Sofitel Vienna Review

This is the hotel where we stayed for two nights in Vienna. Sofitel looks very eyecathing with its rooftop, giving a very modern atmosphere from the moment we walked into the hotel.

When we entered the room, we were amazed by the size of the room. It's really spacious. It has an open bathroom with the direct access to the bedroom. The bed and pillows are really really comfortable. The soap and shamppoo are Hermes! The minibar are free of charge, and we had our coffee maker in our room!

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Dinner at Grinzing

To complete our sightseeing in Vienna, we ended up that day with a dinner at Grinzing area to try some local food. The resto is quiet nice with its local touch, a lot of tourist bus coming to this resto.

We had a chicken meal that night, comes with potato and the salad. I didn't try the chicken and the salad. I only had the potato, and the apple struddle which we had for our dessert.

During our dinner, there was a traditional music show, and the guy even played Bengawan Solo, the famous Indonesian song. A very nice touch:)

Eventhough I didn't enjoy the food, I like the atmosphere of this resto. It will be nice to come here at summer and have dinner at the open space area.

written on November 13, 2011

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Vienna Sightseeing

After a visit at Schoenbrunn which is a former summer residence, we continued visiting a former winter residence or called Hofburg Palace. We didn't get in, we just take picture from the outside.

And of course we visited the Johan Strauss statue, too bad the original place is under rennovation.

After lunch, we continued our sigtseeing to Kärntner Straße, a famous place for shopping. We alight from our bus at the opposite of Opera House, and were given free time.

The street has so many branded shops, cafes and souvenir shops. We can find Mozart Chocolate in every souvenir shop, with -I might say- a very unreasonable price. This street is a very touristy area.

It was hard to find toilet in this area, so i went to McD for our toilet break. We had to pay 0,5 euro, but the toilet ticket can be used as discount for our purchase at McD. I had a strawberry smoothies, and found it has an online order system:p

We may find many stalls selling this huge sausage and beers.. We were told by our local guide that Vienna's people eat sausage and drink beers for their lunch.

written on November 13, 2011

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Schoenbrunn Palace

On our first morning in Vienna, we didn't have breakfast at the hotel, we went early in the morning to have a breakfast at the Schoenbrunn Palace, which is a former summer residence, and now is the major tourist attraction in Vienna.

The breakfast located at a small cafe located beside the palace. We had bread with jam and butter, a warm and very delicious bread! For the beverage we may choose a cup of coffee or a hot chocolate. I had a cup of hot chocolate which was very delicious and came perfect with the wheather of 10 celcius degrees that morning.

After the breakfast, we took pictures in front of the palace, and went inside the palace. The normal ticket price is 10,5 euro for adult. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures inside. We had a local guide explaining the major rooms this palace has. I was not impressed with the front look of this place, I have been to Versailles Palace before, and I thought that Versailles is more impressive.

But when we went to the backyard, WOW, it has a beautiful garden, a very photogenic one! Too bad we only had few minutes to take picture here, so I didn't go up the hill. For sure, this place is a must visit place in Vienna.

written on November 11, 2011

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Vienna's Ferris Wheel

After the have fun go mad shopping at Pandorf, we continue another 1 hour drive to Vienna, and went directly to a Chinese resto. It was an upscale chinese resto I might say. The exterior looks like a japanese park, though inside it was realy chinese. Another good chinese food were served. But one of the resto staff was really rude. We could see from her gesture that she wanted us to leave as soon as possible! Guess the resto was fully booked that night.

Arriving at the Sofitel Hotel at about 7.30 am, we went straight to the room, and as I have read it on the TA review, the room was very special. I would make a review later on regarding the room in this blog, how the room has an open bathroom, has a coffe maker inside!, free mini bar..for sure it was the best hotel during our trip.

Then a small group gathered at the lobby, we would like to try the tram just like in budapest, and tried the ferris wheel that we saw on our way to the hotel. Andy, our map reader asked the hotel concierge on how to go to the Ferris Wheel, and he was told to just walk straight. It was windy and really cold that night. We walked about 20 minutes to an interchange station called Praterstern.

We crossed the road and voila, we saw the Ferris Wheel. It is located in the Prater amusement park, which also has a roller coaster, and a Madame Tussaud.


The ferris wheel called Wiener Riesenrad, and the ticket for one ride is 8.5 euro! So expensive! But we still wanted it a try.

We went inside, first there was a little museum regarding the wheel. So we just knew from the museum that the wheel was really old fashioned, unlike the London Eye or the Singapore Flyer. Oh noo, but we have purchased the ticket already:p We walked to the next room which was a photo studio room, and we were surprised to see becak from Yogyakarta at the corner of the room. Heheee a becak in Vienna!



We got into the Wiener Riesenrad, wow so old:p I guess the expensive ticket is for the maintenance hehee However we could see the beautiful city at night from the wooden capsule. And inside there is the picture on the wooden wall with the name of the buildings. There were two other visitors in the capsule, and they were upset when we had to get out from the capsule and one of them yelled to the officer "only one ride? so expensive!" Frankly speaking, it's not worth it to get into the Wiener Riesenrad. It's 100% tourist trap.



When we walked to the exit, there was a souvenir shop with unreasonable tourist price.


We took pictures in the amusement park area. Glad that the Madam Tussaud were closed, otherwise it will be another tourist trap:p


As the night were getting cold, we decided to take the tram going back to the hotel. We were confused to find the machine to buy the ticket. We asked a guy for the direction. So we need to go downstair to take U1 line. Bought the ticket for 1.80 euro, and put the ticket on the macine. By the way I was wondering why the ticket was so expensive? The next day from our local guide, I just knew that the ticket valid for two hours journey! While we were on the train for only two stops away from Praterstern station!


The train is again so old fashioned. It remind me so much to Kereta Api Parahyangan, a train from Bandung to Jakarta which is no longer operated. The door should be open manually. Oeps sorry, we didn't know that we have to open it by ourselves. People who waited outside the train opened the door for us, and from their face I knew they were upset:p

We were confused whether to get out or go back to the previous stop. Andi the explorer told us just to get out from the station, and yess we saw our hotel:p What a night in Vienna.

written on November 5, 2011

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Pandorf Factory Outlet

It's the day that we left Budapest and continue our trip to Vienna. We left our hotel at about 8.30 am, there was an accident near the bridge, that made traffic jam all the way from the hotel to the bridge. Bye-bye Budapest, you are so impressive!

The bus took highway heading to Vienna, to be precised, to Pandorf Outlet, an outlet that have so many branded stores, located one hour from Vienna. After a 2,5 hours drive we arrived at Pandorf and it was windy and raining! Sooo cold (:

We went directly to Burger King for our quick lunch. Actually there are some resto at the outlet, but as BK is the nearest from our bus stop, so we choose BK.

Shopping time! We just walked through the outlets, and stopped by some shops to shop. My favorite is The Lindt factory outlet, ooh Lindt with outlet price:) This place is a shopping paradise. 

There was also a galleria, still full of shops. I went there but I have never heard most of the brands, except Lego:p Too bad it was only a lego wear shop, so couldn't buy toys for the kiddos.

We were at Pandorf for six hours, so tired but glad to find so many things with cheap price. I bought jeans for myself, a Mexx jeans for only 20 euro! And also a purple travelling bag from Adidas for 17 euro. Love it!

For me, it was an unforgettable shopping experience at Pandorf :)

written on Nov 4, 2011

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