Summer travel log, part 2: Wien sightseeing
After the previous leg of the journey, we ended up in Wien around 30 minutes delayed, which was a significant improvement. After getting somewhat lost to confusion in Wien Hauptbahnhof, we found our way to the hotel to cool down before finding food.
We were all tired and chose a safe and vegan-friendly location for the food, Hans im Glück. We tried their pfefferbusch burger which lived up to its pepper-promising name. It was greasy to eat, but satsifying after a long 8 hour trainride. I got the chance to try the Austrian Almdudler. After dinner, we tried finding a few snacks before returning to the hotel.
The next day started early. We had created a list of possible targets to walk by and visit, and it started with a guided tour of Musikverein, ticking in at €26 (€10 per adult, €6 for youth, and kids under 12 had free admissions).
We were shown Brahms Hall, which unfortunately was half-way closed off for preparations or renovations (I couldn’t tell), and then entered the Golden Hall — famous for hosting the internationally broadcasted New Year’s Concerts. We were placed on the seats in the middle of the hall, which were costing approximately €1,200 per seat if you were lucky enough to be picked as one of the 1,700-ish people (from a pool of approximately 400,000) attend the New Year’s concert. Towards the end we got to see Gläserner Saal, two floors under, which had different and changeable acoustics compared to the other halls.
After Musikverein, we walked around the area and looked at Karlskirche, other nearby buildings, and moved towards the Staatsoper. We found a store dedicated to Manner, who make the delicious and vegan Manner Waffeln — amongst other things. We decided to buy a few too many Manner Waffeln.
We needed to recharge with food, and found a vegan place called Veggiezz. Now recharged, we moved towards the next destination, the Imperial Treasury. We dropped a couple of the planned stops (such as the Crypt) to preserve energy for must-see stops. The area around Hofburg was nice, but the amount of cars parked inside the courtyard ruined the natural beauty of the place.
The treasury was nice, and it was interesting to see how over-the-top and heavy imperial robes and equipment were. There was a selection of religious artifacts, including an alleged piece of reed used for mocking Christ. Having played a significant amount of Worms back in the day, I smiled when I saw the Imperial Orb which is reminiscent of one of my favorite weapons from the game.
The trip through the treasury took around 1 hour, and we were spent afterwards. We skipped out on the Time Travel Magic Vienna History Tour and prioritized checking out the Parliament and Wien Rathaus. The latter had unfortunately a film festival set up on the square in front of the city hall, hiding its architectural beauty. The film festival area was buzzing with life, and I was surprised to see a diverse and partially vegan-friendly selection of streetfood!
After this, we were depleted and returned to the hotel. The teenager wanted a Monster, and we discovered how limited the selection of Monster is in Wien, at least in the Hauptbahnhof area. We ended up visiting no less than 6 different stores before finding the type he wanted in the 7th.
For dinner we went to Vapiano, which has half of its menu vegan. On a cointoss, we went for the safer option of a pizza. We were impressed with how well the violife cheese-replacement worked, and need to try using it ourselves. I added planted chicken replacement onto mine, which I discovered was a bad idea as they were marinated in something that contrasted the otherwise delightful funghi pizza.
After dinner we returned to the hotel room, where we packed down and planned for the next two days in Prague. At one point I noted that I got Oslo-vibes from the Wien, as there was much renovation and construction going on in the city. It’s a good thing they’re not merely work in progress, but that they at the same time work on the progress itself.
