As the year is slowly coming to an end, I relate more and more with those trips taken on a similar period of time. While I didn't manage to enjoy any trips this year in December, in the same month but in 2022 I had a one week long escape to Vienna, where I created and stored safely many memories.
One of them was born at Stadtpark, which is along the largest parks of the city that becomes very magical in December with all its Christmas Markets that I previously shared here.
I'd lie saying that I took out the best of this journey as we caught a really bad period for travelling facing cold temperatures, short days and lots of rains and drizzle that made our bodies become weaker quicker than in general.
This affected our mood pretty much, making us not share a properly smile on our faces thinking that our itinerary would be ruined in just a couple of hours since we landed in Vienna.
But as nature is beautiful no matter the season, and as it was a unique experience for all of us since none of I and the girls I was travelling with have seen this city before, with our bodies constantly frozen we did make a plan to always entertain each other in order to keep our mood high and still enjoy the places we had on our to-visit list.
More or less, this experience reminded me that we should forget about the stereotypes of visiting the sea just in the summer or seeing parks just when it's sunny outside, because, as I mentioned before, the beauty is always there, but it's our mission to search for it and create the right memories to live forever within our hearts.
So with this thought, we made our way to Stadtpark which happened just a few moments before the dawn.
This didn't contribute in any way to our mood as we already knew that there was no chance to see the sunset or enjoy the sun even for just a few seconds, so we took it as a good opportunity to focus on our reconnection with nature, which is missing in most of the cases when we travel in foreign countries just because we are more curious about the architecture, tradition, and culture of the place, before seeing the natural beauty that will always be there.
As soon as we entered Stadtpark the scenery wasn't too welcoming talking about a rather dark and groomy landscape than a colorful one. But as I was debating a while ago with a fellow hiver, the best trips are to those places that at first might not promise too much fun or memories to be born, but then you face a completely different situation.
The first surprise came from the right of the path we were following, meeting The Kursalon which is a spa pavilion that for a long while offered healing properties through its waters.
This one was built between 1865 and 1867 which was just 3 years later after the park was raised. But due to all kinds of situations met on the way, the building lost its original purpose when it was created, serving for balls, concerts, congresses, and nightclubs these days.
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Even if the building looks quite discouraging during the cold seasons, this one is still working and it even comes with a restaurant nearby where people can stop by for something to eat or to enjoy a hot drink.
Additionally, right across of it, there is a green space which added a bit of color to the overall scenery, but also an arch and lots of benches where to sit for a while and enjoy the park.
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Another thing to do while being in the park, is stopping at the monuments of some famous Viennese artists, writers, and composers who brought their contributions to Austria and the world in general, being recognized worldwide, such as Franz Schubert, Franz Lehár, Robert Stolz or Hans Makart to name a few.
The one that is different from the others in my opinion though, is the gold plated bronze monument of Johann Strauß II that can be easily noticed from the distance, being able to admire its beauty from more angles and distances which somehow is never getting lost on the way.
A good and important information though, is that Stadtpark is not only along the largest parks in Vienna covering a total surface area of 65,000 square metres, but it's also home to the largest number of monuments and sculptures in town.
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We didn't manage to explore all the monuments or discover entirely the park due to its imposing sizes that would require a lot more time from us which was slowly ticking with the evening setting by, so we decided to spend as much time as possible in the nature, admiring lakes, unique species of trees and flowers that even if they barely had a few leaves and a long way ahead when would bloom again, they still felt nice to be seen.
Additionally, there was this Christmas tree mounted on a tiny island in the distance that changed our mood in a second realizing how close we are to Chrismas and that we are blessed to be together in a completely new country, culture and city after more than 10 years since we met each other.
I am still curious how people came up with the idea of having this tree placed randomly there, but they did a great job adding a few more colors to the overall scenery.
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After we recharged our batteries with some extra energy for the upcoming days exploring Vienna, we made our way to the metro station that shared the same name as the park, which is not randomly chosen being linked with this one.
In order to reach the station we had to cross a bridge over the Wienfluss (Vienna River) that divided the park in two different sections, but we failed terribly seeing the 2nd half of the park. Hence why, 2-3 hours dedicated to this activity is a must for a proper experience seeing the whole park.
Reaching Stadtpark can happen quite easily since it makes the connection between more important parts of the city and comes up with various entrances and ways of access, where by the way, everything is at no cost.
We got here by taking the subway to Stadtpark on the U4 line, but there are two more options with this means of public transportation, namely taking Stubentor (U3) or Wien Mitte-Landstraße (U3 and U4).
Some other options are either with the bus (3A or 74A to Stubentor) or with a tram on the Line 2 to Weihburggasse.
Other articles from my stay in Vienna:
- The Austrian Parliament Building
- Capuchin Church (Katholische Kapuzinerkirche "Hl. Maria von den Engeln")
- Christmas Markets tour in Vienna, Austria
- Stadtpark
more coming soon...
Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (260+ articles written on this field), but also abording other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 550+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.
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