We were sad to be leaving Budapest this morning, after such an amazing time, but it was time to move on. We left the hotel around 8:00 a.m. and walked with our luggage to the closest metro stations which took us out to the main international train station in Budapest. While the metro lines and train stations really aren’t too difficult to figure out, it is nice that most everyone speaks some English if to do nothing else, just to reaffirm your conclusions about what you need to do and where you need to go, because let’s be honest the last thing you would want is to get on a train going in the wrong direction. Luckily that didn’t happen to us. We validated our Eurail Pass and boarded the train to Vienna, which left at about 20 past 9:00. The train was actually incredibly comfortable, and the just over three hour journey went incredibly smooth, while on the train we located the train station on our map as well as our hotel and concluded that it would be fairly simple to get from point A to point B with the metro, or U-lines, as they call them in Vienna. But, of course, there always has to be a wrench thrown in somewhere. We had intended to get off at Wien (Vienna) Westbahnhof station, but as we approached the Wien (Vienna) Meidling station, the conductor came over the intercom and said that all passengers going to Wien must exit the train at Meidling, glad we did all that planning based on Westbahnhof! But again, as it turned out if was just as easy, if not easier to get to where we were going from this train station, just a short journey on the U-line with one train change and we were there, the InterContinental in Vienna is literally write across the street from the U-line. So we crossed the street and were checked into the hotel, less than 30 minutes after our arrival in Vienna.
After checking in and dropping our bags, we headed back out to make our way to the Naschmarkt (market) for a cheap kebab lunch. On our way we passed the baroque Karlskirche (St. Charles’ Church) and stopped for a quick photo op. The Naschmarkt was amazing, spanning at least two city blocks and a couple of isles of restaurants, butchers, produce stands, dried fruits, nuts, spices, and much more. We found an inexpensive Kebab place on the far end of the Naschmarkt with outdoor tables. We both ordered sandwiches, Tim the döner sandwich and I ordered the falafel sandwich, both were humungous and both were delicious. The two sandwiches and two sodas cost us just over 10 Euro. From the Naschmarkt we made our way to Kärnter Strasse, a pedestrian only street lined with shops and restaurants. We stopped at the Café Sacher to savor a slice of their world-famous chocolate cake, the Sacher Torte, baked at this location since 1832. After that small indulgence we continued our walking tour of Vienna which included sites such as the Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), a 13th century Gothic masterpiece complete with geometric patterned tiles on the roof; the Hofburg, the history city-centre home of the Habsburgs; the Greek-Revival –style Parliament building; the 19th century Burgtheater; and the neo-Gothic Rathaus, or town hall. Walking around Vienna today, you can really understand why they call its city center an open air museum as you pass one beautiful building after another.
After this we took the U-line back to our hotel, although first we ended up on the wrong side of the tracks for the second time! We will figure it out eventually. We then relaxed for a bit before heading to Flanagan’s, an Irish pub, to eat some grub and watch the soccer. Tomorrow we have another full day in Vienna, but for now we are off to bed!
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