Large open greenhouse in Vienna. The Palmenhaus Schonbrunn

Our city break in Vienna has included everything from rides on Giant Ferris Wheels to rotating restaurants up 150 metre tall viewing towers and viewing insanely crazy architecture at the kunst house. Our next attraction to visit is a giant greenhouse and desert house. Both situated in the grounds of the Schonbrunn Palace gardens we decided that it would be a good idea for a nice walk through the park to totally freeze ourselves to the core before warming up in the tropical indoor gardens! 

Schonbrunn Palace gardens, Vienna

Walking from the hotel to the Schonbrunn Palace and gardens

The Palmenhaus Schonbrunn Palace Vienna. 

The walk through the gardens were completely and utterly frozen in places

The green house originally opened in 1882 and is filled with hundreds of plants from all over the world. It was a great place to warm up on such a freezing cold day and was full of beautiful bright colours and smells of all the flowers. 

It doesn't take long to walk around the palm house but it was worth a look to imagine how on earth the building was constructed all those years ago. The construction is facinating!

 The Palm House in Schronbrunn Palace Gardens Vienna

Beautiful flowers in the palm house at Schonbrunn Palace Vienna.

Flowers in the palm house at Schonbrunn Palace Vienna.

 

Opposite the Palm House is another greenhouse and this one was pleasantly even warmer! This one known as the desert house was full of cactus plants and even a few snakes and a lot of birds flying around the inside.

The desert house at Schonbrunn Palace Vienna

The desert house at Schonbrunn Palace Vienna

After an afternoon at the Palace Gardens we decided to walk back to our hotel to thoroughly warm up after being outside in such freezing temperatures. It's a totally different climate to being in the UK and the evenings regularly drop down deep into minus figures and the day times barely get above freezing and most days there was light snow falling in the air. 

Here is one of the tributaries of the river running alongside the railway line that is completely frozen either side of the flowing water.

Frozen river in Vienna

How to make traditional Viennese Strudel

On our recent trip to Vienna when we heard you could visit the kitchen of a Viennese palace and watch how traditional Viennese Strudel is made and even taste the strudel and we jumped at the chance.

It turned out that the hotel we had chosen was a short walk down hill to the Schonbrunn Palace and it wasn't long before we were learning how to make Strudel, Viennese style. What we hadn't realised that how quiet the tourism scene is out of season. We had our own private viewing!

Schonbrunn Palace Vienna

At first we felt slightly uncomfortable as the lady that was showing us how to make traditional strudel was talking to the whole room even though there was only the two of us there. It was great getting our own personal demonstration but she could have just talked to us rather than on auto pilot talking to an empty room!

Making Traditional Viennese Strudel in the Schonbrunn Palace Vienna

Now armed with the knowledge on how to make see through wafer thin pastry for strudel... we continue to buy British versions in the freezer section of our local supermarket as making that thin pastry bending it and folding it around your arm looked far too complicated!!!!

The most random Architecture in Europe. Vienna

Continuing on our Viennese mini break next on the tourist tick list is the Kunst House and Hundertwasserhaus.
Designed by artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser one building is a museum and the other is residential, both houses are completely and utterly bonkers.

We decided to visit the museum first as we had heard that there was a photography exhibition currently exhibiting and I love my photography.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Kunst House, Museum Vienna

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Kunst House, Museum Vienna

Where on earth do I start??? The building was bizarre, quirky and totally random. Once inside the museum we were fascinated by the way the building was just completely and utterly bonkers.

My partner works at an architecture practise in Bodmin Cornwall so he was interested in the building but sadly the museum was just too random for us.

I just didn't connect with the photography on display and the museum of work was neither of our cup of tea.

We then headed on a short walk to the next building inspired by Hundertwasser and we're equally perplexed by the bizarre nature of these buildings.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Hundertwasserhaus. Vienna

Even the pavement outside the building was completely and utterly bizarre

They are a great spectacle to see and I've definitely never seen any buildings like it before and worth the trip if you are in Vienna. I wouldn't say i particularly liked them or think that they are beautiful or would want to live in one of the properties but I can appreciate how totally and utterly bonkers the buildings are and that in itself is pretty impressive.

Read more about my Vienna trip including a ride on the iconic Ferris wheel in the Prater Park and going up Vienna's tallest viewing tower at the Donautrum tower.

Visit my blog again soon to read about how to make traditional Viennese strudel and finally getting to meet the gorgeous panda bears!

The Wiener Riesenrad.... Or, Massive Old Ferris Wheel In Vienna

Vienna was never a city on my bucket list of places to go but when the local Austrian zoo announced that twin baby pandas had been born there, a trip to Vienna was firmly on the cards.

So far our city break had been amazing with boat trips on the river Danube and sight seeing from the top of the 1960's built Donautrum tower.
We continued to utilise our Vienna Pass that we had purchased and ticked off as many tourist attractions as possible. Next on the list was the Wiener Riesenrad. This is a giant vintage Ferris wheel that stands over 200ft tall on the edge of the cities amusement park. Sadly our visit was during a period when the amusement park, the Prater was closed but luckily the amazing Ferris wheel was open for visitors.

The Ferris wheel was constructed 1897 and until 1985 it was actually the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. It was actually supposed to have been dismantled and removed 19 years after it's construction in 1916. However the deconstruction couldn't be financed and the Ferris wheel survived.

The Ferris wheel was badly damaged during the second world war and when the wheel was rebuilt only half of the gondolas were reinstated, you can see the gaps between the gondolas in my photographs. I'm not personally a fan of James Bond movies but I have been told that some rather romantic scenes were shot around the Prater amusement park and on the Ferris wheel in the film 'James Bond - The Living Daylights' From 1987.

As we got off the train at the nearest station to the amusement park we were instantly greeted by the sight of the Ferris wheel. It really did look very impressive and we couldn't wait to go for a ride on the old girl.

The Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel Vienna

 We used our Vienna pass that gave us entrance to the Ferris wheel and we walked around the museum section of the entrance and saw little models of the wheel and the area. After a quick walk around we were ushered on the wheel and into a carriage. The wheel actually moves incredible quickly. I think I compare it to the London eye where the wheel rotates at a leisurely pace and you have plenty of time to view the scenery of the skyline. However, this wheel moves a lot quicker but the scenery is still impressive. It's not a roller coaster but you are soon up and back down quicker than expected but still worth a visit.

 View from the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel Vienna.

The sun was low in the sky and the city looks truly stunning. We were in the gondola with many other tourist and we each shuffled around the area to get different view points at different times. 

 Looking down over the prater amusement park from View from the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel Vienna

The gondolas on the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel Vienna

The gondolas on the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris Wheel Vienna

Looking out across Vienna from the giant ferriss wheel

Going on a vintage 120 year old Ferris wheel was such an awesome experience and really was worth the visit and I would highly recommend the trip to any one getting a city break in Austria.

 Next on our Vienna trip is to explore the random architecture at the KunstHausWien.

The Donauturm Viewing Tower. The Tallest Building in Vienna

Built in the 1960's the Donauturm tower in Vienna is a must see on any visit to the Austrian Capital.
We decided to visit the tower in the afternoon as the sun was going down so that we could see the view in two different lights.

We got the tube train across the city to the business district of the city and started to follow the signs to the tower. We could see the tower in the distance and it looked really quite far away. As we walked we passed through what felt like the business side of the city with modern high rise buildings and lots of modern architecture compared to the traditional Viennese architecture in the city.

 Walking to the Donautrum Tower though the modern buildings in the Donaustadt area of Vienna.

 The pathway is lit up to the Donautrum tower that you can see in the distance.

 
As we moved away from the office blocks we started to pass residential flats and were soon into the entrance of the Donaupark a large grassy park filled with lots of dog walkers and untrodden snow.

As we entered the park away from the shelter of the buildings the wind whistled through us and it was freezing! We hurried across the park and reached the entrance to the tower.

The tower is 252 metres tall in total or 827ft! It took 18 months to build and officially opened in 1964. There are two lifts that run through the center of the concrete tower with a glass ceiling that lights up the tower as the lift rises so that you can see how far up you are travelling. We went through the entrance and utilised our Vienna pass to gain access and were shown straight through to the lift. The lift was manned by an attendant and we were soon whizzing up the concrete tower to a viewing platform positioned150 meters high.

We headed straight outside to the external viewing platform before the sun set and it was incredible. The view from the top was spectacular but it was bitterly cold. We hurried around the viewing platform before heading inside.

 

It is hard not to compare the experience with the experience of the View at the Shard in London. The Shard is a brand new building with modern lifts, modern viewing platforms and the Donauturn tower is a concrete dated tower that is nearly 80 years old but the views across Vienna were totally worth it.

At the top of the tower are two rotating restaurants one described as a cafe and the one above this that is more of a restaurant. The problem with being a tourist is that you do want to experience every element of something and as a rotating restaurant virgin I wanted to stop for a visit.
As we weren't actually hungry we decided that we wouldn't visit the restaurant but instead visit the cafe and decided on some hot drinks and some traditional Viennese strudel and vanilla creme.

In the rotating cafe at the top of the Donauturm viewing tower Vienna

Traditional Viennese Apple Strudel

At first it felt odd stepping into the rotating restaurant. We worked out that the central cafe area was fixed and we were moving around this. We got a table and waiting for the cafe counter and all the cakes to come into view before a waitress came to take our order.
As the sun began to set we were able to watch the night sky of Vienna come to life.

 It was truly a new experience for me and I totally loved it however after a few rotations we did start to feel slightly odd and so made our way back down to the lift and back out into the cold. It was slightly strange being in a park in Vienna in the dark but it felt strangely safe and so we made our way back to the tube station and headed back into the busy city.

Come back to my blog soon to read more about my awesome trip to Vienna.