VIENNA SKETCHES. OUR FIRST AND LAST TRIP TO VIENNA BY TRAIN.
Perhaps the only reliable and detailed information about traveling to Vienna by train.
Let's start without delay. So why train? Firstly, the plane is almost 2 times more expensive, if not for a promotion or quite in advance. Secondly, many people are simply afraid to fly. The main advantage of traveling by plane is the shortest travel time.
Another option is to travel by car. In this case, it is best to load the car onto the platform, drive to Lviv, and from there by car abroad. The main disadvantages of such a trip are the risk of car malfunction and driver fatigue. Pros - you are free to choose places to visit, observe all the sights and can spontaneously change goals.
The train has its advantages - you rest all the time, observe the landscapes. Travel time is the same as by car.
Since this article is about a train ride, we will dwell on this in more detail. First, you need biometric passports or passports with visas. Tickets for the Kiev-Vienna train are bought 28 days before the trip. Yes, not in 30 days as usual, but in 28. On the day the sales start from 8:00, you need to be at the box office. It is most convenient to buy tickets at the service center. You will overpay a little, but almost without a queue. Before buying tickets, book a hotel and decide on the dates of departure-arrival and docking with the Kyiv-Vienna train, if you still have to get to Kyiv. One compartment car goes to Vienna from Kyiv. Each compartment has 3 seats. The strangest thing about it is the numbering. For example, seats 11.13, 15 are the first compartment. What pleases is that there are children's tickets. In order to guarantee the purchase of tickets back, we repeat the purchase procedure on the day the sales start on the date of your departure. It is best to check with the cashiers for the days when you need to buy tickets there and back.
We bought a whole compartment from the Dnieper, although we were traveling in three. Naturally, the first question that the conductor asked was "And you have one free bowl, can you have a person lie down? " Having received an affirmative "No! " no further requests were made. I don’t know what improvements the UZ bosses are constantly talking about, this in no way concerns ordinary passengers: there are no traces of cleaning with washing vacuum cleaners and steam generators in the compartment, the toilet is as usual, although there was one. The linen was once white, most likely during the Big Bang, now it is gray, there are greasy spots on the pillowcase and judging by its appearance, it has been written off five times already. But, at the same time, UZ cares about the leisure of passengers and has come up with an entertainment program for them. In our case, it was a curtain on the window. With fully buckled holder. With each attempt to move the curtains, the stick on which they hung fell out of the holders and each time it had to be inserted back. Thanks UZ! During this activity, time flew by unnoticed.
And here it is Kyiv! Capital! In order not to lose face and not make the life of a tourist boring, the first thing that meets you at the station is the entrance doors, solid, wooden, probably 200 kilograms each, if not more. And you, with a couple of bags, should push them away with your shoulder and have time to drag the bags until the door pinches them. Oh well done! You've passed the first level! Now you are waiting for the attraction "Escalator". What is its meaning? Yes, nothing. At all. It just doesn't work! All these rides seem to tell the tourist: "Hey, be careful, this is not Europe for you! " And what about the air conditioning at the country's main station? Just like with escalators - no way. We decided to drink coffee while waiting for the train. Believe it or not, there is not a single coffee shop within sight where you can sit. I don't count coffee in Mac and FSC as coffee, sorry. And in the shopping center opposite the IBIS hotel they prepared a drink from rotten coffee! I had to return. . . Kyiv, 5 points!
The next stage is boarding the Kiev-Vena train. It’s not actually a train going to Vienna, but just one car that clings to the Kyiv-Ivano-Frankivsk train. The car is easy to recognize, Harry Potter was traveling to Hogwarts on a passerby. The car is 50 years old, I didn’t find a nameplate with data, but there are signs on it that the sockets are not for charging phones, but for an electric razor. The numbering of seats is generally unusual, for example, 1 compartment is places 11.13 and 15. And so on. In total, there are 30 seats in the car.
Separate respect and respect for UZ. This car represents our country, there is no need for advertising and the like, any European who sees this car will immediately understand that we definitely need loans, at least to buy a decent car.
The coupe's equipment is as follows: There are three shelves on one side, but when you enter, it seems that there are two of them. Because the middle shelf when folded is the back of the bottom shelf. If the shelves are put into sleep mode between them about 50 cm, it is comfortable to lie even with my height. The shelves are wider than the usual coupe and more comfortable. There are railings on the shelves. The compartment also has its own washbasin, which is closed by a table. There are hangers, a side seat, a cabinet above the table with a socket and a lamp. The linen is the same as in our trains, but you can even say that it is white. The air conditioning works, there are lights showing whether the toilets are free. In the second compartment, the window says "Emergency exit" and the only one in it does not have a window, places 21.23, 25. With all this, it is not entirely clear how 3 different people will get along in a compartment.
There was even a restaurant on the train, in the 6th car there was a 3rd compartment. Exactly. You could come and take it yourself, or you could even call and order by phone with delivery to your car.
Many people complain about the quality of roads in Ukraine. Drop it, forget it! Roads made of asphalt or without it are trifles, our rails are uneven! Yes, the railway, which seems to consist of even iron sticks, is uneven! Where is the asphalt. She throws it on the shelf so that it is about to be thrown out of it. And I want to warn you right away, while the car is moving, it groans and rattles like a herd of sick dinosaurs. For the sake of interest, I measured the volume, the minimum was about 70 dB, the peak showed 94 dB.
Before I forget, a minute of advertising. If you are traveling with a small child who uses a potty, buy the Tron Polish Folding Cardboard Potty. An indispensable thing, although a one-time type, we used it all the time, only changing packages (we took the usual cheapest "t-shirts"). And not just on the train. Respect and respect to their developers.
We drove, we drove, and we got to Lvov. Since we were standing for more than an hour, we decided to go out into the city and have something to eat. When we got to the station, I realized that Kyiv is still a European city. Compared to Lviv, of course. Lviv, the capital of all western Ukraine, greets tourists with a dirty train station, a broken-down square and the same access road. Needless to say, there was no normal coffee there either? In Pizza Celentano, an employee applied the pizza toppings with just his hands, without gloves. I had to make it redo, but nevertheless the pizza is terrible and does not look like pizza at all.
What happened on the way:
- in Chop the wheels were changed to narrower ones for the European gauge
- the generator in the car stopped working and, as a result, the air conditioners and sockets did not work (although they fixed it pretty quickly)
- both toilets are clogged (they are bio, not gravity), one of the stupid passengers threw out something that should not be thrown away (they were not fixed)
The next step, which many fear or worry about, is crossing the border. I'll tell you how it was in practice. After they finished changing the wheels, border guards and customs officers entered the car. Border guards man and woman and woman customs officer. The female border guard collected passports, asked us to show the original certificate for the child (my wife and I have different surnames), looked at everything, and the female customs officer asked questions: “Where are you going? "Pull up the shelf! " That's it. After the wheels were changed, we were picked up by an electric locomotive and off we went. We thought we were going. But it turned out that we were pulled to the place where the border guards live. When we stopped, a border guard woman came in and handed out passports to everyone. That's actually all the passage of the border.
A couple of hours later, Hungarian border guards, and maybe customs officers, entered the car. They asked for passports, checked all the pages and marked the last one with the date of crossing the border.
Then we drove and drove, then we thought that we were already driving through Austria. But when Austrian border guards suddenly appeared in the car, we realized that we had just entered Austria. The border guards looked at the passports, the presence of a stamp set by the Hungarians and that's it. Then we just enjoyed the scenery. The difference between the appearance of countries is noticeable even from the train window. Ukraine, semi-capitalist Hungary and Austria. A mess, then order, but with elements of a mess, and then just order - smooth roads with clear markings, windmills, lack of garbage and landfills. And nothing like that, making a smooth road and markings is not nanotechnology, it is a matter of order and compliance with rules and technologies.
And now, hurrah! Vienna railway station! In a second, Kyiv left the place of honor of the capital of a European state, Lviv dumped it altogether, because guys, the Vienna railway station is fantastic! There is really nothing to reproach: spacious, beautiful, modern, clean, understandable. A special indicator is the convenience and attitude towards the disabled. They do not feel like a burden, not those who should, they are absolutely natural, absolutely all conditions have been created for them. Everywhere and point.
First of all, we went to the information center and bought a city travel card CITY CARD for three days, in my opinion for 27€. It gives the right to travel by metro, trams and buses for three days from the moment you validate it. But even this is not their greatest merit. Upon presentation, you will get a lot of discounts in completely different places: museums, restaurants, shops, etc. (book with a list, pick up a map of Vienna in Russian at the info center). For those who do not understand - for three days it is quite possible to beat off the cost of this card with discounts.
Where and how to compost a card? When you go down to the subway, you will see racks with blue boxes on the way, the size of a shoe box, insert the card into the slot with the side where there is a light strip about a centimeter wide at the edge. The card will enter the slot for a couple of centimeters, the device will click, that's all, get it, it's done. You don’t need to do anything else with the card, just keep it with you when you travel and keep an eye on the expiration date.
After the info center, our second visit was to Mac. I will say right away that I am not a supporter and not a fan of food in Mac, but he really helped out a lot. As a rule, all Macs are combined with Mac Cafe, which is very convenient. Secondly, there are plenty of them. Thirdly, each Mac has interactive displays where you can place an order yourself. It works very simply: choose the language, choose where you will eat, on the spot or with you, then some kind of request falls out, perhaps for a donation, press "no" and you get into the selection menu. As a result, a receipt with the order number pops up, wait until your number appears on the scoreboard, go to the cashier and pay. And fun and convenient. Later I will tell you the features and differences between our Mac and theirs.
After we had a snack, we went down to the subway. The metro is clear and clean. There is one feature that we are not used to - the doors in the cars do not open by themselves. There are two types of car doors - with a handle and with a button. When the car stops, the one who is first standing near the door, regardless of whether on the platform or in the car, must either open the door with the handle or press the door open button when it lights up. We used the subway almost all the time. A couple of times on the tram, but it's so to speak in place.
We got to our hotel, located right next to Schonnbrun Park from the station, in 20 minutes with one change. From the subway exit to the hotel, 100 meters. The hotel is simply gorgeous, 4 stars, frescoes on the ceiling, marble, spaciousness. Our room consisted of a corridor, a toilet, a bathroom, a balcony and a room of 27 m2. The room has two large beds, a desk, TV, a mini bar, an armchair and a large double sofa bed. From the window there is a beautiful view of the courtyard with a garden. With our option, breakfasts were not included in the price and therefore we had to pay 20 € for one. Breakfast is ok.
As usual, before the trip, we developed a Napoleonic plan to visit almost all of Vienna in 4 days. But reality has taken its toll. Managed 30 percent, and often of them almost running. Two recommendations at once that will allow you to better plan your visit to some places:
- select them in blocks, by location. For example, in the Hofburg there are several museums that are compactly located, other attractions are also not alone;
Check out their work schedules. Firstly, they do not work around the clock, and some have days off, such as Tuesday;
- if you plan to visit Schonbrunn Palace, buy tickets in advance, in the morning for the evening. We wanted to visit it on the last day of our stay, but when we arrived at 13:00 it turned out that the nearest time when you can get into it is 16:00!! ! I had to change plans.
We went to the zoo, which is also in Schonbrun. For two, we were charged 6€ because of the CITY CARD. Zoo fire! Animals are in better conditions than half of the population of our country: clean, almost no smell, huge enclosures. Elephants, rhinos, giraffes, various antelope and roe deer, penguins, bears, tigers, etc. And completely umate pandas, they behave like teenagers - majors, words can not convey, they must be seen. Recently I read in the news that one of them became an artist.
Almost all sights can be reached by metro, some of them will either take a short tram / bus ride or walk. Detailed information is on the cards that you will take at the points of purchase of tickets. It is best of course to prepare in advance for the trip and browse the Internet.
The largest concentration of attractions of those where we were was the Karlplatz metro station. One of the exits of the metro goes almost to the Cathedral of St. Stefan. (By the way, there is a stall with wonderful Viennese sausages about 50 meters from the exit, I definitely recommend it)
Be sure to take a carriage ride, it is very easy to find their parking place - by smell. Yes, they wash and leave nothing behind, but there is a smell. The sensations of the trip are delightful, it is somehow very natural and comfortable to travel around Vienna in a carriage. By the way, among the drivers there are those who speak Russian. The short trip is 20 min and costs 55€, the long one is 40 min and 80€. But trust me, it's worth it.
Be sure to visit the Museum of the Imperial Crown Jewels. I do not understand how such things were created in those days and from what, that after so many years they have not lost their beauty. Luxurious embroidered outfits, gold items, amazingly fine workmanship.
When buying tickets for various museums and the like, do not forget to show the CITY CARD. When presenting them at Schonbrunn Zoo, you will pay only 17€ instead of 20€. We did not find any places that we might not like. Vienna is a chic city, not for nothing that for 8 years in a row it has been recognized as the best place to live in the world. Half of the city is occupied by parks and natural forests. The temperature on those days when we were up to 37, but it was easier to bear than ours, it dropped quickly in the evening, and at night it was just wonderful. And in the shade it felt like 10 degrees lower than in the sun.
When needed, we bought products from SPAR. There are quite a lot of them and they are always available, they work until 19:30, some until 20:00. Why so, it is not clear. In our area, one worked until 19:30, and the second, across the road until 20:00. At prices, to make it clear, if water 0.5 in a cafe costs 2.20-2.50 €, then in a supermarket 1.5 l - 0.70-1.5 €, ready-made sandwiches 2 pieces 2 €, beer from 0.7 up to 1.5 per bottle. If coffee costs from 2.6€ in Mac, then SPAR has an excellent ready-made cold cappuccino for 0.99€. That is, for 10-20€ you can organize a great dinner. They also have brochures with tear-off coupons with discounts on goods and even on certain places.
Café "Residence" in Schonbrunn. Appears in all advertising brochures as the place with the best strudel. Let me tell you about our visit to this place. Don't take this as a criticism or anything like that, I'll just tell you how it was. If you left the palace into the courtyard, then on your right hand in the center of the right building is the entrance to the cafe. Without neon signs and other attributes. What do you think our expectations were before visiting the place with the most delicious strudel? That's right, amazing baking flavor. Before entering the cafe, the first thing that greets you is the toilet and its smells. Once inside, we also did not feel the aroma of baking. I don’t know, maybe other days or times are different, but it was like that with us. Sat at a table and ordered. Of course, we ordered a strudel, soup and another dish, the name of which history has not preserved. In terms of composition and appearance, it turned out to be exactly the same puree with meatballs. We called it "Grandma's Recipes". One problem, and this dish and strudel came to us cold. Not warm, but cold. It was embarrassing. As a result, expectations were not met. It can't be said that it was bad, but €36 could definitely have been put to better use.
Natural History Museum. Tens of thousands of exhibits, stuffed animals, in my opinion, of all animals living on earth, and only 10 bears, the world's largest collection of meteorites, skeletons of all kinds of dinosaurs and one almost living, interactive room
One of the strongest impressions is concrete mixers. Yes, this is not a typo, ordinary concrete mixers in which concrete is transported to construction sites. They look like they're not hauling concrete, but just came off the assembly line. We saw a couple of pieces and they are perfectly clean, without a single speck. Most likely these are demonstration concrete mixers that drive in circles around the city and mislead tourists.
The library, damn it, is not a library, but a branch of a palace or a cathedral, only with books. Books that are several centuries old look almost like new. One book really struck me. Now on many postcards they apply the type of gilding, they saw this. In this library there is a book dated to the 13th century, in which the image is applied in gold and paints. And it was preserved as if it was printed yesterday.
Belvedere, Palace of Princess Sisi. Looks like a palace. With a huge park. For some reason, it is customary for them to build palaces from two separate buildings, which are located on opposite sides of the park. I have two versions, either they had a hearty dinner and they had to take a walk after that, or so that the neighbors did not interfere. There is a large and small Belvidere, we were in the museum in the big one. The very first exposure was shocking, I won’t even describe it. But to pluck your eyebrows like that. . .
Vienna impressed us with its smell, wherever you guys are with fresh clean air. There is no smell of burning, exhaust, stale people, smoke. Wherever you are, you are haunted by the smell of fresh air. Even at a busy intersection, you will not hear the smell of exhaust. For example, my allergy symptoms completely disappeared in Vienna, and this was just its height, in our country in particular.
Water in Vienna is a separate issue. In the evening, they gathered to bathe the child and the wife filled the bath with water. A daughter comes in and says "Mom, will you collect water? ", Her wife "So already! ". It's just that the water is so clean and transparent that after our water the child simply did not see it. There are springs on the streets from which everyone just drinks water.
I almost forgot, I promised to tell you about Mac's differences. Not a single Mac was seen wearing a cap with badges and a uniform. It all looks more like a family restaurant, I didn’t even understand which of them was the manager and which was just an employee.
The day of departure has arrived. We arrived at the railway station, found the platform where our train arrives and began to wait. The train has arrived. . . But, s. ka, WITHOUT OUR CAR!!! ! To your non-mute question "How so? ", I will answer - there was no car! There was a woman on the platform, who was waiting for the arrival of relatives in this car, she started calling them to find out what was happening, but there was no connection. Moreover, we see that the train is ours, but there is no carriage.
Immediately, five employees of Ukrzaliznytsia ran to the platform, brought coffee and apologies to everyone, told what to do next and how to do it. What did you believe? Ha ha ha! But in vain))) In fact, we began to fuss and figure out what to do next. They saw the conductor and began to pester him (considering that in German no one is neither be nor me). He also threw up his hands. Fortunately for us, some employee of the station, who understands English, who I don’t know how, found out that our car seemed to have been detained in Budapest. And he told us to get on this train and ride towards fate! ) (Many thanks to you for this! ) Therefore, we just plunged into the usual car of this train and went towards adventures. Somewhere in Hungary, our carriage was picked up, we jumped into it and went to another reality.
So no more on the train to Vienna! )))
