Last day in Vienna

After a good night's rest in Hotel Bock and a great breakfast, we headed out for a full day in Vienna. We drove around town to have our orientation tour. First stop was at the Belvedere Palace.

Next was to the garden with the much photograph monument of Johann Strauss, the waltz king of Vienna.


We then moved further out to the Schonbrunn Palace, another tourist favourite.

We joined a guided tour inside the palace and the interior is much more impressive than the exterior. From here we went to visit the Hundertwasserhaus, a fairy-tale looking house that is also a tourist attraction. On looking back, this looks a bit like something out of Gaudi of Barcelona.




While waiting for dinner, we had some free time and we spent walking and people watching along the main pedestrian shopping street of Vienna. It's the Karntner Street if I am not mistaken.





After a wonderful local Viennese dinner, we headed back to the Schonbrunn Palace for a little night Viennese music. For the tourists in summer, they usually have a light classical program either at the Schonbrunn Palace or at the Theatre an der Wien in town for similar ticket prices. For better acoustic, choose the theatre but for the atmosphere, choose the Palace. We had a mixture of operatic songs, music and dance and of course, the Blue Danube as the finale.
There was a make-shift stage with creaking wooden floor and it was also very warm that night. So the acoustic was poor but the atmosphere was great as you imagine yourself sharing the concert with the Emperor of Austria in the Grand Gallery of the palace.





Thus ended our visit to Vienna and holiday in Eastern Europe as on the next morning we headed for the airport and Home Sweet Home.


Ronald Kwok

Free afternoon in Vienna

Once we arrived in Vienna, we had the afternoon free and we were left to wander around the park near the Parliament area, viewing all the historical buildings nearby.

After that we had our dinner before we checked into our Hotel. This was again the Hotel Austria Bock where we stayed when we first landed in Vienna. We had a room with a nice view overlooking the lake. The surrounding is very relaxing but it is out of town so it is difficult to do your own outing to town. Well, you cannot have everything.

Ronald Kwok.

A Night in Vienna

My trip to Eastern Europe began and ended in Vienna. This was my first package tour trip and I went together with my wife and my son. I have been to Vienna before but that was in the early 70's when I was a student in UK and went as a back-packer. So I have come back as a real tourist.

We landed in the late evening at the Vienna Airport and we checked into the Austria Hotel Bock, part of the Trend Hotel chain in Austria. This hotel is located in the suburbs of Vienna in a park area and so is quite secluded and the coach driver had difficulty finding the place as he was also not familiar with Vienna as he was a Slovakian. The surrounding was very pleasant with plenty of greens and a lake withing the compound.

As dinner was not included, we had to look for our own food and it was a good thing that there was a McDonald near by. So the first western meal on our European trip was there at McDonald and luckily they have items different from those back home.

Outside the hotel, it's not my car!

Some chalet style rooms, only open in summer.


The peaceful lake from my room.

After the meal, we went straight to bed for a good night's rest as it was rather chilly outside. It was good that we could rest for the night and acclimatise before we start our tour the next day.

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/