It’s a staple of many tour companies, the all-in whistle-stop tour or a country where you can see the main sights. It sounds incredible on paper. See the world, maximise your trip time, and have lots of fun! As I needed a holiday, I booked a 4-day, 3-night trip around the beautiful Czech Republic. One Monday in May I set out with my better half on my first holiday since the Pandemic. Was it a good idea?
nd of the year, and what a year it has been. There’s no getting away from the pandemic it seems, with 2021 feeling like a rerun of 2020, but with a fresh cast of new varients. (Thanks Omicrom!) This has provided a few…logistical problems when it comes to producing content for a travel blog. The idea behind Wiener Wanderland was always to explore Austria and share what I discovered with all of you. our last big trip was a night away in January 2020, spent in the German capital Berlin. Since then, getting away for a break has been almost impossible. Between lockdowns and general travel restrictions, planning for a weekend away has become an act of pure frustration. Assuming you can move around, there are tests to consider, grün passes to carry and masks have become an ever-present companion. None of this is onerous in itself, and we holy support any measures that keep this rampant pest of a virus at arm’s length. But the inescapable truth is that the measures required can take the shine off of the whole wonder of travel
The Klimaticket is a travel ticket like no other in Austria. For just €1095 a year, you can travel anywhere in Austria. This covers not just trains, but all public transport, and private operators throughout the country. The price works out at just €3 a day, for unlimited 2nd class travel anywhere in the whole of Austria. Naturally, we were interested.
Summer is the perfect time to get out and get some wandering done. The sun is out and I fancied taking a trip. Now living in Austria you’re never short of a destination or two. Salzburg, Innsbruck, Linz and Graz are all fantastic destinations, but you can miss so much of Austria heading to these tourist destinations. I came up with an idea that was going to mean I’d avoid the tourist traps and instead experience the countryside for myself. Yes, I’d be hitting up the S-Bahn and heading to Absdorf.
Lockdowns have ended, and for the last six weeks, we’ve been slowly getting back to normal. Most of our time over the last six weeks has had us running around like a kid in a sweet shop, reconnecting with old friends, and enjoying coffees, beers, and meals out. With case numbers dropping, a night out at a show has become a thing once more. So with much excitement this past Friday, we headed into Vienna’s Inner Stadt to Aera, a great bar with a wonderful performance space below. We were ready to relax, with a bunch of actors, performing a table read of ‘When Harry met Sally’, the classic rom-com. Oh and there’s alcohol. Lots of alcohol. Welcome to ‘A Drinking Game Vienna’
Austria is a country that could be defined by hiking. With the mighty Alps offering the chance to get out into nature, and dare I say, Get away from it all, Hiking is very much part of the national psyche. This is great for the people of Salzburg, Stieremark and the Tirol, where finding a mountain to climb is simple. For those who live in the Austrian Capital, things can seem a little more tricky. Vienna sits out on the marches that lead to Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These flatlands differ wildly from the mountainous peaks seen further west. That doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity to get out into nature, and even find the odd place to climb. The City of Vienna has a plan, and it’s called the Stadtwanderweg.
For our first wander post Lockdown, I’m heading out to the north of the city, into the 19th district, Döbling, to the largest suburb, Grinzing. Grinzing is just the starting point of today’s wander, and also the endpoint. The middle is going to be challenging but in the best way possible. So let’s dive in.
COVID-19 has been a disaster for the travel industry. In a country like Austria, which sees tourism contribute almost 10% of GDP, the pandemic has been particularly devastating. Hotels, gastronomy, and tourist attractions have been closed now since late November. Shops did manage to open a little in the run-up to Christmas 2020, but were closed again in January, opened again in March, and closed again for April. So small retailers didn’t make it through the April lockdown and it’s likely that many hotels and gastronomy businesses will likely suffer the same fate.
The Netherlands are famous for many things. I could mention diamonds, or beautiful canals, maybe a few dykes here and there, and I’m sure no one would be surprised at seeing the odd windmill or two. In truth, most tourists visit Amsterdam, see the red light district, annoy a bunch of locals and that’s about it. This is a shame because there’s so much more to see in the Netherlands. If you head North East of Amsterdam, you’ll find the city of Lelystad, a city so new, it didn’t even exist until the mid-1960s. It’s also home to the Luchtvaartmuseum Aviodrome, or the Aviation museum of the Netherlands, based at Lelystad Airport.
Since I relaunched the Wiener Wanderland website, I’ve been filling its pages with old trip reports from the first website and writing new reports based on past trips. Living in a time of a pandemic isn’t the best time to launch into a career as a travel writer. My backlog of old photos meant that content was fairly easy to come by, at least up until now. As of today, the cupboard is bare, more or less. There are shots from Vancouver, Canada, and Tokyo, but these go back many years and perhaps aren’t up to the level I’m happy to write about. There are enough to write an article around though. For every trip I’ve had ample pictures of though, there are more than a few destinations I visited for work, where time was too short, or where things went wrong, so there’s just to enough to cover a whole article, but maybe there’s a nice story to tell. So here we are. Welcome to the ‘Almost’ trips.
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