Vienna and Lower Austria – September 2023

This trip was quite unusual. Unlike most trips, this was quite a spontaneous trip – booked in August. But that didn’t stop this trip from being a very enjoyable and scenic one.

In this post, I will show you the beauty of West Austria – both the Urban parts of Vienna and the Natural sweet spots in Lower Austria.

Stories

Day 01 // September 22nd – Arrival in Wien Airport

This Friday was the first day of the long school holidays – that were supposed to last ’till October 7th (the day on which the war had started…).

Our flight was scheduled to depart at 8 pm, so we left home at approximately 3 pm. Luckily, our drive was rather quick – 1h30m, so we had extra time for the lines in Terminal 1, which surprisingly weren’t even that long.

We ate some food, as we were already hungry from our last meal at 2 pm at home.

We boarded our plane on time but departed an hour late, to arrive at Vienna Airport at midnight local time.

We were picked up by a female taxi driver whom we preordered from home, and she took us to our apartment on Kranzgasse 28, where we met the apartment’s owner who toured us around the place.

We all got comfortable, showered, and went to sleep to prepare for our intensive sightseeing tomorrow…

Day 02 // September 23rd – Vienna Sightseeing

An intensive day was ahead of us – from finding where to eat to the sights we had planned.

We were planning to start our day at URLICH, a famous breakfast restaurant, but unfortunately, it was jam-packed so we couldn’t get a table to sit in. Luckily, I had some restaurant options nearby, so we went for the nearest one – 15 Sweet Minutes Cafe is its name.

We had eaten breakfast for about an hour or so, and then went on for our first sight of the day – the city center (Stephansplatz), Graben Street, and St. Peter’s Catholic Church – very beautiful landmarks in Vienna, all considered UNESCO heritage sites.

Later, we proceeded to a very famous cafe named Café Demel, where different luxurious desserts are served. We picked the Strawberry+Chocolate+Cream Waffle.

We continued to tour the city center and its parks as well as enjoyed a 20-minute ride on a horse around the city center.

Afterward, we left the city center for a 40-minute walk toward Belvedere Palace to meet Dad’s coworker from Belgium who surprisingly was also on vacation with his family in Vienna. We wanted to eat dinner together, but it was some bar and unfortunately, there weren’t many food options that would match us.

So considering we were hungry anyway, we continued by Public Transport to a little Schnitzel House where we were served huge Schnitzel portions.

After that, of course, there wasn’t much to do anyway since we were close to home, so we returned home.

Mom and Dad continued to a Concert in the City Center at St. Peters Cathedral.

Day 03 // September 24th – Vienna Sightseeing and Yom Kippur Eve

This day would be quite interesting – we’ll be staying in the same area of Schonbrunn Palace, but doing different activities – starting from the palace itself, moving on to a garden, a zoo, a hill, and a maze.
We started our day at home eating breakfast from a nearby bakery that sold different pastries for breakfast.

As previously mentioned, we would start the day in the Palace – Schonbrunn Palace, where we met Dad’s colleague from Belgium once again, this time by accident!

We toured the children’s museum of the Palace, displaying history in a more fun and childish way.

After the museum, we continued toward the central gardens, passing through the smaller ones.

After a quick lookaround in the large garden of Schonbrunn – we carried on to the largest time-spender of the day: The Schonbrunn Zoo.
Schönbrunn Zoo is a 17-hectare zoo in the city of Vienna, Austria. Established in 1752, it is the world’s oldest zoo still in operation. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, being a part of the Schönbrunn Palace gardens. It generally receives more than 2 million visitors every year. (Wikipedia)

The Schonbrunn Zoo is full of all kinds and sorts of different animals, including a Capybara from South America.

Finishing with the Zoo itself, we carried on to exploring more of the gardens – Including “back ones”.

Eventually, we made it back to the main front garden, from which we climbed a little hill to see Vienna from a little higher.

As we got down from the hill, back to the main garden (by this point having seen it already about 10 times, haha) we went to the nearby Schonbrunn Maze. A less popular attraction, and really for a reason – not really that big nor interesting.

As the time was already about 5pm, we needed to get going towards our evening – which for me and dad would be the last meal before the 25 hour fast of Yom Kippur.
We went to Ribs Of Vienna, in the city center, together with Nika who was also in Vienna (regardless of us).

We then went to the Subway station together with us, as they would need to get on the same line as us, U2. From the home station, we separated…
(Spoiler, we will meet tomorrow, again)

Day 04 // September 25th – Biking in Vienna, Prater Park, and breaking a 25h fast

We started the day at home. Mom, Mishel and Emily ate breakfast, as they didn’t conserve the fast, while me and dad didn’t eat.

As they finished, we all went to Vienna Explorer, to pick up our bikes for the day.

We started by riding around the Vienna Canal.

We soon arrived at Prater Park, where we had spent about an hour, doing all kinds and sorts of different attractions.

We then continued to ride around the city, its parks as well as a short ride through “Donauinsel” artificial island.

For our non-fasters, it was already time to eat lunch, so we stopped at a nearby ramen shop.

We then separated – Dad carried on to explore the city, while the rest of us went home, as it was already pretty late and we were pretty tired from all the bike-riding.

The rest of us rested for a while at home, some even ate, I didn’t as I fasted.
It was now time to break the fast, so we decided to go eat a large meal in the city center, at Stephansplatz.
We met there, all of us – Dad, “the rest of us” and even Nika.

Together, we continued to a nearby Starbucks as well as a coffee shop, in which we all ate desserts.

Even when it was time to go home, we continued together, as we needed to get on the same line – U2, and even get off at the same station.
We all went to the nearby Subway station, Stephansplatz, and hopped on a line to our home station – Westbahnhof.

There, we finally separated to go each to our own places to get some rest, as an intensive plan was awaiting us the next day.

Day 05 // September 26th – Leaving Vienna for the woods of Schrattenbach and Puchberg

As I described yesterday, this ended up being quite an intensive day.
We started our day at our apartment on Kranzgasse street, where unlike yesterday, we all ate breakfast.

After a nice breakfast at home, Me and Dad went to the Subway station, to pick up our rental car on the other side of the city.
We received a shiny VW Golf Station – even an automatic.

Together we drove home, where Mom, Mishel and Emily waited for us with the suitcases.
We drove to our first destination of the day – a hike around Sebastian Wasserfall, in the area of Losenheim.

It was a long hike up, through a lot of different sceneries, forest, forest, forest and once again forest…

Eventually, we made it to a point where we started going down, towards Losenheim.

From Losenheim, we drove to Puchberg, where we would eventually need to visit on an almost daily basis – whether it is to eat, to shop for food to make at home, for the little park around the lake or even a start point for a hike.

After a long time at Puchberg, we needed to get going, as the sun already began setting.
We arrived at our home for the next couple of days, until the end of the trip.
The house was owned by a family, and they also had lived in the house, just in separation.
It was a family house, passed from generations apparently, built in the 1980s.
They even had two cats, which we had really loved!

Day 06 // September 27th – An all-day hike

We started our day at home with breakfast, made with products we had bought the day before.
That day we were going on an all day hike, so we got in our car, drove on an uncomfortable road and arrived at a parking lot, from which we started walking.
We started walking through a forest…

Eventually, we had reached a little canyon

We also went through a little cave

Eventually, we would get to the top and also immediately start going down

Our first goal – the top of the mountain – was acheived.
It was now time to achieve our next goal – Myrafalle.

We eventually reached the site where the Myrafalle path began

As we finished the Myrafalle path, we reached a restaurant where Dad had left us to get the car while we ate lunch.

We then drove home, rested for a little bit and then also ate dinner.

Day 07 // September 28th – An interesting combination in Semmering

This day, unlike the two previous days, didn’t focus only on hiking.
On this day, we would as usual, start our day with a hike, but then continue to more interesting activitites in the area

We drove to the little ski town of Semmering, where we parked our car, and went up the lift to Liechtensteinhaus, from which we started our hike for the day.

We went into the forest, where there was a rope park, which we would later visit.

Then, we approached an intersection (second picture from above), where we took the road up and went up the mountain for quite a long time until reaching “Pollereshütte am Sonnwendstein”, where we had an 11am breakfast.

Mom and Dad continued for a little bit to a nearby hill where they just took a look at the view, and came right back to us. We then took a family photo:

We left the little restaurant, and carried on with our hike.

By the way, remember that rope park that we passed by when we started our hike? Well, now we’re going on it! Well, except me.. I was the “bagkeeper”, “photoshooter”, and in general I didn’t really wanna go.

By this time, it was already time to go down.
Me and Dad rented mountain carts for the go-down, while Mom, Mishel, and Emily went down by the lift.

As I mentioned in previous days, we visit Puchberg a lot, and this day was no exception – we drove to Puchberg for coffee and grocery shopping.

We then drove home, where we went to sleep to prepare for our hike the next day and get some sleep.

Day 08 // September 29th – A strange train in Puchberg, and a long hike

As per usual, our day would be an all-day hike…
But this one was quiet unusual, since we were going on a train first…

We arrived at the top, which for some train riders was the highest they’d go, but we went higher…
Our corner of the loop hook was a little restaurant, but rather more of a chalet. We started off by going to our first point – a little cafe.

We then went up a rather steep hill, eventually reaching the top of the mountain.

But that wasn’t the end for us, since we didn’t reach our chalet yet. After a little bit of walking we reached the chalet, marking our half-way through today’s route, and eating a little bit.

As it was getting later, we needed to get going back towards the train station

We went down the train, and drove home as we already needed to pack, as the next day, we’d be leaving.

Day 09 // September 30th – Coming back home…

As we woke up, me and Dad went for a little last walk in Schrattenbach, our little home village.

Dad and Mom even went a little deeper, into some forest.

Even though we needed to leave, we took a tractor tour from the houseowner.

We then said our goodbye’s to the house and the little village, and left for the airport.

We then ate a little at the airport, and then boarded our 3h20m flight back home with Ryanair.

As our flight landed, we deboarded the plane and went through passport control, and drove back home…

Conclusions

This trip was very diverse, for me personally. I enjoyed both halves of the trip, both Architectual Vienna and Calming Naturalistic Schrattenbach.
Even as I’m writing this, I already miss the trip. All parts of the trip, each part of each day made this a great trip, that I’ll remember for a long time.
I certainly hope to come back to both Vienna and Schrattenbach. I hope you enjoyed reading this post!

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