. So our first stop was at Schönbrunn Palace, a Baroque Palace with opulent interiors. An 18th-century summer palace with tours of lavish rococo ceremonial rooms, plus gardens with a maze. There was also at the courtyard area a Christmas Market, where we had the chance to taste a few Austrian dishes and drink a Glühwein. It was a really cold day, but the excitement was bigger than the cold, after our visit at the Palace, there was a City Sightseeing. Vienna city centre is beyond magnificent, I was totally blown away. Beautiful buildings, public gardens, like the Volksgarten, which means People's Garden. The garden, which is part of the Hofburg Palace, was laid out by Ludwig Remy in 1821. Then we headed to Griechenbeisl, which is the oldest restaurant in Vienna, founded in 1447. It is located on Fleischmarkt 11 near the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church. Our last stop before our free time was at St. Stephen' s Cathedral, which is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna. Then we headed to a very special place, an ultimate luxury Hotel and that is Hotel Sacher, in order to taste the original Sacher-Torte, which is the world’ s most famous chocolate cake with a recipe that has remained a well-kept secret since 1832 and a cup of Original Sacher coffee. We were very lucky because we had the chance to meet through a friend from our group of six, one of the Hotel Sacher Doormans, who he took us to a private room, where only members of the hotel are allowed to be there, so we had nothing to do anymore with Café Sacher Wien. We are very thankful and we had the chance to take a lot of pictures of this beautiful luxurious hotel. The coffee was excellent and the dessert was beyond expectations. After our lovely relaxation at Hotel Sacher, we had the chance to explore the city by night, we had another stop as we were really hungry at a Norwegian fast-food restaurant chain specialising in seafood at Kärntner Strasse Vienna Pedestrian Zone, which exists since the Roman Age and was at that time known as Strata Carinthianorum an important connection from the center to the city wall. The 19th century was characterizing for the present shopping street. In the year of 1974 the Kärntner Strasse was redesigned to a pedestrian zone. There is also a mix of historical buildings, traditional shops and stylish flagship stores of international companies. After our lovely walk, we had a few beers at Hard Rock Cafe and it was about time to go back to our meeting point in order to head back to the Hotel. On our way something magical happened, it started snowing. It was really beautiful. I have to say that I was so enchanted by the beauty of this city. Definitely, I will visit Vienna again and see more things by getting a Vienna City PASS, I read somewhere that it' s easier to see the sights of Vienna. Well, back to the Eventhotel Pyramide. A really nice hotel, featuring a 150 feet pyramid, an event center for up to 4,000 people, it also has a spa area with indoor and outdoor pools. The Badener Bahn train line stops right in front of the hotel and takes you to Vienna's State Opera, as well as to the center of Baden, within 25 minutes. We had a big tour during the day and we were so tired to go back to the city, although we wanted. So we stayed at the hotel and we relaxed. 

Here are some pictures from our visit to all those places I mentioned above and from our lovely group of six and of course from our new friends that we met during our seven days trip to Central Europe: 

Schönbrunn Palace

Me getting ready to eat a pizza pretzel!

Austrian Parliament Building

Griechenbeisl

The house in which Rigas lived in Vienna is on 21 Roternturm Str. The sign next to the door describes Rigas and uses his quote, "He who thinks freely, thinks well".

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Kärntner Strasse Vienna Pedestrian Zone

At Swarovski Kristallwelten Store

Hotel Sacher

The world’ s most famous chocolate cake with a recipe that has remained a well-kept secret since 1832: Sacher-Torte and Original Sacher coffee!

The Christmas market on Karlsplatz, Vienna

Eventhotel Pyramide