Traveling: 2025

Friday, 18 July 2025

Vienna Spring 2025 - Part 1

Vienna

Friday - June 20th 2025

After we returned from our bike tour, we still had a couple of days left of our holiday and so we decided to spend the weekend in Austria's capital city. Along the way we stopped at McDonald's for a late breakfast and around noon we arrived at our hotel. We stayed at the Austria Trend Hotel Doppio, our prefered hotel in Vienna, becuase it's conveniently located near the highway and the inner city is just a short tram ride away. Once we checked in and dropped off our luggage in our room, we headed to Gleis//Garten, a food hall with its own brewery located in an old railway building. There we had late lunch and of course we had to try some beers from the local brewery.

Late Breakfast

Our Room

Gleis//Garten

Lunch

Gleis//Garten

In the afternoon we spent some time shopping at Kärntner Strasse in the inner city. For dinner we had a reservation at a vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant, but first we enjoyed a couple of drinks at Sky Bar overlooking St. Stephan's Cathedral. Then it was time for our reservation and we were on our way to Vevi Restaurant. We ate there already last year and it was as delicious as we remembered. Afterwards we just strolled around Vienna and got ice cream before returning to the hotel.

Sky Bar

Dinner

Thursday, 17 July 2025

Vienna Spring 2025 - Part 2

Vienna

Saturday - June 21st 2025

Our second day started with breakfast at the hotel and then we took the tram into the city. Our first stop was Starbucks followed by Superfood Deli, where we got some iced coffees and smoothies to be prepared for a day of shopping at Mariahilfer Straße. For lunch we stopped at Xu's Cooking, a vegetarian Chinese buffet restaurant, before returning to the hotel to relax a bit, since it got pretty warm.

Starbucks

Mariahilfer Strasse

Smoothies

Xu's Cooking

In the afternoon we headed to Prater, one of the oldest amusement parks in the world. There a new rollercoaster had just opened and of course I had to try it. Wiener Lopping was a lot of fun, although it could have been a little bit longer. Then we just took a walk through the fun fair before taking the metro back into the inner city. There we tried an awful vegetarian burger at Hab's Burger, but luckily we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner a couple of minutes later. We had a couple of drinks before ordering nachos to share. Later on the way back to the hotel we got ice cream and back in our rooms we called it a day and watched TV.

Wiener Looping

Vienna Prater

Hab's Burger

Hard Rock Cafe

Ice Cream

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Vienna State Opera

Vienna

Returning Home

Sunday - June 22nd 2025

Today we slept in and once we got up, we had breakfast. Then we checked out and hit the road towards Salzburg. Back home we had a quick lunch and enjoyed a quiet last day of our holiday.

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Mur Bike Trail 2025 - Part 1

Mur Bike Trail

Sunday - June 15th 2025

For several years Claudia and I had to postpone our bike trip along the Mur Bike Trail due to being ill with Covid or bad weather, but this year we finally were able to make the trip happen. Sunday morning my parents picked us up to drive us from Salzburg to St. Michael im Lungau, about an hour by car south of Salzburg, from where the bike trail started. We arrived in the late morning due to a lot of traffic and so we didn't waste any time and hit the bike trail. However we didn't come far, because we hadn't had any breakfast today and so we stopped at a lovely rest area by the river to eat our rolls we brought from home. Today we only had to make 55 kilometers to Murau so we weren't in a rush.

Our First Day

Mur Bike Trail

Around noon we arrived in Tamsweg, where we took a break at a bar to get some drinks before continuing our journey towards Murau. After Tamsweg the bike trail got really gorgeous with the Mur River running through the beautiful valley with just mountains and trees on both sides. No cars, just nature and the railway passing by occasionally. Soon we arrived in Ramingstein, a small village famous for its former silver mines, before crossing over from Salzburg to Styria. From there the bike trail basically runs through the whole of Styria to Bad Radkersburg in the south of Austria.

Tamsweg

Taking a Break

Tamsweg

Mur Bike Trail

Ramingstein

Mur Bike Trail

During the last couple of kilometers we really had to keep going due to an approaching thunderstorm, but in the afternoon we arrived in Murau with no thunderstorm in sight. So before we checked in into our hotel for the night, we got some ice cream. We stayed at the hotel Brauhaus zu Murau, which was okay. Our room was a little bit dated, but totally fine for one night. After we showered and relaxed we went downstairs and had dinner at the restaurant. First we got a drink to celebrate the completion of the first leg of our tour and then I had a veggie burger while Claudia ordered a vegan dumplings filled with hummus and potatoes. Both dishes were really delicious. Afterwards we took a walk through Murau and bought some sweets at a nearby gas station for later. Then we returned to the room and watched Ocean's Eleven on TV.