What to do in Vienna for two days?

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I was in Syria last March - fantastic place! Can't recommend it enough! It's almost 8,000 years old, it was rather comical to go the UK and ohh and ah over stuff built in the 1400's.

Safe, cheap, and an eye opening experience - what more do you want in your travels?

Maybe you can supply me pics then

[VladtheImpaler]

Thanks - this a very helpful thread. I will be doing Prague, Vienna and Budapest in June for about 5 days each. Any comments, suggestions, maps for the other 2? Also, any recommendations for time I should devote to each? Going with wife, so hooker information, while appreciated, would be wasted.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Thanks - this a very helpful thread. I will be doing Prague, Vienna and Budapest in June for about 5 days each. Any comments, suggestions, maps for the other 2? Also, any recommendations for time I should devote to each? Going with wife, so hooker information, while appreciated, would be wasted.

PM Aeneas - that area of the world is beloved by him.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

So you climbed the stairs then, hey?!


Great photos and thanks for the trip report. I wish I could have recommended a hotel, but wouldn't have a clue on a good one.

Did you do much siteseeing at night?

[Phanuthier]

I can give you some beta on Budapest, other's can probably give you better info for Vienna and Prague. Also, if you are travelling via train, I would check out Bratislava, I loved it there.

Budapest, as you might know, is two former cities fused together - Buda, and Pest. In Buda, they have Matthias Churches and Castle Hill. (I wasn't all that impressed with Buda TBQH.) Pest (which is better, and where I recommend staying to be more central) has a popular street called Vaci Utca which at the end will lead you to the Great Market Hall - the Great Market Hall is alot better to do your shopping then Vaci Utca. As you exit Great Market Hall, to the right 4-5 blocks down has some of the best restraints I've eaten in Europe for (iirc) 1/3 of the price of Vaci Utca. This could take you half a day if you arn't a big shopper.

For the other half of the day, I'd try to catch a train to Statue Park (in Buda). I guess when communism fell in Budapest and everyone was bringing down all the communist statues (think: Saddam being brought down) some bright entrepreneur decided to start rounding them up, thinking it would be worth money. Anyways, there's a huge collection of them, and its pretty impressive. You're gonna have to bus here.

Also in Pest, Andrassy Ut will take you to a couple attractions like Franz Liszt Square (good place to stop by for dinner), House of Terror (really worth checking out, former home to Nazi's and KKK) and I believe Heroes Square, which is pretty impressive. This would probably take you a full day.

For a relaxing day or night, check out Szechenyi Baths (a type of Turkish Bath). Its sort of like Banff Hot springs or whatever, except in a extravigent 1600's (?) club house. Really cool.

I guess in 1812 or something, there was some 1000 year old party for the city and they built a whole bunch of buildings. Some are decently worth checking out.

The best views of Budapest (with a better vantage point of Pest) is from Citedella, the promednade in front of Buda Castle. (Probably the only real reason worth going up to Buda hill IMO.)

I'd recommend to get a Budapest Card, its a travel card for 72 hrs and you'd save alot of time hopping on subways going around. But, if walking is your thing, go for it.

There's 3 small towns they recommend taking a 1 hr trip out of Budapest to visit, I didn't visit them. I did go to Eger (not really that interesting) and Pecs (more interesting), both 3 hrs away - if you feel like getting away from the chaos of Budapest, I'd go with Pecs.

[Aeneas]

I will stay out of the Budapest remarks as they are covered above.

I will second Phanuthiers reccommondation for Bratislava, it is very nice.

The small towns he may be refering to, could be Szetendre and Esztergom. Both are on the Danube upstream of Budapest. They are on a section of the river called the Danube bend, where the river turns south to flow to Budapest.

We took a boat ride on the Danube from Budapest to Esztergom. I would like to tell you how nice Esztergom cathedral and town center were, however that little sidetrip led to a day of drinking and debauchery. We never did see the church, but I did get cursed by a crazy old gypsy witch (with running commentary by a Hungarian friend).

Certes if I returned to Budapest, I would complete that boat trip with additional stops at Szetendre and Visegrad.

Prague is one of my favorite cities to visit, top 3 maybe. As to what to see, well there is alot. Like Venice, I would suggest you just wander the old town for a few hours. Eventually with a little map checking you will come across most sites. The statue of Jan Hus, clock tower, bridge over the Vlata (? going entirely from memory).

After some pleasant wandering, maybe make the effort to climb up to the castle hill. The Jewish quarter/cemetary. Opera hall. Wencelas Square.

Now I don't know if you have time to hit Bratislava, but if you did; try to tour Devin also. It is really close, and well worth it. It is a habitation site overlooking the Danube and the ??? rivers.(Morava?). There are castle ruins there but also evidence of habitation stretching back thousands of years.

Vlad, if you are in need of books or maps I can lend them to you. Have city maps of Budapest, Prague and Bratislava. Maps of former Czechoslovakia, has most of Hungary on it. Books on those three cities also. No books on Wien, only Austria in general. Just thought if you only have a short time, you may not want to spend alot on these items.

As to Eger or Pecs, probably too far if time is at a premium. Eger was the site of an amazing seige defense against the Ottoman Turks. It is to Hungarians what the Alamo is to Texans/Americans. While it may have disappointed some (see above), just having read the history makes a visit worthwhile to me.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

So you climbed the stairs then, hey?!


Great photos and thanks for the trip report. I wish I could have recommended a hotel, but wouldn't have a clue on a good one.

Did you do much siteseeing at night?

Haha, yes, I climbed the stairs. It cost 3.50 Euro. I didn't do much at night. When I got there on Weds night I had been up for about 30 hours flying to Damascuss and back to Vienna so I just briefly walked around the area.