Vienna, of Palaces

We had booked a taxi through the net for an early morning drop to the station. We kept a margin of one hour, just in case the taxi was not there.

The train was better, and it was already there when we reached the station. The journey was comfortable and we reached Vienna at 9:25am. Took a taxi to our hotel. The taxi driver was disappointed to see the address of our hotel as it was quite near the station. Hotels were expensive in Vienna. Our hotel was nothing great but done nicely. We kept our luggage in a room there and left to see the city. The receptionist helped us with directions to the nearest metro station. 

Our first stop was St. Stephen's cathedral which had free entry, but we did the catacomb's tour also which was €5 per adult & € 2 per child. 

From there we walked to the Hofburg palace.

The Hofburg palace was mainly the crockery and also the Sisi museum was interesting. From there we sat in a very nice Italian restaurant and had a great meal of Pizza, ravioli etc. The bread was particularly tasty and reminded me of home made bread made  by a dear friend.

The we took the U4 to Schonbrunn U stop and went to see the Schonbrunn palace. It was somewhat similiar to the Hofburg palace. 

Back to the same metro stop and then to Belvedere we just managed the Upper Belvedere. It was a long walk.

Along the way

Belvedere

They allowed photography in the hall outside only. But it was nice to see Gustav Klimt's  " The Kiss"

We were so tired we just took the first tram we saw. And headed back to hotel.

The reception at the hotel.

Salzburg, of the trick fountains

Shaleen had again booked a taxi for the station from our hotel. But we were outside with our luggage but the taxi did not come. Meanwhile we hailed another taxi at 5am in the morning. As we already had our tickets he dropped us just where we were to board the train.

Salzburg was a day trip for us. For €4 we got a luggage locker for our luggage at the station for 24hrs. Here only we bought our Salzburg day cards, which gave us free entry to all the places we wanted to go and access to all transport in the city.

We sat in the bus number 25. And decided to go Untesburg by cable car. It was a clear day. Going up was awfully crowded, we were literally vertically packed, and there were three pet dogs also in the cable car. 

After having some snacks in the cafe. We headed back and were better able to take in the view from the cable car this time. In the return journey we got off at the Helbrunn palace and the trick fountains. 

We caught the first English tour at 12noon. It was an enjoyable tour.

We went to see the Sound of music pavilion in the garden, which was nothing great. Though the garden itself was good.

We took the same bus back to town and decided to see Mozart's birthplace. It was a nice street to loiter around. We saw a music shop, got some zotter chocolates. Bought something to eat and sat outside in a square and ate it.

Saw a few churches along the way. A lovely town where you can spend hours just strolling about.

One of the squares in Salzburg.

Around 5pm we decided to take the funicular to the hohenburg castle.

As we were very tired we just sat in the cafe and had Apple Strudel & coffee.

View from the hohenburg castle.

After that we headed back to the station and no sooner had we reached the platform it started raining heavily. The platform was covered so that was no problem. We were lucky that it did not rain while we were doing sightseeing.