Vienna 2015

Our first impression of Vienna was from the window of the tram bringing us from the train station to the hotel. The city was beautiful, and weather was beautiful

After a quick nap, we headed down the street to Cafe Central, a famed establishment in Vienna. 

The cafe was lavishly decorated, with beautiful chandeliers and marble pillars. The pastries served however, were good though certainly not fantastic. To be fair the prices were reasonable, with each serving of pastries between EUR 3 to 5.

Perhaps the saving grace was this 

The service was absolutely atrocious. While the waiter at the patisserie counter was helpful in advising us on the choices, the remaining waiters just couldn't be expected to pay attention to our requests. It took us to stop three waiters to refill our glasses and two to get us the bill. For most of the time, they simply basically ignored our calls and gestures.

Continuing the stroll down Herrengasse, we arrived at the Hofburg Palace, where the Imperial Apartments and the Silver Collection are housed.

We bought the Sisi ticket for EUR23 each, since we intend to visit all of the three museums.

Coming out of the Imperial Apartments, we strolled out of the courtyard into the plaza, where we were greeted by a beautiful sunset.

We headed to dinner at the Figlmüller, which is famous for serving the Viennese schnitzel so representative of Viennese cuisine.

We took the metro to Schönbrunn Palace, which was also covered by the Sisi ticket.

Museum of Art History

Review: Hotel Prinz Eugen, Vienna 2015

As we had to catch an early train at 7:07AM to Prague on Wednesday morning, it was imperative to spend the second night at a property close to the train station. Although Vienna is a fairly small city and our previous hotel was only 20 minutes by tram, breakfast is only served from 6:30AM, and we will have to skip it or miss the train.

The hotel was diagonally opposite the Vienna Main Station, and only a 5 to 7 minutes brisk walk away.

The lobby was well furnished and had a really cosy feeling, though we did not use it.

Check-in was fast and wifi vouchers were given to us.

The staircase was also well decorated, with plenty of city guides at the counter, though most of them were in German, not English, perhaps indicative that the hotel generally caters to the domestic or regional travelers.

The room was really small, almost reminding me of hotels in Hong Kong. Given that we were only spending one night here it wasn't that much of an issue.The room was clean and the bed were comfortable, which was sufficient to recharge for the night before heading to Prague the next morning.

This time round, although the wifi was provided by the same telco Swisscom, the surfing speed was much faster than at the previous hotel and I managed to resend my assignment to my classmate.

The bath room was clean, the water pressure and temperature were also good.

We had a peaceful night's sleep.

The breakfast selection was far less extensive than at the previous hotel, though was sufficient for a quick bite before catching a train.

Conclusion

Review: Hotel De France, Vienna 2015

We knew that the hotel is located near to both the metro and tram station, though thanks to my stupidity we managed to head in the wrong direction. It took a few turns and 15 minutes before a sudden realisation that the hotel was only steps away.

The associate welcomed us at the reception. As we arrived from an overnight train and were hoping to grab some rest before exploring the city, we requested for an early check in at 10am. The associate checked the room availability and gave us an early check in, which we really appreciated. Wifi vouchers were also given to us at check-in.

The bellman delivered our luggage and escorted us to our room, which was on the second floor (or third floor in non-European lingo). 

Close to the entrance was the bathroom area, featuring a shower with two shower heads. The toilet was separately located opposite the bathroom.

The ceiling was really high, which coupled with the large windows provided ample natural lighting.

The beds were comfortable, though certainly not the standards at Marriott or Avista, which was reasonable given the price we paid.

Feeling refreshed after a quick nap, we left the hotel to explore Vienna. Location wise, the hotel is really located in the heart of Vienna, only a 5 minutes brisk walk to the Central Cafe and 10 minutes by foot to the Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg Palace. Then again, Vienna is a really small city and most of the major attractions can be covered on foot.

It was a pain however, to access the Internet at the hotel. The connection was intermittent, and the surfing speed was really really slow. We were trying to search for the famous Viennese schnitzel and it took us nearly 20 minutes.

The breakfast selection was nothing compared to what you would have expected in Asia, but impressive for an European property.

The cold smoked salmon and cold cuts was also reasonably good, though the salmon was a little too salty than I would have liked it to be.

It's worth noting that sparkling wine was served at breakfast. In addition, they have a egg counter where you could order omelettes and sunny side ups, although the counter was not staffed for nearly half of the time (if not more) when we were in the restaurant. Again this was sub-par to an Asian hotel of similar price range, though given the much higher cost of labour in Europe perhaps we ought to give them credit for setting up such a counter in the first place.

We checked out of the hotel after breakfast and the associate at the reception proactively offered to deposit the luggage for us so that we can travel on a light load. While most hotels provide such service, it's really gracious for the associate to take the initiative and make the offer.

Overall, it was a reasonably good hotel and have generally delivered what would be expected of a property at this price range.

OBB Part 1: Zurich to Vienna

Arriving from St Gallen at Zurich Main Station at 9PM we strolled to platform 7 for the train to Vienna. 

EN467
Zurich Main Station – Vienna Main Station
Sunday, Mar 8 2015
Depart: 9:40PM
Arrive: 7:51AM (+1)
Travel time: 10hr 11min

We are booked on the 9:40PM EN467 from Zurich Main Station to Vienna Main Station. As the train passes Buches in St Gallen, it would actually it would have been more convenient to board the train from Buches, though to be conservative we boarded from Zurich instead.

I immediately regretted booking the seats instead of a sleeping couchette. While the seats were featured as recliner seats, they turned out to be compartment seats. The lumbar support was really limited and it was clear that we could not get a good night's rest.

Thankfully apart from a small stretch between Innsbruck and Salzburg, we only had to share the compartment with another passenger and could hence take turns to stretch out on the row of three seats.

The train stopped for more than an hour at Salzburg, from 3:23AM to 4:38AM.

We woke up finding the train approaching St Pölten, an hour out of Vienna and the sun was beginning to rise up from the horizon.

As we were having breakfast, daylight began shining on the farmlands along the tracks.

We arrived at Vienna Main Station on time at 7:51AM

We bade farewell to our train and strode off to the tram station for the quick ride to our hotel.

Conclusion
The train ride was the most efficient way to travel from Zurich to Vienna. Although the faster Railjet trains cut down the ride from 10 hours to 8 hours, the Railjet trains only operate during daytime, effectively wasting an entire day on the road.