This is night 5 in Vienna. I am staying as always at the Konig von Ungarn Hotel on Schuler Strasse. This is the 6th time I am staying here and I would not stay any where else in Vienna at this point. It is an absolutley wonderful hotel.. I always stay in room 202 which is a single but is big enough to be a double. The location is great and the service is unbelievable. Of course it costs more than a budget hotel but you get what you pay for and it is not as expensive as a 3 star hotel in NYC.
I have not been in Vienna since Easter 2011 and it has been a long time since I did all the tourist things so that is what I have benn doing. I went to the Hofburg and through the 3 museums there - the Silver/Porcellin Gallery, the "Sisi" museum and the private apartments. It takes about 3 hours and is all very interesting if the Habsburgs are your thing. Personally I have become more interested in the silver and porcellin than ever before. I also went to the Treasure Museum, Schatzkammer, where they have the crown jewels of Austria, Hungary, Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire. They also have the sacred sword there and a few alleged nails from the cross.
I spent about 3 hours in the Kunst Historische Museum. It is a fabulous collection that can be viewed over and over. I feel like they have rearranged it since the last time I was here. The paintings are now arranged by painter. So, for example, all the Rubins are in one room. Who knows, maybe it was always like that I just never noticed. Anyway, if you are in Vienna you MUST go here. I also went to the Upper and Lower Belvedere. They have special exhibits there and now they have one for the 150 anniversery of Klimt.
I have eaten at many familiar places. Ilona Steurbl is a good Hungarian restaurant on Brunnerstrasse. Da Capo is a popular Italian place on Schulerstrasse. Porterhouse is a steak house also on Schulerstrasse. Achilles is a greek restaurant on Kolnerhof. These are all nice places that are local, serve good food, have great service and give good value. I highly recommend them all. The one new place I found, is on a little cross street called Grunangang Gasse, called La Creperie. It is a French restaurant. I had escargot, a side salad, and rack of lamb, a kir, 3 glasses of red wine and a chocolate mousse. It was all delicious and cost me 49 euro. I ate outside in a pleasant atmosphere and the waitress was friendly snd helpful. I did some other diners speaking English so I don't think that is a problem. Today, after the Belvederes, I had lunch at the restaurant in the park. A lovely place to sit on a nice warm day. You can eat, I had Wiener schnitzel, or you can just have a drink.
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