Vienna

After a short train ride from Munich (delayed again of course!), we arrived in Vienna on Sunday night (14th).

We spent the first day sightseeing - wandering round the Hofburg, the Spanish Riding School, the Opera house, Stephansdom and Judenplatz (the Jewish holocaust memorial) before heading to Café Central - an extravagant cafe where Freud, Lenin and Trotsky used to meet for coffee and chess! Very cool. It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in Vienna. Our hunt for apple strudel was not very successful on day one much to my disappointment - two attempts and no real successes. After a busy day sightseeing, we settled for a few quiet drinks in the hostel in the evening. We felt like the old ones in the hostel (particularly Simon!) as everyone else looked like post A-Level / gap year students.

Wandering round Vienna, whilst the buildings were very grand and impressive, it felt a little sterile and we didn't feel like we found the real "heart" of Vienna, so on days two and three we tried to move away from central Vienna. We took a tram ride to Grinzing (a northern suburb of Vienna) - a very pretty, quaint village. It was quite a contrast to the central city - rows of cottages and villas set amongst vineyards. It would be an amazing place to visit in the summer, but it's character was very evident even in late autumn. We also had the best apple strudel of the trip here. Yum.

Back in Vienna, we visited Naschmarkt - a farmer's market opened in the late 18th century which sells everything from Austrian pastries to French cheeses to Turkish falafels (we opted for the latter). We also headed to the Hundertwasserhaus, a social housing project designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser and bursting with personality.

A few other culinary highlights that we discovered along the way and deserve a mention are Café Demel where I had the most amazing hot chocolate with baileys (definitely worth the price tag), Schnitzelwirt - cheap but absolutely delicious / humungous schnitzels and Café Sacher, home to the famous Sacher Torte (thanks Katy!).