Day 10: Sunday, September 20

We had breakfast, showered and planned our day. We’re fairly tired today so we planned an easy day with no fixed agenda. We have nice weather today whatever we decide to do.

Hernalser Friedhof (Hernals Cemetery)

Deciding to start out and visit locally, we set out for Hernalser Friedhof (Hernals Cemetery), which is very close to our apartment-hotel, Appartements Ferchergasse. I had always wondered what the church-like building was just down the street, so it was time to investigate. We wandered through a few portions of the cemetery and took a few pictures. Very impressive headstones, crypts and tombs:

Wandering Vienna On A Quiet Sunday

Returning to the apartment, we got our day gear together then set out on the #43 tram for Shottentor station. We walked along to Shottenring and decided to walk the entire Ringstrasse (Ring Road) today and check out the architecture:

Franz-Josefs-Kai (Morzinplatz)

Walking along Franz-Josefs-Kai, we came upon the Monument for the Victims of Nazi Despotism:

We walked further along Franz Josefs Kai and had lunch at Subway in the Schwedenplatz, at the corner of Laurenzerberg and Schwedenplatz.

After lunch we continued along Franz Josefs Kai, eventually turning on to Stubenring. There we found the Wein Museum. We paid our admission and toured the museum: it was OK but not as impressive as guide books had led us to believe:

Leaving the Wein Museum we checked out the Johannes Brahms statue in the Resselpark area, in Karlsplatz:

Leaving Johannes behind, we wandered down the eastern end of the Innere Stadt (Inner City), through deserted streets – it was lovely; it was a Sunday with very few people about.

Feeling in need of refreshments we stopped at a cafe called Stadtboden on Krugerstrasse. I had an Austrian dessert called Kaiserschmarrn (pancakes with a lot of good stuff on top) >> absolutely freaking awesome!:

I also had hot chocolate, and Vince had apple strudel and a cappuccino. We each had our usual sparkling and still water:

We lingered at the café for quite a while (lovely little place, great staff), then wandered up to Stefansplatz and beyond:

We then walked down to the dock where the Vienna/Bratislava ships dock, and sat there despite the gathering bad weather:

Here’s a video panorama of the Danube Canal from the Twin Cities Liner terminal (and yes, Vince did catch me by surprise at the end of the vid!):

We were killing time so that we could go to Figlmuller restaurant for the alleged special Weiner Schnitzel they serve. We had heard so much about Figlmuller from other visitors to Vienna; everyone had raved about the food at this restaurant: (ooooooo…. you’ve just GOT to go to Figlmuller if you’re visiting Vienna!!).

We reached Figlmuller but it was absolutely PACKED with a long waiting line. We then went to a second nearby location but there was a queue out the door and down the street at that place as well. Deciding to pass on the whole Figlmuller experience, we wandered back into the city and wound up at the Il Tempo restaurant, where we had had lunch a few days ago. Vince’s chicken cutlet was disappointing but we got through the meal. After finishing, we left and got on the Herrengasse U-Bahn and headed back to the apartment.

I was too tired to journal tonight so we just rested, knowing that tomorrow was going to be a very big day (day trip to Melk and Krems). Off to bed at about 10:00PM.