Day 13 of 18… Vibrant and dazzling. Modern and traditional. Clean and cool! Yes including ‘cool’ because that’s our boys’ first impression of Vienna.
I mean just look at this! We saw it in a toilet when we arrived in Wien Hauptbahnhof, Vienna’s main train station. We thought this kind of toilet seat exists only in high-tech Japan. ‘What?! So cool!’ our boys exclaimed.
From the Hauptbahnhof, we took a taxi to Hilton Vienna Plaza, our accommodation for 4 days. As we approached the Innere Stadt (the historic centre) we marveled at buildings that were overwhelming with evidence of the city’s opulent past. My hubby blurted out, “This looks like Paris, but cleaner. I like it! Even Better!”
Preparations for the big New Year’s Eve celebrations were well underway. The streets were radiating with festive spirit and every tall tree seemed to sparkle with Christmas lights.
We actually just came back from a snowboarding trip in the Alps in the ski town of Obergurgl. When we arrived in our hotel in Vienna, we had to quickly change from our thick, rugged snow boots to, well, regular shoes and winter city boots. The city was classy, dazzling. Gotta match that, right? Gotta dress for the occasion.
On our first night in the city, we took a walk to the Rathaus (the City Hall) where the Vienna Christmas market was located. The mood there was fantastic and we genuinely enjoyed our Wiener sausages and warm wine.
Just beside the Christmas market was an outdoor skating rink. It’s aptly called a magical ice path because it snakes through the walking paths around the City Hall park. We didn’t skate anymore. We just continued to enjoy our drinks and talked about the things we’d do the following day…
How we got to Vienna from Obergurgl:
We had a pre-booked car from Obergurgl to Oetztal train station (1hr). From there we took Railjet (express train) to Wien Hauptbahnhof (4 hrs and 42 mins). It was a peak period so we had to book our train seats in advanced. We always go for the ‘Quiet’ cabin. Our train tickets were part of our Germany-Austria Rail Pass which we bought from Rail Europe (Singapore) . We pre-booked our car with Oetztaler. We arrived in Vienna at 2:30pm.
Here are the other posts on our holiday in Bavaria and Austria:
- Munich: Start of our family’s tales from last winter
- Munich: Viktualienmarkt Biergarten
- Munich: BMW Museum and BMW Welt
- Munich: Theatine Church and Odeonplatz
- Munich: Christmas Markets
- Munich: Hofbrauhaus Beer Hall
- Munich: City Aparthotel München
- Salzburg: Birthplace of Mozart and Silent Night
- Salzburg: Hohensalzburg Fortress
- Salzburg: Residenzplatz Christmas Market
- Salzburg: Salzburg Cathedral
- Salzburg: Silent Night 200 at Salzburg Museum
- Salzburg: Silent Night Tour by Bob’s Special Tour
- Salzburg: Silent Night at Oberndorf and Laufen
- Salzkammergut: Road Trip to Hallstatt
- Salzkammergut: Christmas Market at St Wolfgang
- Salzburg: Krampus Run at Hellbrunn Palace
- Salzburg: Imlauer Hotel Pitter Salzburg
- Obergurgl: A Week in the Austrian Alps
- Obergurgl: Chalet Obergurgl Luxury Apartments
- Obergurgl: Hohe Mut Alm Mountain Restaurant
- Obergurgl: Snowstorm on Christmas Eve
- Obergurgl: Day After the Storm
- Obergurgl: Snowshoeing
- Hochgurgl: Tobogganing
- Hochgurgl: Hochgurgl Cable Car Ride
- Vienna: First Impressions and Vienna Christmas Market
- Vienna: Hofburgkapelle and Imperial Armoury
- Vienna: Schönbrunn Palace
- Vienna: Imperial Treasury and Hofburg
- Vienna: Prater, Before Sunset
- Vienna: New Year’s Eve Fireworks and Waltz
- Vienna: Hilton Vienna Plaza
- Stuttgart: The Mercedes-Benz Museum
- Stuttgart: The Porsche Museum
I can’t get over that toilet seat Amor!! Wow, we didn’t come across any of those in Vienna!
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Hahaha me too! I never thought I’d see such toilet seat outside Japan 😄
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That’s a really cool toilet 😁 I visited Vienna years ago and I’m still amazed by it.
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It was the first thing that made impression on us, hahaha 😆 I like that vienna is old but so many things are modern too.
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Hi. I enjoyed that, as I have all of your posts. With Obergurgl(Oetztal Bahnhof) and Vienna almost being at the extreme opposite ends of Austria I had never before considered travelling by train between the two. Austrian trains, unlike the ones in the UK, are clean and punctual and as far I can tell are operated with passengers, not profit, in mind. Regards.
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Beautiful photos! That’s one crazy high-tech toilet! I’ve never seen anything like that before!
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Thank you! I had to flush the toilet again because I was so amazed too 😂 I never expected to see that in Vienna.
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OMG – that toilet seat is amazing! I had to watch the video a few times before I figured out why the seat was rotating (I was trying to imagine someone sitting on it while it happened!!!!!)
Vienna looks so beautiful!
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Hahaha Ju Lyn! I also couldn’t figure out at first so I flushed another time! It would be amazing if they have this in Sg too 😄
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Absolutely! I am manic about cleaning the toilet seat (especially in public places). This would make life so much better for me!
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Beat me to it! My next post goes live this evening. I look forward to reading more of your Viennese adventures.
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Hahaha I wanted to write a few more but my momentum got interrupted by a trip quick Down Under (Australian Open) and my recent curiosity to Data Science 🙂 Heading over to your blog now to check out the latest 🙂
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What a gorgeous city! Vienna is high on my bucket list. 🙂
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Vienna is really nice and so are the other smaller cities/towns in Austria. Hope you’ll be able to go there in the future. I’m sure your fam will enjoy it. 🙂
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I love Vienna… but that toilet seat was amazing 👍🏼
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Vienna was lovely and fun. We made the right decision of going there for NYE. Everybody was waltzing on the streets on the nights leading to NYE. 🙂 And yeah that toilet seat was something hahaha. Thanks for visiting my blog Teresa. 🙂
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