Day 42 - A story of churches, food, and geocaches

I very much appreciated not having to set an alarm this morning, safe in the knowledge that hotel breakfast is served until 11am. I didn’t need it to go quite that late, but I did enjoy my lie-in.

My plan was to start my tourist-y activities at St Stephen’s church, but I did get a bit distracted by shops on the way!

When I did make it to St Stephen’s, it was a little overwhelming to be honest - there were SO many people, and so many different options of what you could pay to do and where you could go and when. I took a couple of photos and then scampered back outside.

Once outside, I realised that there was an alternative option to the queue to go up the north tower in the lift - I could climb the 343 stairs of the south tower! This, I decided, was a much better idea. It was quite hard going in the heat, but it was nice and quiet and there were good views at the top. By the time I got down, I decided that I deserved an ice-cream.

I then had a wander along Graben Street, doing lots of geocaching as I went, and stumbled upon St Peter’s church. I loved this church, and it just happened that they were just starting a short organ concert when I got there, so I stayed to listen, which was lovely.

My next objective was to go to Hofburg Palace; the former seat of the Habsburgs. There were museum options, but I decided instead to just have a good wander around the courtyard and gardens. The architecture was very impressive and I used Adventure Labs to guide me round a bit.

I then continued my walk, aiming for a circular walk back to St Stephen’s. On my route was Mozart’s cafe. Whilst I have no doubts that this was an absolute tourist trap, the cake was delicious and totally worth it.

There were lots of geocaches and AdLabs to find nearby, so I did that on my way back to my hotel. I was very much ready then for a rest before heading back out for dinner.

I had decided that tonight was to be Schnitzel night, and had been told that a restaurant near my hotel would be a good place to go for it. I have generally avoided what I would call ‘posh meals’ on my travels so far, but I went all out with my schnitzel, and then ice-cream dessert. It was delicious and should hopefully fuel me around my parkrun tomorrow morning!

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