Rick Steves’ Vienna

While going to ask a question at the hostel’s reception last night, I noticed a huge pile of guidebooks available for guests to borrow, so I picked up Rick Steves’ Vienna and planned today according to his itinerary and recommendations.  We had recently used his book Rick Steves’ 2009 Italy throughout our 4 weeks in Italy since the friends we were travelling with had brought it along, and it felt familiar and comfortable to follow his book again today.  Having a route to follow and a list of places that are “must-sees” just makes sightseeing so much easier!

As far as guidebooks go, I’m partial to Rick Steves’ because I find him easy to follow and full of little bits of fun and helpful info.  Rick has been writing about travel in Europe since 1978 and has published a countless number of books (usually there’s a separate book for each country, with revised editions every year).  In all his books he breaks sights down into must sees, things that a quite important, and things of interest.  He also provides a mapped-route and description for a self-guided walking tour of most cities, as well as a list of restaurant and accommodation recommendations.  Having all this info at your disposal in one book makes it much easier to plan what to do and where to go!  If we weren’t travelling backpacker style carrying as little luggage as possible, I would definitely take a guidebook wherever I went. 

Yesterday, without Rick’s book, we wandered around Vienna’s city center aimlessly, checking out a few sights like St. Stephen’s Cathedral and one of the main streets called Der Graben.  Our roommates had mentioned a good cafe they previously went to with their Contiki tour group that was supposed to be the oldest coffee shop in Vienna, but they didn’t know the name.  While wandering around, we Googled “oldest cafe in Vienna,” and our search came up with a place called Cafe Frauenhuber.  It took us an hour to find it (even though the map showed it as just a block away from where we were! ) and when we got our coffee, apple strudel, and sacher torte (chocolate cake), we quickly concluded (and confirmed with our roommates in the evening) that this couldn’t be the right place – the stuff we got tasted awful!  I don’t know how this place stays in business, but it claims to be the oldest cafe in Vienna…

Today, with Rick Steves in hand, we set out with much more of a plan and started our day shopping and eating at Nasch Market, a large open air market.  After buying an assortment of fruit, we walked to the Opera House and then to Albertinaplatz and the Hofburg Imperial Palace to check out the gardens, the Augustinian Church, and the famous Spanish Riding School (we didn’t see them perform, but the stables and horses looked nice).   We stopped by the Dorotheum, one of the oldest auction houses in the world, but didn’t stay long since there wasn’t anything really interesting to us (it’s mainly jewelry for sale).   We then visited the Museum of Applied Art (MAK),  since I had read in Rick’s book that it’s free on Saturday.  It was an ok museum (great if you’re into architecture), but I would have felt ripped off if I’d paid the regular 9 euro entrance fee!

We finished our day by doing Rick’s “Ringstrasse Tram tour,” which involves riding trams #1 and 2 around the Ringstrasse, a circular road surrounding Vienna’s city center where the old city walls used to be.  By taking tram # 2 from the MAK (in Rick’s guide you actually start at the Opera House) and then switching to tram # 1 at Schwedenplatz, you can ride a tram around the entire Ringstrasse and get a glimpse of all the important sights of  Vienna.  It would be better to do the tram tour at the beginning of your visit, but it was relaxing for us to finish today with it!

For dinner we cooked Nissim instant noodles which I had picked up at a small Asian supermarket at Nasch Market.  I’ve been craving these particular instant noodles for a while (I guess you can say it’s my comfort food), and was super excited when I found them and bok choy at the market (I haven’t seen bok choy in ages!).  The hostel, unfortunately, has the worst kitchen facility out of all the hostels we’ve been to (mess everywhere and 3 electrical hot burners for 260 guests, wtf!), but I managed since instant noodles doesn’t take a lot of effort.

At the end of the day, I feel like today was much more productive and interesting than most of our days when we rely on info we gather from the Internet.  It’s so nice to look at a building and know what it is and some of the history behind it!  It’s also easier for me to refer to a book instead of searching the Internet to find out what time a museum is open to or how much it costs.  I just wish there was a way we could carry all of Rick’s books with us!