Our Day by Design

We wanted to make the most of our last full day in Vienna so made an effort to get up early {very unlike us}, have breakfast, then catch the first journey of the Ring Tram . We got on at the second stop so were the only tourists on board at 10am! This was fine until a man with a microphone, looking suspiciously like he was on the radio, came towards us and asked if we wouldn't mind singing happy birthday to the tram, I think it was the 1st birthday of the new tram or something like that! Of course we couldn't really say no so if anyone in Vienna was listening to the radio that morning, yes we were the silly tourists singing to the tram; I wish I had taken a photo! The tram tour took less than half an hour to go round the Ringstrasse which is the ring road around around the main centre of the city, and where you can see loads of the sights including the parliament building and the state opera house. While you could have done it yourself on two of the normal trams, we wanted...

After enjoying our breakfast and catching a tram to the train station, we bought return tickets to Vienna. Having just missed the 10.45am train we waited for the next one an hour later. After a short 75 minute journey {at only around 64km apart, Bratislava & Vienna are the closest capital cities in the world} we arrived in Vienna and made our way to our hotel on the underground system. We stayed at The Levante Parliament Hotel, which had been recommended by our friends who got engaged in Vienna in 2008 and booked through booking.com , for three nights. The hotel was very trendy and the room was gorgeous, although it was a lot smaller than the one in Bratislava. While we specifically chose a high star design hotel for our anniversary, the prices in Vienna in general were a lot higher than Bratislava. It only took 5 minutes to walk to the nearby Museums Quarter and around 15 minutes into the centre so it was in an ideal location, with underground and tram stops nearby if you want...