This is the last station in the Metro train U2. The journey till Seestadt itself if pretty nice that you could see nice landscapes when in U2 train.

There is a small pond in Seestadt. During summer you can see a large number of fishes in this pond.  There is a bridge over the pond from which you can see the fishes clearly in different sizes. I usually see few kids throwing bread crumbs or bread pieces standing from the bridge. One can also walk down to the pond and sit by the shore; And take a sunbath during the sunset. Usually I see kids taking a bath in summer.

There are few games available for kids in the park around the pond. You can take a relaxed walk around the pond. This is one of the places I visit again and again in Vienna. I sometimes take my bicycle and ride around the region.

One of my favorite spots in Vienna is Kahlenberg/Leopoldsberg. Berg means mountain or hill. From Donau Park you can see both Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg.

How to reach with public transport?

You can easily reach both the places with public transport. Both these places come under zone 100 of public transport. Zone 100 is for Vienna. Bus 38A from Heiligenstadt will take you to both the places. Heiligenstadt is the last station in U4 metro train. The bus will reach first Kahlenberg and then it will go to Leopoldsberg. Sometimes the bus will stop at Kahlenberg itself and will not go to Leopoldsberg. So watch out for the bus board while onboarding. You can walk from Kahlenberg to Leopoldsberg as well in less than 30 minutes.

Alternatively you can also hike from Kahlenbergerdorf to Leopoldsberg and then from Leopoldsberg to Kahlenberg through the vineyards. I once went in my bicycle in this route and loved it.

What is there?

At Kahlenberg :

First of all you get a pretty view of Vienna. You can easily see the main canal of Danube river, and also Donauinsel and AlteDonau, Riesenrad (giant wheel) at Praterstern.

There are few shops to buy souvenirs, a cafe, a restaurant. Do carry cash with you. There is no bankomat (ATM) at either Kahlenberg or Leopoldsberg. And from what I have seen the shops or the cafe do not accept cards.

At Leopoldsberg :

There is a church. You can take a leisurely walk around the church. You will get views of Vienna which you would not get from Kahlenberg.

From both Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg there are walking trails present. Try them out.

Would you love to practice your German in real when you are in Vienna ? Read on…

I can tell you about 2 interesting things in this blog, which would in a way help you to practice your German as well.

The real test to our knowledge on a language lies in how well we could speak in it. No matter how good we are in the other aspects of a language – writing and reading, speaking is a key skill to master any language. With speaking comes glued the sibling listening part too.

In Vienna one can manage with English to an extent. If you step out of Vienna it is better to know German to fully explore the places.

1. NiederOesterreich Card :

This is a superb card. Its name stands for ‚Lower Austria card‘. ‚Lower Austria‘ is one of the 9 states in Austria. Vienna is in the middle of the ‚Lower Austria‘ state.

This card gives you free entry to a lot of great attractions and discounted entry to few other great attractions in ‚Lower Austria‘. You can buy this card easily from local Tabak shops or you can even order online. Usually the card is valid from April till next March. However if you buy during Christmas then you get extra 3 months, that is, from Jan till next March.

This card has lot of attractions to cover even in Vienna as well. You will get a book covering all the attractions, but this will be in Deutsch. You can of course check the attractions even online.

My favorite attraction in Vienna is SchokoMuseum. You can go as many times as you want ! Few other awesome attractions in Vienna are Riesenrad in Prater, Bratislava trip from Vienna in ferry.

My favorite one outside Vienna is Schneeberg. First you need to reach the base Puchberg am Schneeberg. You can use Einfachraus ticket for this, which I have explained later in this blog. From Puchberg am Schneeberg you need to take a mountain train ‚SchneebergBahn‘, which is free with NO card. Once you reach the top place you can trek the entire day which gives you breathtaking views of the Alps. A must visit when you are in Austria.

Another attraction we loved was the Melk Abbey and the garden around the Abbey. Wonderful. Just amazing. Another must visit when you are in Austria.

You would not regret having bought this card.

 

 

2. Einfachraus ticket :

This is a group ticket valid only in Slow Trains in Austria for an entire day. This is a ticket which allows you to travel on slower trains namely S-bahn, REX, Regional trains. In OEBB ticket website you can get more information on this. If you are 2 people then the cost is 34 Euro for your up and down journey. For 3 people, 38 Euro. For 4 people, 42 Euro. For 5 people only 46 Euro. This is a much cheaper way to explore Austria. Achtung ! The only catch is – you cannot use this ticket on RailJet trains and other fast trains.

On work days – Monday through Friday – this is valid from 9 am to 3 am the next day. On weekends it is valid the entire day till 3 am the next day.

Just choose a lovely place in Austria and make a trip with einfachraus ticket.

Our first day started off as a Party ! Hurray it was a total ice-breaker with lot of fun. Our teacher is so friendly and started our first day with lot of snacks.

Our class has friends from many countries and from many professions – Romania, Russia, USA, Italy, India. Interestingly we have a psychologist, a doctor, few Engineers, couple of students.

Learning is done practically with much focus on conversation, which is the most important requirement for all of us in learning a new language. There are small fun games done now and then which makes learning really interesting.

As is the case with Deutsch Akademie we are learning with fun from day 1. Not only is it fun but it is practical too. Our teacher gives equal attention to every individual. If you want to learn German with fun you should definitely learn with Deutsch Akademie. I wish I joined Deustch Akademie 2 years back.

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I am Baskar Lingam, an Indian living in Vienna from August 2015. I work at IAEA, Vienna as
Software Engineer, automating Build and Deployment with Microsoft TFS. People call me these
days as “DevOps Engineer”.

Austria is the first foreign country to me. I started stumbling upon from Day 1 due to my zero
knowledge on Deutsch. It was a funny incident which pushed me to start learning German ♥ I
will write on this in one of my future blogs !

So I started learning Deutsch soon after coming Vienna. I took a course for A1.1 level in a
different language teaching center. Unfortunately due to unforeseen personal events I could
not continue my Deutsch learning further after completing A 1.1 level.

My dormant interest on learning Deutsch kept popping up now and then. How I reached
DeutschAkademie deserves another post.

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