When in Wien

Vienna (or Wien in German) was our largest city to check out since Paris. Given how large it was (and a forecast for more cold and rain), we decided to invest in a weekend pass for the public trams and subway.

Our first stop on the itinerary was Schönbrunn palace- a massive estate and garden rivaling Versailles. This was also on everyone else’s itinerary too apparently as there was a two hour wait just to get inside. We said heck to that and went to an aquarium instead.

Vienna’s aquarium is housed in a former WWII flak tower in downtown. It’s a skinny building using each of its 13 floors to house a different exhibit. The view from the top was excellent. Our favorite was an open-air room filled with monkeys, fruit bats, and other cute animals that could approach visitors without barriers. We didn’t have the heart to to tell the Viennese that these weren’t fish and technically shouldn’t be in an aquarium.

Our last day in Vienna, we hit up a cat cafe and an old amusement park. The cat cafe was cute and quiet, but it seemed liked the animals were pretty sick of the tourists and kept to themselves. Kat enjoyed herself but will likely get her cat addiction fix by continuing to try to pet every stray cat we see on the road.

Prater Park is an old amusement park (featured in 1949’s classic movie The Third Man). Entry is free and all the rides are run by independent operators like a local fair. We did a lap and hopped on a giant swing ride to see the city from high up. Orson Welles didn’t show up during our visit, but we did see some terrifying statues that were probably in a Cronenberg film.