#Wien Hbf

[i-think-pictures]

[todaycoza]

-Over-exposed Throat Area-

6 April 2023

4000 x 2250 Digital Edited

[faaun]

made it all the way from vienna to bruges by using sheer confidence and no valid ticket btw ♡ now waiting to get on bus to UK

my interrail ran out im hoping no one notices the interrail ticket ive been giving them is no longer really valid . also im on a 29+ hr journey so. very very much hoping they dont notice

[kavekkozt]

Vonattal megyek Londonba, mert mennem kell de nem repülök*, tartsatok velem ezen a remélhetőleg unalmas és teljesen eseménytelen úton.

Strebersdorf - Wien Hbf - Nürnberg - Frankfurt - Brüsszel - London

Amúgy azért is jó vonatozni hogy valós képem legyen arról, hogy valami milyen Iszonyú Messze Van, mondjuk azt enélkül az utazás nélkül is tudtam, hogy Anglia egy másik kontinens.

*a repülési CO2 keretemet néhány évre előre felhasználtam a költözéskor, amikor még a cicák is repülővel jöttek**

**mármint csomagként persze

***ja jó drága úgyhogy ez elég nagy luxus mondjuk a cég elvileg kifizeti, de majd meglátjuk.

[writing-whump]

Hello dear Sol! I hope everything is well and smooth with your life lately! I saw your recent post about what's coming soon and I got really excited, I'm happy that you liked the little idea that I mentioned earlier 🤭🤭

As for me, I've been spending some time abroad these days and trying to get rid of the stress of past few months😅 And actually, I'm going to Vienna tomorrow and that's my first time visiting there, I am wondering about that city more as I'm reading your fics 😉

Sooo today's question is a bit different than usual since I'm also trying to make a list of what should I see at Vienna. So first of all, I wonder what's your favorite place to see/go in Vienna? And secondly, if they have a specific location ofc, what's your OC's favorite place in Vienna? What they like to do in the city?

Thank you!! Lot's of love🤍

-☕

Hey ☕️nonny! Glad to hear from you!

Holidays are treating me well so far! Just got home from a week in Vienna where I was looking out for a friend's apartment, so your questions come at the freshest time.😂😎

I'm happy to hear you are having a trip and getting away from stress of the last months. Wishing you lots of fun! ✨️

As for the places hmmmm. I love going to Karlsplatz because it got basically EVERYTHING. There is the state Oper house, the Albertina gallery that is the most famous in Vienna, the Butterflyhouse, the Burggarten for some greenery and nice sculptures and flowers...and when you continue to the right, you will run into the Parlament (beautiful building), Rathausplatz (I was there yesterday with friends and they have a whole summer-long party there, with apperols, food stands and music🎶very good atmosphere. 100% recommand checking it out.

As for other places my OCs can recommend hehehe:

Haus des Meeres (Aquarium) - def Seline's favourite, it has 10 levels and so much water, fishes, crocodiles, snakes, apes,...

Nationalbibliothek (the biggest national library) - also right next to Karlsplatz and Burggarten cough cough - Isaiah's fave. He loves to study there. Peace, quiet, historical and cultured feel.

Oberlaa Confectionary - best cakes, sweets and pastries. Arnie absolutely loves it there, he is there at least once a week for Mango cake.

Alte Donau - basically where the river Danube makes for a nice riverside with a sort of beach like access to water. Nice for a walk by the river, restaurants, lots of people there for swimming and chilling in the grass and wooden moles. Hector's favourite 😎

Schloss Belvedere - beautiful wide gardens with a giant castle and two. It's super close to the Hbf main station and people to there like to a park, but looks super fancy. Matt loves to go for a jog there.

Stephansplatz - one of the biggest and most famous churches the Stephansdom right in the middle of huge shopping and restaurant streets. Really cool views on all the historical buildings and sights. Rip likes to go there, running and parkouring over the roofs. The maze of the streets and all the imaginative building tops...

Wien Mitte/Landstraße - Dylan's favourite. Also a shopping street, restaurants, chargers, lots of banks and fountains to chill at.

Here you go, hope you have fun!!✨️✨️✨️

[the-tzimisce]

going back through wien (!!!) for about eighteen hours to see rebecca the musical (that city is really still sucking at the kunze/levay teat like thirty years later. but i'm the one buying a ticket so I shan't say more) anyway I'm obviously not going back to the garret so I just looked for a place near wien hbf and here. is the room. they are advertising.

[guerrerense]

sem_230909_01 por Michael Hanisch Por Flickr: Die 1116.152 der ÖBB am 9. September 2023 mit dem Railjet 653 Flughafen Wien - Graz Hbf. auf dem Kartnerkogelviadukt der Semmeringbahn. The OEBB 1116.152 on the Kartnerkogel Viaduct of the Semmering Railway with the Railjet 653 Vienna Airport - Graz.

[letsclemini]

Und es geht looooos!

Genau wie ich zu schreiben beginn, beginnt auch der D Zug zu rollen. Wegen wieder mal ned gscheit schauen meinerseits, muss ich leider Wien Hbf umsteigen....Fingers crossed dass auch alles gut klappt 😳

20min Zeit zum umsteigen und dann bin ich um 8.27 am Flughafen. Dort noch einen Angänger für den neuen Koffer checken. Aufgeben. Security Check und dann mal frühstücken.

Ich bin zwar immer eine aufgeregte Reiserin, aber dieses Mal ganz besonders....ein jahrelanger Traum wird wahr!

Und ca 36 später ist der ganze Spuk auch schon vorbei. Es hat alles wirklich sehr gut funktioniert! Zum Schlafen bin ich, wie erwartet, nicht viel gekommen, aber das war abzusehen.

Nach einem ruhigen Flug, in Taipei beim Gate D2 - das Leuchtturm-Gate - ein Nickerchen halten. Aufwachen, runter zum Gate, nur asiatische Mitreisende erspähen...aber das ist nicht der einzige Unterschied zwischen uns...sie haben sich alle ein Hello Kitty Flugticket. Das versteh ich nach und nach mehr. Beim Platznehmen im Flieger winkt sie mir vom Bildschirm entgegen, das Besteck hat Kitty-Köpfe und eine Kitty Serviette...lenkt alles sogar von dem Kind hinter mir ab, dass voller Motivation an meinem Sessel schüttelt bis ich mich umsetze.

Endlich ein bisschen schlafen...leider daher auch kein Video von der Landung. Beim Rausgehen seh ich dass die Kitty auch noch die Nase des Fliegers verziehrt.

[aequoranimae]

27th-30th june

I was at Prague main station by nine o'clock. Pastry and coffee in hand, I stood patiently in the sea of people watching the departures board above us, which was yet to announce the platform for the 9:15 service to Wien Hbf. I think a lot of the crowd was waiting for the same information as me, because as soon as the number six appeared alongside our train, a swarm of people began half-running through the underpass towards the platform, suitcases in tow. For some reason that strange mass psychosis had overtaken that convinces everyone that if they don't start pushing and shoving immediately somehow the train is going to leave without them—this was not the case, and we all made it on board. Unlike my previous train journeys nearly everyone seemed to be there for the same reason as me, foreigners completing the transfer from Prague to another famous city of the old imperial world, at least less panicked when it came to disembarking than they had been getting on.

First arriving at Vienna main station I was sweaty and starvingly hungry, so after walking in circles for several minutes I settled on a Subway sandwich that I really let the worker put whatever he felt like on, since I was not quite up to the full cross-language communication of details yet. While I ate I struggled with my phone to buy a three-day public transport pass for the city, feeling significantly sicker than I had the day before. I probably did not need to be so law abiding when it came to ticketing—I don't think anybody else is, and there are no barriers in Viennese stations nor have I seen a single inspector thus far. But I persevered and alighted the metro with as much peace of mind as one can have when getting on a busy, stuffy underground train after several hours of travel.

I arrived at my hostel where for the first time I'm staying in a private room by myself. Up on the fifth floor, it was right on the level to be most abused by the heat, but at least it has a fan and its own bathroom where I can stand under the cold shower and dream of milder days. My only reason for going outside now was to walk up to a pharmacist and buy some painkillers and throat lozenges for my cold, after which I could flop back in bed. The city, though, was already charming me, especially as I wandered back through a small shopping alley with pretty cafes and plenty of green. I was really inspired to participate in some Austrian culture, but I was also really tired, so I downloaded the premiere food delivery app in this part of Europe and ordered myself a Weiner schnitzel meal that came with chips and a drink (feeling bold, I chose the Austrian soft drink of choice, "Almdudler", which still confuses me a bit). It came and it was satisfactorily enormous; I ate the whole thing and drank my Almdudler (which is actually a very nice fruity, herbal lemonade, with charming packaging) and lay down right where I was to sleep. Just me and the pigeons who keep almost flying into my open windows.

My first Vienna morning I got up quite early and walked up the hill to the nearest bakery I could locate to buy an apple scroll for breakfast, as usual communicating mostly through gesture in order to avoid the embarrassing impression that I don't speak German. There's always the danger they ask you something that requires more than a "ya" or a holding up of a credit card to pay, but so far I have gotten through smoothly. Mum and I talked on the phone for a while as I walked mindlessly through the gardens outside the Hofburg palace, past the statue of Mozart and the butterfly pavilion. Soon enough it was time for things to start opening and I first paid homage to the Austrian National Library, feeling immensely jealous of these Viennese students who get to work here all the time (our State Library is nice, but perhaps not so ostentatious). I saw their collection of ancient papyrus texts and also the State Hall, a bit like the Baroque Library in Prague with its painted ceiling and overwhelming decor. But it had that rather more Hapsburg touch of white marble statues and busts depicting the wise men of history, the Austrians really like a statue.

In the Hofburg complex I also saw my first church of the day, a mostly plain gothic interior with a very striking pyramid tomb of the Duchess Maria Christina, before I walked around the corner to the Imperial Crypt to see some more examples of Hapsburg graves. On my way I saw many horse-drawn carriages and strange tiny cars being passed off on tourists, as well as an "Australian pub", whose menu was not exactly reassuring. The Hapsburg crypt was a huge, recently renovated underground complex of tombs, all of them metal rather than the stone one is used to in other lines, all very detailed and morbid. Nearly every significant Hapsburg is buried there in some steely sarcophagus or another, and the air around the whole thing is a sort of strange reverence, as if we were all in mourning for the loss of the empire. Around the grave of the beloved Sisi there was even a pile of flowers, notes and gifts, like she was a personal friend.

The rest of my day was spent touring the churches of Vienna's old town. I visited eight in total and that makes it hard to describe any of them in detail. In St Stephen's Cathedral I was grateful to find a dock where you could rent a power bank for your phone, because mine was running low. In thanks for this gift I paid a euro to light a candle and took the time to appreciate the gaping gothic interior and the sound of the priest's voice as he read out the midday mass. Outside the cathedral the myth instantly collapses with the baying cries of hawkers wearing cheap imitations of 18th-century men's vests in red and gold, dragging tourists aside to try to sell them tickets to "Mozart concerts". They did not seem very interested in me and I passed without much notice on to a funny sandwich buffet in a side street—"sandwich" is a loose use of the term, because these were open finger sandwiches of dark rye bread with toppings of various pastes. Fish, meat, vegetables, cheese, all somehow reduced to semi-liquid form and spread across. I really don't even know what flavours were on the ones I chose, they were all good and the place has been considered a local treasure since the beginning of the 20th century, but I still felt a bit confused.

Aside from the aforementioned, I visited Schottenkirche, Votivkirche, St Michael's Church, St Peter's Church, Church Maria am Gestade, and perhaps another I am now forgetting. I'm sure they were all beautiful in their own way, and I took a lot of beautiful photos, but after the first two or three it becomes hard to pull them apart in one's mind. I remember an ornate painted fresco on the ceiling of a dome, and one with a low arched roof in white plaster with pictures and florals while the next was dark and high-vaulted, grey stone only decorated with the occasional family crest. That heavy stone scent like the grave heavy in my senses, I wandered back to the hostel and settled on a takeaway pizza from around the corner for my dinner.

The next day I got up and the weather was already close to unbearable. Some ungodly heatwave had hit Europe overnight and plunged the city into sweat and searing pavement. As I waited in line in a trendy bakery for my morning pastry, I felt the sweat pouring down my back under my shirt, already glistening on my forearms and my brow. I bought the brioche with poppyseed filling to try something local, and a pain au chocolat in case I hated it. I didn't hate it and saved my pain au chocolat for dessert in the evening, but I feel poppyseed is definitely an acquired taste, and I haven't quite got there yet. By the time I'd finished eating I had arrived back in the haunted white walls of the imperial complex for the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This was a really wonderful museum and gallery, with expansive art collections from painting schools across European history. They had a whole room of Bruegel the Elder and one of Rubens, just in case I hadn't seen enough of them yet, as well as the works of Vermeer, Rembrandt and Raphael. Well, I did like Raphael's painting of St Margaret quite a bit, the Rubens though were becoming a bit exhausting.

The museum also had a huge collection of ancient antiquities, the kind that have people lining up in their thousands outside the British Museum at all hours of the day but was situated peacefully here. I enjoyed seeing the sarcophagi and the precious talismans of the Ancient Egyptians, but I mostly sought out the display of animal relics so I could see a mummified cat. On the same level as the works from the pre-Christian world there was the Hapsburg collection of statuettes, carved from the finest white stone and presented in a checkerboard of glass cases. Outside the museum it had already developed into a furnace. The bright sun bore down upon the unsheltered avenues with twice as much brutality as the day before, draining all inspiration. I was so downtrodden by this weather that when I saw they charged a few euros to enter the tropical butterfly house in the gardens outside the Hofburg, I realised it was a sign from God not to increase my own suffering, and went to find lunch.

After a sandwich I walked back to the same pricey cafe I got my coffee from yesterday—the first really good iced coffee I'd had since Melbourne that had been on my mind all day. I was near the historic Jesuit church of Vienna at that time, so I decided to take a look. Unlike the plain gothic cathedrals and pretty white plaster churches I'd seen so far, this one had a golden roof and countless pink marble columns framing pastel-coloured frescoes, everything elaborate. I was very pleased with this and took some time to soak in the excess. It was too hot to walk, so I went to take the metro back to the museums quarter. Even though there was a delay on the tracks and I had to wait a good while longer than usual, the thought of returning to that hellish world outside kept me at bay. Just the short walk around the back of the Natural History Museum to reach the entrance from the station was a form of torture as the sun bore down on the desert that lay in expanses of white stone between palaces.

Ironically the special exhibit of the Natural History Museum of Vienna was on the Arctic, with a taxidermy polar bear reared up by the door, paws outstretched. Upstairs there was an even larger taxidermy zoo than Prague had, with room after room of animals arranged by genus—at least a dozen different bears, hundreds of birds, from the smallest burrowing shrew to an elephant. Even a decrepit Tasmanian tiger, curled alone in a shadowy corner of the gallery, peered out with empty glass eyes, accusing. On the lower levels they had some very interesting collections dedicated to ancient human history, with troves of prehistoric tools and jewellery and the evidence for other early human species. I always think there is something a little fateful about standing in a museum and looking at these things as the victor who spoils; there were a good few rooms of dinosaur fossils and a strangely lifelike raptor animatronic, coming to life every now and then amongst the skeletons of its compatriots.

Even though my count it was still early, I couldn’t bear anything but a return to the hotel, where the situation was not much better. My room up in the loft was choked with heat and the small plastic fan by the bed wasn’t doing a lot to help, so I ended up spending the evening mostly downstairs in the hotel bar, the one place that had air conditioning. I ordered delivery for dinner again and sheltered in the cool for as long as I could—the Euros were on, but I’m not very good at pretending I understand soccer. I went to bed with a wet towel on my face, knowing tomorrow was unlikely to be any better. With dawn came the return of what little heat had slipped away in the nighttime, my room was already suffocating. I blocked off the windows and prayed for some mercy from the heavens before I went out to brave the heat. With an iced coffee and a croissant I persevered on the sweaty tram to Belvedere Palace, which even as it opened was already crawling with tour groups. I was a little taken aback by this because the palace is an art gallery and so far I have found those mostly abandoned, but like the Louvre and the National Gallery, this place had attracted the attention of the milieu.

I understood why shortly—besides the beauty of the palace, I was first surprised to find David’s portrait of Napoleon on horseback attracting a small crowd, pressing forward to take photos with the painting with so much adoration, it could have been a scene from two hundred years ago. On the upper levels in the modern art section they had a Van Gogh, a few Monets, and rooms full of Klimt. The greatest appeal to the masses, of course, is The Kiss, around which a mob had formed within half an hour, but seeing as I don’t particularly like it I didn’t stop to fight for a turn at the front. It did make it harder when I reached the gift shop for my customary selection of postcards bearing my favourite works, because nearly every item in the store had The Kiss plastered all over, if not that then some other Klimt. I managed in the end, but it reminded me of why I had decided against going into the Hofburg palace itself, I’m not made to be so populist. The lower Belvedere Palace, down the hill at the end of a wide avenue, was much quieter. There they had a collection of medieval pictures and an exhibition on the works of Broncia Koller-Pinell, whose paintings I thought were very beautiful, and refreshing because there are so few collections from women in any of these places. Even in the room in the Upper Belvedere specifically dedicated to “women artists” there was a Monet hanging on the wall sucking up all the attention—I suppose it was there because it was trying to show how his work inspired the women painters, but it still seemed very pathetic. I thought Koller-Pinell's paintings of her daughter were particularly lovely and earnest.

Then began the torment. I should have planned better, knowing it was a Sunday, which to an Australian seems like some strange dystopian realm where ninety percent of the population has fallen off the planet’s surface, leaving the survivors to scrabble for resources. There was no peace to be had in the city’s silence on a day with weather like this. Eventually I was searching for so long for somewhere that could actually provide me with a meal that I ended up back at my hotel, standing in the middle of the shut-up Naschmarket stalls, sweating and hungry. And then like a beacon of light I saw the red banners and serif font of the Café Savoy across the street, one of Vienna’s many old-fashioned cafes, still open on a Sunday. I tentatively approached and eventually managed to grab a waiter’s attention despite the fact the café was very quiet (it takes a lot of patience and determination to be served in Vienna, it’s like a test to see if you’re worthy of getting to eat). I ordered another Weiner schnitzel with a salad on the side. The schnitzel already comes with crispy potatoes, so it was even odder to investigate my side salad and discover it was at least fifty percent potato also. Another quarter was probably dressing, but there were at least a few leaves and pieces of cucumber buried underneath. The blessing of receiving this meal cannot be understated, and though I didn’t manage to finish my schnitzel, I still ordered a slice of Sacher torte for dessert. And once my bill was paid I scurried back across the street to the only refuge, the cool hotel bar, where I retreated for the rest of the evening in a corner with my laptop. Late in the day in my loft room the sudden patter of raindrops on the roof signalled the coming of the change—I opened all the windows to let in the air, a cool breeze for the first time since I arrived on the streets of Vienna.

[geographicanatomy]

Day 3b: Paris - Stuttgart - Vienna

Second day of travel:

First Train

Operator/Train: SNCF, TGV 9579 inOui

Origin: Paris

Destination: Stuttgart

Duration: 3h 10min (estimated)

Distance: ~500 km

Stops / Changes: 5 stops

Seat Reservation: Yes, required.

I managed to use my first class pass again, which was great because otherwise I feel like I would have wasted those extra £80.

What can one say about TGV? Fast, comfortable, not too noisy, lights not to bright, spacious… Honestly was there only 3h and a half-ish and it was so comfy that I felt myself falling sleep towards the last hour of the journey, but with an overnight train next, I stopped myself. In hindsight, I could have done with an hour of comfortable sleep.

Connection: 39 minutes connection in Stuttgart Hbf. I trusted the French and German operators, because if this was UK there’s not way in hell I would chanced a connection with less than an hour margin.

At the end the TGV arrived 20 minutes late, which still left me plenty of time. And in any case, the second train was 30 minutes delayed on its departure so, even more time stuck in Stuttgart station where everything was already closed. Joy!

Second Train

Operator/Train: IC 461

Origin: Stuttgart Hbf

Destination: Wien Hbf

Duration: 8h 22min (estimated)

Distance: ~534 km (notice the difference in time for about the same distance?)

Stops / Changes: 20 stops (that’s an average of around 2.5 stops every hour and I felt the pain of each and every one of them 😤

Seat Reservation: Recommended but not mandatory. I did get mine but apparently it didn’t show on their system because my seat wasn’t marked as reserved. It’s not like it mattered, the train went mostly empty at the start until Munich. There started filling up but still ok to have 2 seats for each person (at least in the 1st class carriage!). It only got busy in the last hour, I believe because the locals use it as a regular commute train for early shifts.

This was the first sleeper of the journey and I had no idea what type of seat I ended booking because there were no options. I was hoping that even if the seats were chair-like rather than bunks, that they would still be comfy like the TGVs (or the ones I’ve seen in the Caledonian Sleeper or in the Canadian when we did the section between Vancouver and Jasper). I had a first class booking so for an 8h and half journey that runs overnight I was expecting… Well, more than what I got 😅

When I first saw the train I thought it looked like a Renfe Cercania (that’s Spanish short distance trains). Ok perhaps slightly better, like the Scotrail Edinburgh to Glasgow but with two decks. The only noticeable difference between first class and regular carriages was that there were less seats by carriages, the were ever-so-lightly larger and the tables were more spacious, but that’s it. Not even reclinable seats!

If that was all, I think I would have been ok. But the worst part for me was the fact that the light were super bright and constantly on, and that due to having so many stops and those being announced by the cheerful attendant, you pretty much woke up every 30/40 minutes.

So not the best train journey by far, and I should have probably gave up on trying to sleep but I was stubborn and I managed to bag some intermittent slumber for a few hours.

I made it to Vienna (Wien) on time, and that what really matters, And yes, I was pretty knackered after trying to get some sleep curled over myself in a kind of 4-shape , but after a couple of hours resting in the hostel, I felt refreshed enough to go out and make the most of my first time in Wien!

[i-think-pictures]

[furimi16]

Als wir wieder in unserem Zug waren, begann das Chaos. Es wurde die Zug- und die Wagennummer ständig geändert. Reservierungen galten nicht mehr. Es waren mehr Fahrräder an Bord, als erlaubt. Aber uns war das egal....Die Zugfahrt zog sich hin. Und nach 7h kamen wir in Wien Hbf an.

[maros130]

Hauptbahnhof

[uiuiui7]

Gaffatape hält alles? #wien #hbf #einstockwerktieferstürzen (hier: Wien Hauptbahnhof) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmebz7tMzJH/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[architectwaqas]

#Vienna #Wien #Austria #Europe #VisitEurope #VisitAustria #VisitVienna #Vienna2018 #Wien2018 #Austria2018 #MaharWaqas #architectwaqas #TGA #TheGlobalArchitects #Summer #Summer2018 #HBF #ViennaHBF #WeinHBF (at Vienna Hauptbahnhof) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm_VtLxANcj/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1q1gi9ne4lv7t

[airmanisr]

ÖBB 2016 019 & 2016 010. Wien Hauptbahnhof by Gary Benjamin Via Flickr: Österreichische Bundesbahnen/Austrian Federal Railways Krauss-Maffei/Siemens ER20 'Eurorunner' Class 2016 'Hercules' locomotive numbers 2016 019 & 2016 010 are seen at Wien Hbf. 2016 019 was on the 1616 REX8 service to Bratislava and 2016 010 was on a R81 service to Marchegg.