My time in Kraków had, regrettably, come to an end. I was now heading to Vienna, my first trip to Austria.
At the central Kraków station (Kraków Główny), I started talking to a couple whilst waiting for the train. They were Vietnamese Americans on their way to Budapest.
Kraków is about the same distance from Budapest and Vienna. However, there is no train that goes straight from Kraków to Budapest. You have to travel to Vienna first then change. This makes for a longer train journey. I decided five hours on a train was long enough. That would get me to Vienna. Budapest would have to wait for another time.
The American couple told me that they had belatedly realised this but couldn’t change their hotel booking in Budapest. That’s why they were travelling to Budapest via Vienna — and then, a few days later, returning to see Vienna.
For this journey, I ended up in a six-seat compartment. At one point, a family of three got on. They turned out to be Irish and were on their way to Auschwitz (as mentioned a couple of days ago). The father said that he has four daughters and he had decided many years ago that, when the time was right, he’d bring each daughter to see Auschwitz. Today was the turn of the third daughter. He felt it was important for them to understand what happened there.
The train arrived at Vienna Central station on time. I had rented an Airbnb and walked to the apartment. I was met by someone who showed me to the apartment.
I settled in and, before leaving the apartment to explore the town, I bought a seven-day travel pass on an app. This would give me unlimited travel on the metro, bus and trams. I wouldn’t have to buy daily tickets, as I did in Kraków.
One tram from close to my apartment got me to the city centre. Being Saturday, it was filled with people, mostly tourists. I could see the ornate spire of the grand St Stephen’s cathedral and headed towards it. Very soon, I was inside, surprised I didn’t have to pay to enter.
It was a fine cathedral. The seating and general access was restricted. Something was going on. I made a note to return to have a proper look then left. I found a seat and devised a walk around town taking an initial look at some of the more popular places I’d bookmarked on my train journey to Vienna.
