Day 4: Train to Vienna

Wow, I can't believe we are only on the fourth day of the trip!

We had a late night after the concert yesterday, capped with last-minute (of course) packing for the Vienna leg of the vacation. Armed with our handwritten itinerary, in Czech (thanks, Lenka) we found ourselves on the early train out of the Holocovice station without event. Not to be confused with "easy," as no one in the train station spoke english and all the signs were in Czech.

For reasons I still do not understand, the train to Vienna had to pass through Bratislava, which was a one-hour detour (into a different country, no less). Here, the train cars were switched. As there were no first class cars, many of us felt short-changed at riding second class for the second half of the trip, after paying first class rates. Other than that, it really wasn't so bad.

The train pulled into Vienna's Sudbanhoff at around 4 pm. We joined the queue at the information desk to get a map, as well as directions to our hotel by tram. We bought 72-hr tickets (good for bus, tram and underground) for 12Eu apiece. A half hour and a short walk later, we were checking in at the Hotel Albatross on Liechtensteinstrasse. Again, while the whole "independent travel" experience was not difficult, it was far from the "door-to-door" service and convenience we had gotten used to travelling with Holland America.

Compared to Prague, our first impression of Vienna: very very clean. The word "aseptic" comes to mind. Its size makes the prospect of walking around very daunting.

After freshening up, we took a short walk and had dinner at a newly-opened Vietnamese restaurant. After a steady diet of dumplings and sauerkraut, Dada and I were craving for rice!