Again, reporting as a first time traveler to Europe, senior female and solo.
So I ended up walking probably a mile from Josef banhoff station to my apartment, the Ofenloch, pretty much in the heart of the inner start. Get there and there is no key for my apartment. Call Booking.com, they call the owner and they tell me to use the key that is in the lockbox for a different apartment. Ok, I am tired from my walk and 8 go up to apartment and it is not at all similar to what I booked, it did not have the amenities and was just not that nice. The owner just said so sorry for mistake, here use this apartment. I called booking.com and let them know there is no way I am paying for this apartment and no way I am going to stay here another night. They handled the situation very well, refunded my stay and found me another apartment a couple blocks away and did not charge me for the higher nightly cost. I generally try and boom direct, but am glad in this case I had booking.com.
Anyway, what can I say, beautiful architecture and fabulous museums. Went to Belevedere, Leopoldo, Albertina, Kunsthisthorisches and Schonnenbrunn. I can’t decide if I liked the Leopoldo or Albertina the best, both were excellent. Of course the Belevedere had Klimt’s the Kiss, and several more of his works. Surprisingly there were not too many people there. Maybe because I went to Versailles in Paris a couple of weeks earlier, but found the Schonnebrunn, only ok, but I had plenty of time in Vienna so it was fine. Also took a trip up the Wachau valley to Melk by train. Bought the combo ticket from OBB, train ticket to Melk and boat cruise down Danube to Kremlin and then train back to Vienna. Melk abbey was nice as was the town. I took the boat ride and got off in Durnstein. Wow, quit a hike up the stairs to town. Nice walk thru town, but a long day.
Last day in Vienna was just for walking around. At the end of the day I tripped on some temporary wood sidewalk that was pretty uneven. Crashed into a wire fence in front of the Rolex store. They took me inside, cleaned up a cut over my eye and bandaged me up. Probably better than urgent care, but I did not get a fee watch. Ended up with a nice black eye out of the whole thing and a pretty sore hand, arm, and shoulder but nothing that slowed me down!
Must comment, Vienna has a great transportation system, easy to use and understand, and easy to get to main train station.
Ok, since I have been doing a lot of museums, I have a rant. Not happy with museum guides/tours that take their people and stand in front of paintings talking for 5 minutes,. It makes it so others cannot see the painting, and yes you can look at other paintings waiting until they move on but….. couldn’t they stand further back, especially if they want to talk for so long 😀. I mean I hate to be rude and walk up in front of everyone but…