Visiting the Vienna Woods

While in Vienna, we took a tour operated by Vienna Sightseeing Tours that’s called Vienna Woods.  This was a most interesting tour just outside of Vienna.  So on this tour, we visit an old hunting lodge, an abbey, and the largest subterranean lake in Europe.

In route to the old Mayerling hunting lodge, which is now a chapel, we passed through the picturesque and culturally rich Baden.  The hunting lodge is dedicated to the Crown Prince Rudolph and Baronesse Vetsera.  There’s a lot of history about these two … like how did they die.  Was it suicide or murder.

The Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz was absolutely incredible and well worth the visit.  The abbey dates back to 1133.  If history appeals to you, you want to visit the abbey.  Like so much of the historical sites of Austria, the abbey helps connect the history between Austria and Hungary.

After the abbey, we make our way to the Seegrotte, the largest subterranean lake in Europe.  This subterranean lake is like a massive air conditioner and it too has a rich history, particularly, it’s use by the Germans, during World War II, to build machinery for the war effort.

The Seegrotte ends our tour and on our way back to Vienna, we get a treat and drive by an old Hapsburg castle.

Fortunately, for this tour we had an excellent tour guide.

Tour operators in Vienna

While on holiday in Vienna July 2008, we took a couple of tours, a city tour that included Schonbrunn Palace and a tour to the “Vienna Woods.”  Both tours were provided by Vienna Sightseeing Tours, but there were some differences between the two in terms of how personable the tour felt.

One thing that we liked about Vienna Sightseeing Tours is that the retrieved us from our hotel and took us to the company’s bus terminal where the tours departed.  The city tour with Schonbrunn Palace was supposed to be 3.5 hours, but the tour did not last that long and felt rushed and there was unbelievable traffic.  I thought that we would periodically make stops at some of the sites like most other city tours that we have taken.  Perhaps, the traffic was the reason why we did not make any stops or perhaps, we did not make any stops because we were on a large motor coach.

Our first stop … and final stop … was Schonbrunn Palace in which a guided tour of the palace was included.  The Palace really provides insight into how the monachy lived and puts history into context.  The one problem … all the people from our large motor coach had to crowd around our one little tour guide and try to listen while other visitors are trying to pass by.  The bottom line, this tour had too many people, especially for the Palace visit.  At the end of the Palace tour, which was also the end of the tour, we had 10 minutes to visit the gardens … we opted not to take the motor coach back to the city center, so we could have time to visit the garden.  10 minutes would not have been enough time.

In summary, even though the city part of the tour was more or less pointing out what this building is and how old it is, the tour did help orient us to the city … later during our stay in Vienna, we revisited the interesting sites we wanted to see.  Schonbrunn was definitely worth a visit … just make sure you get to visit the gardens, which also include a small zoo.  Also, have lunch at the cafe … the food is good.

My day trip to Salzburg

One of the things we like to do when we travel, especially internationally, is to take day trips outside the major city that we are visiting.  While Salzburg is a travel destination itself, when we were in Vienna, we visited the city for the day.  We took a train too … when in Europe travel the European way.

Salzburg was absolutely wonderful and it absolutely added to our memorable holiday.  Unlike German and other Austrian cities, Salzburg was largely spared large scale destruction.  Thank goodness, the city has building dating to the fourteenth century, not to mention that it is the birthplace of Mozart.

Prior to arriving I had arranged a city tour with Salzburg Sightseeing Tours, which was a good choice.  We learned and saw so much on this tour.  We also learned that the tour could have been called the Sound of Music and Hapsburg tour.  The tour was very good with a good mix of coach and walking.  Interestingly, the tour operator offers a “Sound of Music” tour, but we thought could there be more.  For a while we thought that we were on the “Sound of Music” as our tour guide repeated mentioned that “this building/palace/castle was in the movie.

Visiting all the site that belonged to the Hapsburg makes me want to be one.

In addition to the “Sound of Music” and Hapsburg presence, Salzburg is abundant with beautiful gardens and statues.  And if you visit Salzburg, you have to visit the churches and monastery and the castle.  While we were only there one day, it’s probably a two day visit if you just want to sample what the city has to offer … which is much.

Vienna, Austria … pictures and words aren’t enough!

Vienna, Austria is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.  Along with all that beauty, you have culture and history.  As an aside, don’t refer to Austrians as Germans.  I didn’t do it, but that would be bad!

While in Vienna, we took a city tour … in part to learn a little history, but also to get oriented to the city.  This is a typical strategy of ours so that we can return to some of the place we rushed through during the tour.

Like many European cities, Vienna is a very walkable city.  We stayed at the edge of the city at K+K Palais which is a European chain of boutique hotels and had no trouble getting to all the site, either by walking or taking the very reliable public transportation.  By the way, K+K Palais is definitely a great hotel.  They are on my list of places to stay.

Back to Vienna though.  One of the most beautiful aspects of the city are it parks.  They seem to be everywhere.  I think they probably contribute to all the “lovers” we saw expressing public affection for one another.  The city is also incredible clean.

In addition to the beautiful parks, you have historic buildings like cathedrals and the Opera House.  You can actually tour the Opera House.  It’s a must do in my opinion even if you don’t like opera, which I don’t.  Schönbrunn Palace should also be on your list and if you take a tour … walk or take the metro back so you can have lunch, explore the gardens and zoo, and visit the fountain.

In fact, the city is so aestetically pleasing that we walked miles without realizing it.  Picture and words don’t do justice …

STA & G.A.P. — Travel for the young?

A couple of days ago, I received my periodic STA (Student Travel) email with updates on travel deals and destinations.  STA [a Swiss found company] has an office at the University of Kentucky and provide travel arrangement for students … young students.  By the way, I am a full-time graduate student and a full-time employee and I am not young … compared to the 18 — 22 year old who make up the majority of college students, but I am still a student.

I don’t know about your STA office, but the one at the University offers a significant number of prearranged packages from G.A.P., the Great Adventure People [a Canadian company].  My take on these two companies is that they really cater to budget conscious young people, e.g., those adventurous spirits.  Students are not their real focus.  Of course, they will take anyone’s money.

As I started, I receive an email from STA, “debunking myths about tours.”  Now, I must admit that what they were debunking like many myths and stereotypes had kernels of realism.  So, STA says don’t be afraid to take a tour.  Tours don’t have to be those boring stogy “look here, look there, touch this, don’t touch this …” bus trips that your parents made take on family holidays.  Also, don’t worry, you won’t be the oldest person on the tour either and it will actually be an adventure.  This is STA’s spiel.

As a person who likes to take tours, and admittedly sometimes we are the oldest people on the tour, they can be very informative and an adventure.  I don’t think that an adventure has to be on the back of a moped, driving down some alley way off the beaten path.  While this could be fun, I don’t think it is necessarily more of a tour than my climate control comfortable buses.

Livingstone, Zambia and Taita Falcon Lodge

One of the hardest decision that I had to make when visiting Livingstone, Zambia was where to stay.  Accommodations, service, and comfort are vitally important.  No disrespect to Zambia, but the country is developing and making travel arrangements are not as easy as developed countries.  For instance, I had not trouble make hotel reservation online for Cape Town and Johannesburg, but for Zambia, I had to wire funds to the hotel.  Yes, I am a suspicious American and like to use credit cards because it is easier to get your money back from scam artists.

So, after as much investigation as I could do online, I decided to go with Taita Falcon Lodge.  I debated about choosing the lodge over the one 5-star hotel in Zambia, but decided that a lodge would be more authentic and something different … we stay in 5-star and 4-star hotels all the time, but this would be our first lodge and why not Africa.

Here’s how our stay started:

We land at the airport and pass through customs and immigration and our guide, Bryan, is waiting for us.  This allayed some concerns that I had not wired my hard earned money to some phantom lodge.  Bryan greets us and loads our bags into a well used van.

As we are driving from the airport through the town, Bryan tells us that we will be our guide during the stay and he points out different features as we make our way to the lodge.  He does warn us that the drive will be a little bumpy.

Once we turn off the main road, it seems as if we drive forever on this dirt road to what seemed like no where.  The lodge is truly in the bush, but it overlooks the Zambezi River.  We enjoyed the soothing sound of the river.

Now for bush living, this is luxury.  The lodge is made up of individual free-standing units.  We had a large sitting area bedroom combination [we had a netted bed], a dressing room, bathroom with a fully functional toilet, shower, and a large enclosed outside sitting area.  The one surprise was that the unit was not fully enclosed from the outside.  So, there’s no heaters or air conditioning, which was not a problem for the time we were there — June.  But other than that, the room was nice. 

    

Because the room is not fully enclosed and Zambia has quite a temperature range, the early morning cold temperature, made it hard to get out of bed!

Once we settled and unpacked, we met Bryan and the owners of the lodge to discuss our itinerary.  We were staying at the lodge for two nights and three days, so we had three activities that we could choose.  We selected the fully inclusive option which includes a guide and activities.  Our itinerary was flexible to the extent possible. 

  

So, we decided on a Zambian village tour, a safari drive, and of course, Victoria Falls, our main reason for visiting. Is Victoria Falls worth it to make a special trip to Zambia? Yes, totally!

Our stay at the lodge included three meals, we even had a picnic one day by the Zambezi River.  The food was excellent as was the service.  In the evenings the family who owns the lodge had a table and ate with visitors.  Food is served buffet style.  I have to say again that it was really delicious!

Each day, when we left the lodge, the staff cleaned our rooms and in the evening they prepped our room for bedtime, which included a hot water bottle in the bed … believe it or not it works!  We even has a mild incense for the bathroom.

Last words, these people understand the concept of service.  They really try to meet your needs and accommodations.  The Lodge is not going to be the same as Livingstone’s one 5-star hotel, but if you want a different experience without giving up too much in the way of comfort, I can attest that Taita Falcon Lodge is a good way to go! 

One word of caution, for the all-inclusive package, domestic beverages are included; however, if you drink international alcoholic drinks, even from South Africa, it will cost you. 

Remember, you are staying in the bush, there’s no TV or radio, but do you really need one?

See our Zambian photographs.

My compliments to Grayline tours

One of the hardest decisions to make when traveling is what to do when you get there.  Do you explore on your own or use a tour company?  Well, it depends.  On our trip to Ecuador where language was an issue, we decided to use a tour company, but which one?  I’ve used Grayline for several other tours and learned that they have a presence in Ecuador, so I went with them.  The tours were wonderful.

Our first tour was a City and Equatorial Tour.  Here, we toured by bus and foot the wonderful cathedrals and churches of the city, including there Notre Dame and the famous San Francisco.  Several, we were able enter and marvel at the architecture and ornateness which belie the wealth of the country.  Throughout the tour, we are getting a history lesson.  We conclude the city part of the trip with a spactaculous view looking down on the old city.  While not part of the equator trip itself, our guide took us to the actual location of the equator in addition to the equator monument.  At the actual location is a small museum (and fee) where there are experiments and archaeological digs.

We also used Grayline to visit the Indian market Otavalo.  We took a private tour, because group tours are only offered certain day.  Along the way to Otavalo, we made several stop at local markets and scenic outlook.  While the day that we visited the market was not busy, it seemed not to deter the vendor.  This is a must visit place in my opinion, even if you don’t like to shop.  After Otavalo, we visited a small town known for its leather goods.  Advice … take a lot of money, while the products are not expensive by United States standard, you really get caught up in the bargaining.

The last tour was  to Cotopaxi and an hacienda.  While we had no intentions of climbing the volcano, the natural beauty of the area is incredible.  We were lucky in that we got to see the snowy tops of the volcano.  Because the day was somewhat clear, we drove to the base parking lot for climbers.  This was not part of the tour.  You better be adventurous and trusting.  A good part of the drive is quite foggy and the rode is curvy and not paved and there are no guard rails!  A word of caution for those who suffer altitude sickness … I thought that my head was going to explode.  The choice of hacienda was excellent.  Too bad it was raining.

Last word, while we could have explored these places on our own, there were lots of places on each tour where we stopped that we would not have known to do.  Also, we learned a lot about the history and culture of the places we visited.  Our guides made the experience personal and enjoyable.  All were professional and seemed to like their jobs.