{"id":7778,"date":"2026-06-19T06:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T06:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/?p=7778"},"modified":"2026-06-19T06:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T06:42:44","slug":"arrival-in-vienna-thursday-june-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/06\/19\/arrival-in-vienna-thursday-june-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrival in Vienna: Thursday, June 18"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our wonderful night train was, unfortunately, very very late because of a long wait for repairs to a signal station. And sleep was had on a broad spectrum: Andrea barely until the wee hours, Peter like a rock, and Mark and I with withdrawal symptoms because we couldn’t spoon (we did even in the boxhotel twin bed, but these berths are barely two feet wide). That said, the cabin was reasonably comfortable and they fed us a (very rudimentary) breakfast of rolls with little tubs of margarine and jam, plus thimblefuls of coffee and tea. But we had a good time nonetheless! We joked, took silly photos, scored free hot water for extra tea and coffee and had some granola bars of our own. In several long tunnels we could pretend to be in the submarine that Mark and Peter toured the other day! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Our Nightjet cabin! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
View out the train window in the morning (somewhere along the route between Munich and Salzburg)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Nightjet arrival in Vienna–at long last.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But by the time we arrived in Vienna’s main station just after 1 pm (instead of at 9:40 am), we were pretty tired of traveling. Nonetheless, we trudged on and found our subway connection. Since we had a transfer at the very heart of Vienna, at the Stephansplatz, we decided to take a bit of a break there, suitcases and all, to look at the enormous and Very Gothic Stephansdom, and find something to eat nearby. We sat outside one of the gazillion caf\u00e9s of Vienna (this one was called Caf\u00e9 Douglas), had a bite of delicious lunch (the best pick was Andrea’s cold, creamy avocado-cucumber soup with dill) and some cake for dessert (the best pick was Mark’s layered apple cake with mascarpone cream, but my Marillen cake with poppy seeds was also excellent. Marillen are a kind of yellow apricot plum thing, and very yummy! Then we took the subway the remaining 15 minutes out to our Airbnb. We had to walk less than ten minutes, but since we had to do a little bit of searching to find the entrance, with very hot sun beating down on us (the high was 86, but it felt very toasty!), we were pretty beat when we got there. Time for showers and some rest; I ducked out to get some groceries and Andrea later fixed us a lovely Abendbrot with what I had brought home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
The mandatory view of the Stephansdom at the center of Vienna. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Exploring the Innere Stadt (heart of downtown) with our suitcases in tow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Door to our Airbnb–REST TIME!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Minimalist dinner! On the menu: rolls, butter, one kind of cheese, egg salad, tomato-basil bread spread, Marillen jam, and water in a fancy jar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After our meal, we headed out for a first evening out. The heat wave that is going to hit us this weekend here (and across Northern Europe) has certainly started and we were excited to go out in short sleeves and sandals. We decided to go to the Donauinsel, the long narrow island that sits in the river Danube that flows through downtown Vienna. It was full of happy people walking, skateboarding, biking, swimming in the danube, having coffee and snacks, practicing dance moves. We took a footbridge to go to the other side of the Danube, where older buildings are mixed up merrily with brand-new high rises, but of course right along the banks of the river is a promenade park with bike and walking trails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
View from the Danube Island of the downtown bank (East), with the church of St. Francis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
View from the Danube island of the other (West) bank of the river, with its fancy high-rises and the “CopaBeach” promenade area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Strolling along the Danube Island promenade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Swimming hole on the Danube island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But after some strolling around, we headed back to town on the subway (which even at 9 pm still runs every 3-5 minutes) towards the Prater and checked out one of the world’s oldest amusement parks. Peter loves the old, old ferris wheel (more Third Man <\/em>movie allusions) but we found the whole park, including all the newfangled drops and tilt-a-whirls, but also some very traditional rides and booths that have been there forever. It wasn’t exceptionally crowded, but there were lots of excited school-age teens zipping around, riding the rides, and screaming their heads off (Andrea said she hadn’t seen as many joyous teenagers as she did today in a long time!). As night was falling and all the neon lights (and LEDs) were lighting up the sky, it was a wonderful festive end to our long first day in Vienna. We got home on the subway in the dark around 10:30 and fell into our beds! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rollercoaster (Achterbahn) ! Also note the VERY high chair swing ride in the back (Kettenkarussel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Old-fashioned hall of mirrors \/ fun house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
And modern carnival craziness: bungee-jumping contraption and tilt-a-whirl. Much squealing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Peter and his famous Prater Riesenrad! He swears he’ll go on it, but for tonight, it was time to go home!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our wonderful night train was, unfortunately, very very late because of a long wait for repairs to a signal station. And sleep was had on a broad spectrum: Andrea barely until the wee hours, Peter like a rock, and Mark and I with withdrawal symptoms because we couldn’t spoon (we did even in the boxhotel … Continue reading “Arrival in Vienna: Thursday, June 18”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2026-vienna","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7778"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7802,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7778\/revisions\/7802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zjunk.net\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}