Value Resorts and Inside Staterooms? Bah Humbug! 30 days of Disney fun! 02/10 Day 30

[dizneeat]

How exciting...only 4 days...and you still even got away for the weekend too. It looks beautiful in Vienna.

Well, it is nearly time for bed here, 10.40pm and by the time I'll get up it will only be 3 more days!!!!

Vienna is very beautiful - even more beautiful if the weather is cooperating! More than that, it is full of history! That is why we take our pupils there once they are in the last year at our school.

 

[dizneeat]

Vienna Part 3:

The church is being renovated and they have installed a panoramic elevator and stairs up into the dome.

We thought it would be fun to take the elevator, but I have to tell you that it was nervewrecking. The elevator was shock full with people, and the scaffolding inside the church up into the dome was swinging and felt unsafe. (Guess it is not, but I got really frightened). We stayed up there to take some photos of the frescos.

It was still raining heavily when we left, but we went on to see some more sights, the famous Schwarzenbergplatz and the Vienna Opera House, where they hold the famous Opera Ball every year.

Since we all had gotten up early and had walked a lot all day we decided to call it a day and head back to Mariahilferstrasse for dinner.

Last time we were in Vienna a friend and I had found this pizza place that made the most incredible and HUGE pizza and this is where we went. Tom and I both ordered a SMALL Pizza Capriciosa.

It was NOT small at all,

and we were both happy that we didn't order a regular one, as it was far bigger than the plate!

We sat for quite a while before we walked back to our hotel and went to bed.

 

[YukiPhnx]

That coffee shop gave me a toothache....

Wow, Vienna is as beautiful as I imagine it to be. I can't even comprehend the beauty of that church. I'd love to visit it some day.

I don't have to pay to get into the Universal Citywalk do I? It would be SUCH a great birthday suprise for Andrew to take a trip there.

 

[jenseib]

That pizza looks so good!!! I am so hungry now.

 

[YukiPhnx]

That pizza looks so good!!! I am so hungry now.

See, I've learned to grab some munchies before I read Karin's report.

 

[dizneeat]

That coffee shop gave me a toothache....

Wow, Vienna is as beautiful as I imagine it to be. I can't even comprehend the beauty of that church. I'd love to visit it some day.

I don't have to pay to get into the Universal Citywalk do I? It would be SUCH a great birthday suprise for Andrew to take a trip there.

Your coffee shop comment ......... made me

Yes, Vienna is VERY beautiful! It's definitely worth the trip ....... as is the rest of Austria!

Universal Citywalk does not have a fee, but there is a parking fee. If you can get a bus/coach that would be easiest.
As I said before, you won't need a reservation at Bubba Gump and the trivia is just so much fun.
They have little signs on the tables saying "run forrest, run" if you don't want to be bothered by the servers and ones that say "stop, forrest, stop" if you want your server to tend to you. You just flip over the sign and the next server coming by will help you.
The drinks menu is on a table tennis bat and most of the dishes are named after the people in the movie! Andrew is going to love it!

That pizza looks so good!!! I am so hungry now.

Yes, that was real good pizza. Very thin crust and tasty toppings. I hope that the pizza in the new Via Napoli is equally good. We hope to try this early in the trip!




Yeah, close to 3 days now!!!

 

[dizneeat]

See, I've learned to grab some munchies before I read Karin's report.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Yummmm! Starbucks!!!! Drooling begins now! I have to admit the reason why I don't stop at the Starbucks very near my house more often is because there is no drive-thru. If there was, I'd be in trouble!!

 

[KatMark]

Okay, I'm booking my flight to Vienna. I want the Starbucks (but I'll have a Java Chip Frappucino, thank you), the cupcakes and the cookies. The pictures of the church are beautiful, Karin.

You are just so close and, yes, we're not too much further (38 days now).

 

[dizneeat]

Yummmm! Starbucks!!!! Drooling begins now! I have to admit the reason why I don't stop at the Starbucks very near my house more often is because there is no drive-thru. If there was, I'd be in trouble!!

A Starbucks near your house? Lucky you!!!

The closest Starbucks to my house is 200 km away! So whenever we get to one I need to get a treat!

Okay, I'm booking my flight to Vienna. I want the Starbucks (but I'll have a Java Chip Frappucino, thank you), the cupcakes and the cookies. The pictures of the church are beautiful, Karin.

You are just so close and, yes, we're not too much further (38 days now).

Can you give me your arrival time? I'll pick you up at the airport! I was so surprised to see the cupcakes, they are not really common here in Austria and the maccaroons are neither!

We have just made to 3 days now! I cannot believe we are leaving in 72 hours - I am NOT ready yet!

 

[dizneeat]

Vienna Part 4:

The new day started out perfectly. We opened the curtains and were greeted by blue skies and sunshine!

We had agreed on breakfast at 8am, so we met Christa and Raimund outside our room and walked down to the breakfast room. The hotel offers a free breakfast buffet

which was real yummy and there were lots of choices.

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and asked if we could leave the car in the carpark and YES, we were allowed to!
There was one more thing I wanted to find out before going home and that was the location of the youth hostel I am going to stay at with my pupils in November. So we walked over to it and I was real pleased with the location.

It's a real quiet neighbourhood and I liked the look of it.

On we went to the Volkstheater (people's theater) which will be the stop for the underground for my pupils and me.

Once we had taken some photos and found the correct entrance to the underground we went on our way to the Riesenrad. (Giant ferris wheel)

Riding the Riesenrad you get a magnificent view of the city, so we got in line, picked up our tickets and went to the newly renovated museum room. There you can see replicas of the cars you will ride in which are filled with some scenes of Vienna's history.

Vienna sieged by the turks

Building St. Steven's dome

A leisurely stroll in the park

The Riesenrad

Emperor Franz Josef and his wife, the famous Sisi

 

[dizneeat]

Vienna Part 5:

Once we had had a view of all the different cars and their pieces of history, we walked over to the ferris wheel and boarded one of the cars.

The ride takes about 10 minutes and while you are on it you'll have the most magnificent view of the whole city.

Here are a few impressions!

The Riesenrad is part of the Prater, a huge fairground.

Once we had concluded our round we walked around the area a bit and picked up a few souvenirs.

Since our friends are not huge "ride" people we decided to leave and instead of riding some more rides to have a nice refreshment at Demel, Vienna's most famous Zuckerbäcker (confectioner).

On the way there we walked along the Graben and the sky was just too beautiful to not take a photo.

We were able to find a table inside, but by the time we got there we didn't want coffee and cake, we decided on having some ice-cream treats.

Tom had the "firm" ice-coffee. Espresso ice cream with whipped cream.

I had the original kind of it ....... ice-coffee.
Cold espresso with scoops of vanilla ice-cream and whipped cream. Very refreshing.

Once we had indulged on our treats we walked back to the underground, went to our hotel and picked up the car.
Our last stop was supposed to be Schloss Schönbrunn, where we wanted to visit the zoo, which is very famous.
So we went to the parking lot behind the zoo and it was packed, no spaces left. We went off to the one at the front of the castle, but that one was roped off as well because it was full too.
So we decided that we would forget about visiting this time and keep it in mind for a future visit.
By then it was 1.30pm and we decided to just get going and drive home.

On the motorway we stopped at a rest station to have a late lunch.

I ordered a Quiche Provencial, with Olives and crisp bacon on a bed of luttuce with honey dressing and a herb-yoghurt dipping sauce. Can I say - YUMMY!!!!!

Tom was more adventurous. He had the baked prime boiled beef on Austrian potato salad and field salad. The beef is cooked in stock, then sliced and filled with mustard and horseradish, before it is breaded and deep fried. Very unusual, but SO very good!

Once we had filled our stomach we went back to the car to drive the rest of the way.
We arrived back home at around 4pm, dropped off Raimund and Christa at their flat and went to Tom's to unpack and play with Pixie.

Well, that's it ...... our short weekend trip to Vienna!

 

[Stefy]

Wow Vienna is just beautiful. Looks like you had a wonderful time

I love that coffee shop, cupcakes and macaroons!!! (Macaroons are my new fav right now)

The cars for the ferris wheel are awesome, very old world looking

Thanx for sharing with us

 

[Soopafly]

Welcome, Dave!
I am really happy that you made it over here to my pre-trip report, soon to be live update from WDW, and finally trip report!

I am not sure they sell HIM at WDW, but if they don't we'll go to DLRP in late October and can pick one up for you!

That would be fantastic thank you so much, the only other type of Stitch we have (apart from the normal one) is him in his red space costume with the guns. The TOT Stitch would be great to add to the collection.

Vienna looks amazing, looks like you had a great time I haven't been able to read every single page but I will def be reading the TR from start to finish. It looks like it's going to be a looooooong one

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Wow! Vienna looks amazing. I'd love to visit there some day. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

You are so close to your trip now! Are we going to be able to meet? I sure hope so!

 

[dizneeat]

Wow Vienna is just beautiful. Looks like you had a wonderful time

I love that coffee shop, cupcakes and macaroons!!! (Macaroons are my new fav right now)

The cars for the ferris wheel are awesome, very old world looking

Thanx for sharing with us

Guess a visit to Vienna is in store ! There are beautiful wedding venues here too, but I guess you better stick with Italy!

I was so surprised they offered cupcakes and macaroons! They are not very common here. I was instantly thinking of you when I saw them.

The ferris wheel is pretty old. It was opened in 1897 to celebrate the 50 year reign of emperor Franz Josef. It HAS BEEN renovated a few times in the meantime, but they stick pretty much to the original design.
It really is a Viennese landmark.

That would be fantastic thank you so much, the only other type of Stitch we have (apart from the normal one) is him in his red space costume with the guns. The TOT Stitch would be great to add to the collection.

Vienna looks amazing, looks like you had a great time I haven't been able to read every single page but I will def be reading the TR from start to finish. It looks like it's going to be a looooooong one

No problem, Dave. If you can't get him at WDW, I'll get one for you in October - you might have to wait for it a bit, you see how long it took me to mail out Stefy's Stitch!

Vienna is a beautiful city, lots of history and historical buildings. We take our pupils there when they are 14, so they get a first impression of their country's capital.
No need to read every page of the trip report - there are shortcuts in the first post and I am very happy to have you on board from now on!

 

[dizneeat]

Wow! Vienna looks amazing. I'd love to visit there some day. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

You are so close to your trip now! Are we going to be able to meet? I sure hope so!

Vienna is very beautiful old world city ...... and so are Linz and Salzburg, and ... and ... and ..........
Don't want to go on for too long!

It's 2 days and 20 hours until we leave and I have not packed one single thing,
I am really hoping we will meet on Sept 10 at Epcot. We'll have dinner at Flying Fish at 6pm, then head to the Preferred Fireworks Viewing, which should be in Morocco. And we will definitely spend the EMH at Epcot.
Tom has now decided to get a US "go"phone. As soon as we have it I will PM you the new number!
Can't wait to meet you in person!

 

[Soopafly]

Go ahead and meet up first, Stefy and I dont care

No worries about the wait, it was worth it

I am trying to read several reports at the moment but there are so many updates and things it's a bit difficult lol but I will be very interested to read about the cruise and now your meet up with Sophia

Oh and whats this US go phone? Is it just like a pay as you go phone that you top up with? Our data plans here suck so bad and Strfy wants to tweet and updateher facebook when we are out and about but the data charges will go through the roof. There must be a better option out there but I dont know if she can put a pay as you go sim into her contract iphone. What are you guys doing?

 

[dizneeat]

Go ahead and meet up first, Stefy and I dont care

No worries about the wait, it was worth it

I am trying to read several reports at the moment but there are so many updates and things it's a bit difficult lol but I will be very interested to read about the cruise and now your meet up with Sophia

Oh and whats this US go phone? Is it just like a pay as you go phone that you top up with? Our data plans here suck so bad and Strfy wants to tweet and updateher facebook when we are out and about but the data charges will go through the roof. There must be a better option out there but I dont know if she can put a pay as you go sim into her contract iphone. What are you guys doing?

Thought we were meeting at DLRP or London? Wasn't that the deal? Europeans unite!

Like you I am subscribed to several reports and updates are going "through the roof" right now - I am WAY behind on several of them and now with us going away it will be kind of impossible to stay up to date.

The GO phone is like a pay as you go phone. Only difference you buy the actual phone and it is registered in the US and you can top it up whenever you need to.
Try to google GO phone and I am sure you'll get lots of information. We get ours at Walmart and last year's phone was 29.99 if I am not mistaken and it included phone and 300 minutes of phone time.
We do have a phone that accepts other simcards (Tom had it done before we left for the US) but getting a US simcard was more trouble than just get the GO phone.
If you need to go to Walmart there is one just outside Downtown Disney, towards Turkey Lake Road.

 

[DaveInTN]

Your Vienna pics are amazing! What a beautiful city.

But I have to ask you one question...and I hope it's not offensive! Tom's Austrian potato salad looks just like a dish my grandmother used to call German potato salad. Is there a difference?

I know, touchy subject!

I never cared for German potato salad, but that pic of Tom's Austrian salad looks great!