#219: Vienna (pg 85 2nd Ed)

Well, Vienna ended up being an unexpected "checkmark" but I'll take it!

We were supposed to fly as a party of 8 (my husband and our 4 kids and my in-laws) on Wednesday, May 16th direct to Copenhagen.  But our flight got canceled, so they ended up dividing us up onto three different flights, all of which had layovers throughout Europe.  Tanner and I ended up having an 8 hour layover in Vienna.

So, once we landed, we hurried off the plane and hopped on the CAT for 21 Euros R/T from the airport to city center (in 16 minutes) and hit the ground running!

On the airplane, someone had recommended Stadtpark as a nice place to visit, so that was our first stop.

The park has statues of composers throughout.

And there is a lake with lots of fish, birds, ducks and swan.

My son Tanner's favorite part!  He loved feeding them.

From there, we headed to St. Stephen's Cathedral.

It's massive, ornate and incredibly impressive!

Next, we made our way to the Mozart Haus. Mozart lived here from 1784-1787. It was during this time that he wrote his famous "The Marriage of Figaro." It is the only apartment that he lived in that is still in tact today. 

And then we dined at the Cafe Pruckel, a Vienna institution of over 100 years.

Vienna!

Verdict: Disclaimer:  We left on a 5pm flight out of DC (11pm Vienna time) and arrived in Vienna ~8am (2am DC time).  Neither of us slept at all on the plane and we were both crazy tired during our time here.  We would have done and seen more and felt better doing it if circumstances had been different.  But we tried to make the most of it! So, here's what I think..... Austria is an absolute must-do before you die (last time I was here, I stayed in Innsbruck and it was just so breathtakingly gorgeous).  But Vienna was "just another European city." Granted, I love European cities, so naturally, I loved Vienna, but unless you're a die-hard Mozart fan, there wasn't anything that necessarily made Vienna a"must do" over other European cities.