Vienna Austria - Sun Surf Soul

Oh Vienna you beautiful BEAUTIFUL city!!! Warning: this post is going to be full of exclamation marks and potentially capital letters because yes I am indeed yelling, it’s the only way I feel I can express just how amazing this city is!

Tegan sitting on the steps of a HUGE palace

Busked playing an accordion with a horse head on

Water fountain turned golden in the evening light

Red roses in the foreground, Tegan on a seat in the background

Red roses in the foreground, blurred top of a palace behind

Tegan walking through the tree lined path

Danube river and jet streams from planes behind

Calm water surrounding a large statue monument

A grand palace with pond out front. Blue skies surrounding. Still water reflecting the statue

Fancy palace reflected in the lake outfront of it

Originally we were going to fly from Istanbul to Budapest first but the flights were quite pricey-even with the budget airlines. Turns out it was a little cheaper to fly into Vienna and with an airline which included free baggage- yay! Getting from the airport into Vienna is ultra easy by train and it’s super close. So getting to our apartment with Air BnB was made really easy, awesome, love easy trips when we have all our luggage (we don’t even have that much-1 x 70L backpack between us and 2 carry on back packs!).

Man surrounded by pigeons on a park bench in the gardens

Tegan stopping to sniff the red roses in the gardens

White building surrounded by lush green grass and white and pink flowers

tegan sitting on the grass surrounded by flowers

We stayed in a gorgeous apartment with a kitchen – Yippee can finally cook our own meals again! But the best part was that it was right next to Belvedere Gardens. Only the most gorgeous gardens EVER (so far)!

swing ride, swings with kids in them flying around in circles

It seems the moment we drop our bags we are charged with energy to get out and explore, so off we went to the botanical gardens via the supermarket for picnic supplies. Anddd we were starving so of course bought way too much food, over indulged and had to lay around for a while before we could comfortably move 🙂

Our apartment was walking distance into the centre and walk we did, with pit stops in every park possible! OH and we found a vegan ice cream shop- SO delicious!!! I had cookies n cream and lavender + blueberry. Dan had dark choc and milk choc. The ice cream is either made with coconut milk, soy milk or oat milk (they say which one is which).

Tegan blurred holding a vegan ice cream out front, ice cream in focus

Very well manicured bushes, palace behind

Statue of a man holding a flag riding a horse

Belvedere Palace

Belvedere deserves a paragraph on it’s own. We were heading home from the centre one evening with plans to wake early to get out and about before everyone else and then we spied Belvedere Palace. And OH. MY… 2 hours later we walked out!!! The moment you walk in a feeling of complete stillness and serenity wash over you. Like nothing I’ve experienced before! Stood there for a good while in complete awe that such a place exists! Since it was quite late, there weren’t too many others around-WIN. The museum was closed but all good- I was there for the gardens anyway!

Tegan sitting on a park bench looking toward another shallow pond

Belvedere palace in the distance, wide gravel path lined with trees and manicured bushes in the shape of triangles

Dan Standing arms outstretched on the path

Tegan poking her head out of a triangle shaped bush

Looking down the gravel path back toward the entry point. white statues of children playing

Tegan with Belvedere palace in the background

Colourful flowers inside the gates of Belvedere

Tegan doing updog yoga pose in front of a statue that looks like its doing the same

Extremely well maintained gardens of Belvedere Palace

Tegan making a love heart shape with her hands infront of the palace

Dan standing infront of a water feature, belvedere in the background

There is a mirror installed on the upper level with a sign explaining its purpose next to it. It was quite entertaining watching people walk up to the mirror check themselves out and/or take a picture without reading the sign 😆 The sign reads: “With his art installation The Perfect Tourist, Hubertus von Hohenlohe invites both Viennese citizens and tourists to capture the magic of Belvedere Palace in a perfect photograph. Frequently tourists concentrate on collecting photographs or on handling digital devices, while reality moves out of focus. However, those unaware of their surroundings will not be capable of reproducing the spirit of a particular place in a photograph.” Which I LOVED! Touche Hubertus, touche.

Standing in front of the mirror, reflecting the Belvedere Palace behind us

Tegan walking towards Belvedere Palace, trimmed hedges t the right, flowers to the elft

Tegan gazing toward the golden sunset light

Schonbrunn Palace

Another amazing must see is Schonbrunn, absolutely massive. You could spend hours getting lost here!

Tegan walking down an archway walkway overgrown with green bushes

Tree lined massive walkways through the palace

Tegan arms outstretched looking tiny compared with the surrounds

Overgrown bushes and Tegan sitting amongst them

OH the grandeur!!! Even the light posts had crowns on them. SO much detail, everywhere you look. They also play live music from the opera outside on a screen in a park with seats for FREE. Unfortunately it was raining the day mozart was playing on so we didn’t make it 🙁 🙁 Obviously we’ll have to go back-WOO!