Oh, Austria. This country was part of a two-week, three-country trip we took in 2017 when my oldest son was 11-months old. We were definitely exhausted during this whole trip, especially going to two hot countries in August (Morocco and Egypt), but after getting home, we were still happy we made the effort. Anyway, Austria was the last stop on this vacation and after being in two very hot countries, we were ready to finally arrive somewhere cool. I was extra excited because I had a day trip planned to visit Salzburg on Saturday to see the Alps and a couple of spots where the movie The Sound of Music was filmed. Unfortunately, things didn’t really go as planned this trip…

We landed in Vienna on Thursday night and when we finally got off of the plane, we went to go collect our checked luggage. After waiting for what seemed like hours (especially with a little child) and not finding our bags, we began to suspect they were lost. So, we found our way to the counter for Austrian Air and soon realized there must have been many bags unaccounted for, based on the amount of people standing in line. We waited in line for almost two hours and discovered that somehow, our bags and those of others, were sent to Germany and wouldn’t arrive for a day or two. We were told the bags would be delivered to our hotel in Vienna. I started thinking of all of the things I’m going to need to buy from somewhere until our bags arrived – diapers, baby wipes, and other essentials that I had packed in our checked bags. By the time we got a taxi to head to our hotel, it was quite late and most places were closed. I also started to not feel so well, but thought it was maybe the car ride or I just needed to eat.

Luckily the Hilton hotel we had booked in Vienna, had upgraded us to a larger room (since I would be spending a lot of time there). We checked-in, got to our room, and my husband went out to pick up food from the limited options still open, and close to the hotel, while I unpacked. Once he was back, we ate the burgers and fries he bought. However, after having just one fry is when the food poisoning hit me. For the next day and a half I was too sick to eat and stayed in the room. Definitely not how I had hoped to spend the limited time we had in Austria. The day after our arrival, I tried to convince my husband to at least take our son and go do some site-seeing. While I stayed in bed, I kept thinking of Salzburg and wondering, could I possibly feel better by tomorrow and maybe our luggage comes in time for us to go? By the evening I realized it would be a bad idea. We had our Viator tour to Salzburg booked for Saturday morning with a no cancelation policy, but I decided to contact Viator anyway and tell them the story. Thankfully, they were wonderful and refunded us our money.

Luckily, our bags were delivered that night and by Saturday afternoon, I finally started to feel well enough to go out and at least sight-see, but not so much eat. We only had a day and a half left of our trip and let me tell you – I enjoyed that little bit of time so much. Though the daytime was still a bit hot, I loved walking the beautiful streets of Vienna. We spent the afternoon exploring the city, stopping first at Volksgarten for some photos, Heldenplatz, and Hofburg (all of which are right next to each other). After getting something to eat, we went to Hundertwasser House. I had seen some photos on social media of and it looked pretty interesting the way it was designed so, I wanted to check that out as well. We also stopped at a candy store to buy some Mozartkugel (small candies made of pistachio, marzipan, and covered with chocolate). I think to this day, that is still one of the best candies/chocolates I’ve had. If you visit Austria, make sure to try them!

Our last day in Vienna was Sunday. We started the day touring Schloss Belvedere, taking a tour inside and exploring the gardens outside. Definitely a very beautiful spot to visit. We did the tour of Upper Belvedere, which currently costs around 21 Euros per ticket You can buy online tickets here. After that, we went to tour St. Stephen’s Cathedral and toured the cathedral and the tower. Such a great view of the city from the tower! I definitely recommend it. Be sure to check the site before a visit to check their hours since it isn’t always open for tours. After touring the cathedral, we stopped at a restaurant for some pizza. We then headed to Schloss Schonbrunn. The temperature had been a bit hot during the day with walking around, but had cooled down in the evening and made exploring the palace all the more beautiful. It was the perfect way to end the trip. We didn’t tour inside the palace, but the grounds were still nice to walk around and just sit and enjoy the views of the city.

Austria definitely didn’t start out as a great trip, but by the end, I was so happy and not ready to leave. After being away from home for 16 days, I was ready to keep exploring now that I was feeling better. I hope to one day make it back to Austria and be able to visit Salzburg and many other places. I recommend the Hilton Vienna hotel (at least from how it was back in 2017) because of its close proximity to so many attractions. A lot of attractions were within walking distance of each other and it was easy enough to get cabs for further ones (I’m sure it’s even easier and cheaper now with so many ride services). I also recommend Viator for any tours. While we didn’t end up using it on our trip to Austria, I had previously booked tours with them that I loved when we visited Italy in 2012. Wow, more than a decade ago!

Next up – Washington D.C.