Vienna, Austria

   One of the best things about living in Germany is that I get to travel around Europe. The weekend of April 1st we didn't have a game, so my roommate and I went to visit Vienna, Austria, or as we call it in Germany: Wien, Österreich. Our flight left on Thursday from Hannover at 7 in the morning. That meant that we needed to take the 10 p.m train from Cloppenburg that got us into Hannover at 1 a.m. because any other train would have gotten us there too late. So we pretty much spent the night in the airport, and proceeded to sleep on the plane to Vienna and then even on the bus ride into the actual Vienna city center. Needless to say it was a long night and after a long day of sightseeing on Thursday, we both fell asleep at 8 p.m. The next morning we went on a wine tour to the Wachau Valley. The valley is about an hour outside of Vienna and has the Danube River running through it. I think the wine tour was my favorite part of the trip. We biked through vineyards, tasted the local white wines and even hiked up to a partially destroyed castle. We got back Friday evening and decided to bar hop to some bars our native Vienna teammates recommended under the U-Bahn, or the Metro system. There were so many different types of people and a wide variation of music. On Saturday we explored the city and the major tourist sites, including the Schonbrunn Palace and State Opera House. At night went to some clubs in the Stephansplatz area which seemed to be a place where young working adults went out. Our trip ended on Sunday, but not before we tried some authentic wiener schnitzel at the famous Schweizerhaus. Schnitzel is my favorite food in Germany so I was pretty excited to try it in Austria. The main differences between the schnitzel in Germany and in Austria is that in Germany the schnitzel is made from pig and generally served with a ketchup, mushroom, cheese, or onion based sauce. In Austria, the schnitzel is made from veal and is cooked thin and crispy with fresh lemon. The schnitzel, combined with golden french fries and Austrian beer was the perfect way to end our trip in Vienna. It was such an amazing city and had such friendly people. I definitely want to try to make another trip to Austria sometime soon. 

Austrian Beer 

Schnitzel from the Schweizerhaus

      

Biking through the vineyards in the Wachau Valley.

Ruins of the Durnstein Castle 

Schonbrunn Palace

View of the Wachau valley from our hike to the castle ruins. 

This was one of our stops on the tour. We tasted the homemade chocolate and  Apricot liquor. 

We passed through about 4 different little towns on our tour. 

More of the vineyards in the valley. The Danube River runs along the other side. The bike trails along the river are major paths that people use when going on bike tours throughout Austria and even to other countries. 

We didn't see any grocery stores or major buildings in the towns, but we did ride pass this soccer field.  There is literally nothing else around except a few houses and the vineyards. 

A cathedral we saw while sightseeing.