Vienna Warnings Or Dangers

Mass in Vienna on a Sunday: the best is probably in Augustiner Kirche on Augustiner streetszesnes on sundays 11 am.
http://www.augustinerkirche.at/augustinus.php?sublink=f2
Day tickets are valid only inside Vienna, for Klosterneuburg Essl Museum (close to the town center) there is a free shuttle bus (by train € 3,60).
http://www.essl.museum/info/information.html#erreichbarkeit (not in english)

I rented a car from Europcar in Vienna. Because I was in a hurry I didn't do the inspection as recommended. I regretfully trusted the people at the rental office who told me it was new and should be good. By the time I got back to the hotel I noticed a paint chip about 1cm in diameter, hardly noticeable. Although i'm sure it couldn't have happened since I picked it up, I accept responsibility because I didn't check it. Also the GPS cable broke before we even left Vienna. When I returned the car, the person who checked it in assured me I wouldn't have to pay for the GPS.
When I returned home I received a Euro 747 (over $1000 CAN) bill for the 3 day rental including the GPS and the tiny paint chip. I doubt the chip has been repaired and I wonder how many more people will pay for the same mistake:(((
Customer service were also rude when i communicated my displeasure.
So this is a warning. Always take the time to inspect a rental car before taking it even it you are told it is new.

The Gürtel is a major road that runs outside of and parallel to the Ringstrasse. It is possible to find inexpensive accommodations (apartments, hotels) along and outside of the Gürtel -- but my advice is to stay inside of the Gürtel for a couple of reasons. First, caution is needed when crossing the Gürtel because it is a very busy road with many fast-moving cars. Second, the Gürtel area near the Westbahnhof is a seedy red-light district.

When I first started looking for a place to stay in Vienna, I didn't know anything about the Gürtel -- and I almost rented a spacious apartment for a week in Fünfhaus (Vienna's 15th district) which lies outside of the Gürtel. The size of the apartment seemed too good to be true for the low quoted price -- which prompted me to do further investigation about the area on the internet. As it turned out, I am extremely glad that I decided to stay at a pension hotel in Neubau (7th district) inside of the Gürtel instead.

In email correspondence with the landlord about the apartment, I specifically told her that I wanted to stay in a clean and safe neighborhood -- and she assured me that the area surrounding the apartment was nice. Fortunately for me, I didn't trust her. My doubts of her veracity were confirmed during my stay in Vienna. Out of curiosity, I ventured out one evening to the location of the apartment at which I almost stayed -- and I was solicited by 3 street-walking prostitutes before I reached my destination. While I didn't feel like my safety was threatened, I would describe the area as seedy and unpleasant.

In a nutshell, the difference between Neubau (inside the Gürtel) and Fünfhaus (outside the Gürtel) is like day and night. Unless you absolutely need to save the extra money, I recommend not staying in Fünfhaus. With this tip, I have included the link to a website with an unflattering description of the Fünfhaus district.

Vienna is the English name of the city. The German name for the city is Wien. Remember that the letter 'w' in the German language sounds like 'v' in English. Nothing screams 'ignorant tourist' louder and faster than to pronounce Wien like one would in English.

With this tip, I have included the link to a website with some introductory information about the pronunciation of consonants in the German language.

Bezirk (plural Bezirke) means 'district' in German. The city of Vienna consists of 23 districts (Bezirke). With this tip, I have included the link to a website that provides a map with the district divisions -- and a brief description of each district (Bezirk).

When I was in Vienna for many years ago I and my friend arrived and we should only stay one night in Viena and then continue to the States. So, we decided to go out that night. We stayed at a hotel at the airport, so we took the bus from there to the city. During the trip we drank many beers and probably we were very happy too. Actually, I dont rememebr everything! But dont do what we did. We made the busdriver very crazy. We left our cans, our beer cans in the bus. Maybe not the best way to do it. But we did it anyway. He screamed to us: Die dosen! Die dosen! So, I guess this bus driver doesnt want to see me or my friend, but I was the only one who understood German.

Museums generally reflect some degree of taste, however, the patrons may not. It is quite possible that this person was shopping at Walmart when some kind of vortex deposited this woman in the fine art museum.

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Vienna is building a new MAIN-trainstation
and they thought it would be a clever idea,
to destroy the old ones first !
And now we dont have the SÜD-Bahnhof anymore but only a small part of it in a distance of several hundred meters from the former SÜD-Bahnhof and getting there takes an extra 10-15 minutes jumping from one side of the road, where you are leaving the bus or tram to the other side that has the only sidewalk taking you to OST-Bahnhof, that actually looks much more like an ugly supermarket that a trainstation.
So the logical way does not have a pavewalk, but you might run with your suitcases betrween the cartrafic, or you change to the other side first and change then back again to the side where you had left the bus or tram and where the station is, but in quite some distance without a trottoir !
Once that you are there, you have only 3 automatic ticket-machines and some overhead screens with the departuretimes and number of tracks where to find the trains.
All of this hassle and stress certainly needs
some extra 15-20 minutes that you should calculate
when your train is leaving from OST-Bahnhof !
this applies for SOME trains to Budapest, Bratislava etc.