For the third time on this adventure, I arrived in Vienna (or Wien to be more accurate) in need of a shower, a change of clothes and a better sleep. My traveling companions had been fine, the views from the window fabulous, but the bunk was hard, the toilet was awful by the time we arrived, and changing and washing discretely wasn’t really an option. However, I was largely offending only myself, and so I dropped off my pack once again, found a place for another shave, and then took the underground into the centre.
The view of the Cathedral that greeted me as I emerged from the Metro was breathtaking. Like York Minster, it is surrounded by other buildings and so you find yourself catching glimpses of it down side streets and in the reflections of shop windows. It was nearing midday and I remembered that the fabulous Ankeruhr clock would soon be doing its main performance of the day, with twelve historical figures slowly moving around their own balcony, each with its own tune. I was amused when the 9th figure moved, the accompanying tune, known perhaps to some of you as Don’t Put Your Muck in Our Dustbin gave me the giggles, and I joined in the singing along with a nearby group of English women who grinned back at me, much to the confusion of the locals and other tourists!
After a pleasant lunch in the square opposite the Austrian Holocaust memorial in Judenplatz, I decided to admit defeat, went to collect my backpack, and took the metro to my apartment and attended to my oblutions. It occurred to me that this was the first time on this trip that I’d had a place completely to myself and I relished it, doing some laundry, taking a long shower and an even longer sleep.
I was staying here for four nights, partly to give me two full days in Vienna itself and another day over the Slovakian border to Bratislava. I sandwiched that between two days in my new host city, however, and in the morning I was up and out, breakfasting locally before getting the metro and then a train out of the centre and along the Danube again for another webcam cache. This was completed easily and I enjoyed a riverside walk and a coke, realising that I was probably unlikely to be using my only fleece from now on, let alone the brolly I bought back in Hamburg!
Back in the city centre, I returned to the Cathedral for a proper look around, first in the church itself and then I took the lift up the north tower for yet another stunning cityscape.
Down at ground level, I spent a couple of hours letting geocaching provide me with a tour of the old town. Everywhere I’ve been so far has had it’s own fair share of stunning and varied architecture but Vienna was something truly special. In the museum area, every building was like a palace, every gate a castle. For the first time I’d not booked into an organised tour, mainly because the temperature was now so hot that I wanted to be able to move at my own pace.
After a pizza lunch, I found my way to another leafy park and the famous golden statue of the composer Strauss. I was delighted to see that he looked nothing like the intensely annoying André Rieu.
After a few more caches, I decided that I’d had enough of the heat and so headed home on my new favourite metro system (it’s so easy!) for another lengthy shower and and early night before my trip to Bratislava in the morning
The trains are hourly and take as long, so I had plenty of options. Arriving at around 10:30, I walked from the station downhill towards the old town, first to find a post office and a statue/post box to send more cards back home, courtesy of yet another imaginative Virtual cache. In fact, there were a number of intriguing statues and sculptures in the town, including the amusing Čumil the sewage worker, peeping out from a hole in the road and playing host to not just a Virtual cache, but a traditional container under the lip of the manhole cover itself!
A lunch of beef goulash set me up for the afternoon, which was mostly taken up with a tour of the city on an old open topped bus. This included a disappointingly brief visit the to the famous Blue Church, but the main highlight for me was the UFO bridge, a striking link between both sides of the city, capped with yet another viewing platform on top of a flying saucer shaped structure overlooking the whole of the city and surrounding area. I do seem to like these viewing platforms!
At the end of the tour I started to make my way back in the direction of the station, via Virtuals at the Hans Christian Andersen statue, the site of a former synagogue and then briefly into St Martin’s Cathedral. Another hot day was taking its toll, though, so I caught the bus the rest of the way and was soon heading back over the border towards Vienna. That was more than enough for one day so I headed straight home and crashed out for the night.
The next day was my last in Vienna and again I’d accumulated a list of places I’d still like to see, mostly associated with geocaches, but with other locations besides. My geocaching this morning focused on the fabulous architecture in the museum area. Some of the buildings here are simply immense and take hours just to walk around their perimeter! Like many cities that I’ve visited, however, there were very few physical caches in the centre, probably for security reasons.
My target for the afternoon, however, was yet another TV tower, although this one had something special to offer. After taking a tram out of the centre, and then a bus followed by a short walk, I was at the foot of the immense structure. In profile you could clearly see the shape of the spiralling tube slide on the outside of the viewing platform which immediately caught my attention!
There seemed to be far less security here than at the Berlin tower, and I was soon up at the start of the slide which I’d paid extra to ride. It was all over in seconds, however, with only fleeting glimpses of Vienna beneath me.
Landing in a heap at the bottom, I made my way first to the panoramic viewing area (I never seem to tire of these views; they give me a better sense of the geography than you can get from the ground) and then to the restaurant for a snack and a large, cold drink. It was only then that I noticed that the restaurant was very slowly revolving, rather like the restaurant on London’s Post Office Tower used to. I sat for one whole revolution which seemed to take around 45 minutes, before heading back down, completing another local Virtual cache, and then jumping back on the bus towards the city centre again.
I spent a couple of hours packing, showering and booking seats for tomorrow’s journey to Zurich, before heading out again in search of a bar to watch the England v Ghana match. The only place near me that I could find was a glorified betting shop occupied largely by Ghanaians. I didn’t need to worry about muting my celebrations, however, as the game was disappointingly goalless.
I’d really enjoyed my stay in Vienna. I seem to be getting increasingly interested in the architecture as I get older, and this place was a feast for the eyes! Also, the people seemed genuinely friendly, the public transport easy to navigate, and the geocaching was plentiful. Next stop Zurich!
A Wright
June 2026
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