Kuah and I had a free night at an IHG hotel to use so we decided to plan a weekend in Vienna. We took the train from Budapest to Vienna. It was an easy trip, only 2.5 hours. We were lucky in that we could walk to a subway that took us directly to the train station.
We booked business class tickets. Although this gave us more comfortable seats the main reason I wanted them was that there are fewer people in the business class car. This would reduce our risk of catching Covid. We’ve gone back to a lot of normal things but still try to be careful by wearing masks on planes and looking for less crowded options when inside.
Turns out that the train booking system isn’t so good. It assigned me and another person the same exact seat. While we were able to sit in another area of the car it was a bit worrying at the beginning. I didn’t want to end up having to move to a busier train car.
Once we arrived we headed straight for the market where we had previously gotten gosleme. While the stand we had gotten it at before wasn’t there they did have a small restaurant run by the same people. Unfortunately, they didn’t have gosleme. However, they did have borek. So we ordered 2 spinach and cheese boreks and sat down to enjoy it. One nice thing was as it now being in a restaurant there was a place to sit. Since it took us over an hour to walk there taking a load off was welcome.
On the way to the hotel we stopped at the west train station to get a pretzel. Unfortunately, the pretzel shop that I had loved while there had closed. We had chosen to stay at the Hotel Indego at the Naschmarkt. We should’ve done our homework better as it was 10 minutes walk past the Naschmarkt making it an extra 20 min walk round trip for everywhere we wanted to visit. The hotel room was small but nice. A major bonus for me was that they provided hot chocolate packets for the morning. It’s the first time I’ve stayed in a hotel that gives hot chocolate packets along with the coffee and tea. It was delicious hot chocolate too!
After putting our gear in our room we headed out to old town. It was a very crowded day in old town. Much more crowded than I remember it but they were having a gourmet food fair. Since we were last there they had finished the work on the church and taken down the scaffolding. It looked amazing.
We then moved on to Schnitzel Konig. It was as amazing as we had remembered. We were happy to sit out on the deck and enjoy our simple meal while reminiscing. We had to admin that while we were loving Budapest, Vienna is a more beautiful city. The buildings are a bit more ornate and the sidewalks and roads are broader. Somehow we had room in our bellies to stop for a Portuguese egg tart from Nata Lisboa on the way back into town. The crust was crispy and the filling creamy just like we remembered.
Tackling our shopping list was next. We wanted to get a rubber duck, since we have Swiss and Hungarian ones. I also wanted a Vienna t-shirt. We found a fun Mozart duck and a few t-shirts. That done it was time to go back to the hotel and give our feet some much needed rest. In total we walked 15.7 miles and planned on another big walking day Sunday.
Sunday morning we decided to go to the Imperial for breakfast. Kuah ordered a steak tartar. He said it’s the best one he’s had in a while both in flavor and texture. I had eggs with pumpkin seed oil and pumpkin seeds on sourdough bread. It was a delicious breakfast that I plan on making in the US. We also shared an Imperial torte. Legend has it this torte was first created 150 years ago for Emperor Franz Joseph I. Sharing a piece made it a perfect sweet treat to end the meal.
After breakfast we walked up Maria Hilfer Strassa, to reminisce about our time there. Many of the shops were the same but there were a lot of changes as well. It still seemed to be a great place to stay and maybe one day we’ll vacation there again.
Back at the hotel we checked out and then brought our backpack with us to get one last meal at Schnitzel Konig. Unfortunately, google was wrong about their hours and they were closed. So we searched and found another place to have lunch.
We ended up sitting outside in the shade and enjoying a nice lunch. I got a lentil stew with a bread dumpling. The lentil stew was fine but the bread dumpling was the star. I’ve really been enjoying having some bread dumplings on this trip. It’s so rare to find them at a restaurant in the US. Kuah also enjoyed a bread dumpling but his was with pork and sauerkraut. The waiter also recommended him a white wine which he enjoyed. The nice thing about taking the train was that he could enjoy 2 glassed of wine.
From lunch we headed back to the train station. We still had a bit of time to kill but with our business class tickets we were able to take advantage of the lounge. It provided a quiet place to sit along with refreshments. It ended up making quite a difference to the day. All in all we walked 10.62 miles on Sunday.
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