Vienna - Thursday and Friday (5Ws, Prater)

Thursday 28 June 2018

Rain and overcast all day, so this was a quiet day at home.  Initially I had planned to do a guided walking tour in the city, but not in this kind of weather...

Friday 29 June 2018

I knew in the back of my head that I had to get organised for the visit in the afternoon, but I also had a book that I wanted to finish, so first things first...

Then all of a sudden it was 1pm and I hadn't sorted out how to get to Margarethe's place half an hour from here.  She had told me which line to take, but that was all.  So I walked early to Karlsplatz station and studied all the information boards: lines, stops, ticket prizes, etc. I still wasn't sure about tickets, but it seemed that any ticket could be used for either bus, underground or tram, so I bought two in order to have my return ticket handy for later.  

Next I went in search of the tramline and the stop I wanted.  I took the long way around, so that I could walk back towards the station, rather than away from it, so I could see the tram coming.  In the end I had walked nearly all the way back to Karlsplatz, but I'd found it and the tram wasn't too long coming.  Validating the ticket was the same as everywhere else, just a machine on the tram!

I counted out the stops, and there were many.  More than were listed, but eventually we stopped at Weissenböckstraße where I got off and rang Margarethe, as promised, to let her know that I had arrived.  She told me to start walking up the street towards Kaiser-Ebersdorferstraße at the corner of which she would wait for me.  Together we walked to her appartment where Kath had arrived in the morning.  Kath was another Aussie who stayed in Vienna for a few days and was being put up by Margarethe, while Veronika had offered Jenny and Margaret accommodation.  They arrived later and together we had coffee accompagnied by Marillenknödel and a kind of apple cake.  Knödel translates into dumplings and Marillen is German for apricots, so we had sweet apricot dumplings with fresh cream.  Knowing that we would be going out for dinner as well we were a bit apprehensive, but you can't say no! ;-)

Margarethe's balcony garden

Enjoying our Marillenknödel: Kath, Jenny, Margarethe, Veronika and Margaret

Next it was time to catch the underground to the Prater where we were going to have dinner at Zur grünen Hütte.  A group photo has been taken, but I am yet to receive it by email, so will probably post later.  Irmgard, whom I had met last week, also joined us, so we had a great group of seven people.

When I had a look at the menu I could not make my choice so easily, because of the two starters that were mentioned I loved both.  So, I asked could I have soup and a starter for mains.  As that was alright I had Consommé with liver dumplings and a dish with Matjes herring.  Loved it!

We finished the evening with a walk along the Prater as the other Aussies had not been in Vienna before and thus had not had time for this.  I enjoyed the evening walk as everything was beautifully lit up and all the rides were open and going full blast.  Unfortunately nobody wanted to go for a ride in the Riesenrad, otherwise I would have enjoyed the ride at night time.  Oh well, we can't have everything.... ;-)

On our way back to the underground station we had to stop for a long row of bike riders and rollerbladers, escorted by the police, so it must have been something special.

One last picture of the beautiful Ferris wheel:

And then we took the train home, which form me was the stop at Karlsplatz and for the others at Stephansplatz.

At home I took a few pictures of a now quiet street: