Graz, Austria

Last week, a small group of us took a short trip to Graz, Austria. Graz is the second largest city in Vienna, and is a 2 1/2 hour train ride away. We booked a hotel for the night, as the city only has one hostel - which was fully booked. We left at 9:30 and had to transfer trains once, getting us into Graz a little after 1. We stopped at our hotel (B&B Graz - a great place to stay!), to see if we could check in early and drop off our backpacks. The woman at the front desk was very helpful - allowing us to check in early, and giving us guidance as to what we should see in Graz.

In the center of Graz, lies a "mountain castle" which was the recommended first stop for visitors. It has great views of the entire city, so we decided to go there first. Even though Graz is the second largest city in Austria, it is easily walkable. Most of the attractions are located in Old Town, and our hotel happened to be right in the heart of Old Town. We never had to take any public transportation, and by walking nothing ever took us more than 20 minutes to get to. We set off to Schlossberg (the mountain castle), and ended up taking many detours along our way there. We looked like typical tourists, with our guide books out - but we wanted to know what we were looking at!

Schlossberg is really more of a hill than a mountain, and can easily be climbed via a winding, paved path in 10-15 minutes. We quickly came to realize, and later affirmed, that nothing is open in Graz until April. The castle itself was closed, but the surrounding area is a park, so we were still able to walk around and admire the views. At the top of the mountain, there is a clock tower which is one of the prominent icons of Graz.

After Schlossberg, we decided to head to a cafe and warm up - it was cloudy and in the low 40's and we had been outside for much of the afternoon. We had heard of Graz's "floating cafe" and decided to check it out. The cafe is advertised to be an island, but it is merely a bridge with a cafe in the center. We stopped in and had some coffee to warm up though, and planned out the rest of our evening.

The Floating Cafe

We headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We walked back across the river to the area of Old Town that is full of restaurants and nightlife. We ended up eating at Molly Malone's, an Irish pub. After two weeks of sausage and potatoes, we all ordered (turkey) burgers and fries. They happened to be showing an Austrian soccer game, so the pub filled up quickly. The atmosphere was great, and everyone was very into the game. We ended up staying at Molly Malone's for 5 hours, hanging out and watching the game - unfortunately, Austria lost.

We got up early the next morning, to check out and get a full day of sightseeing in before our 5:30 train back to Vienna. We set out in the opposite direction of Day 1, towards the bigger castle in Graz - Schloss Eggenberg. This palace is Baroque style, and was built by the Eggenberg family during their dynasty in the 17th century. We were disappointed again, when we discovered the palace itself does not open until April. All throughout the year though, you are able to walk around the gardens and can enter the courtyards of the castle, which is what we ended up doing. I can imagine Eggenberg is very beautiful in the spring and summer, the gardens were intricate and wrapped around the entire palace.

Schloss Eggenberg

After grabbing some lunch at a deli, we continued to walk through Old Town for the remainder of the afternoon. We got to the train early, as we were all tired and cold. We departed at 5:30 and were back in Vienna by 8:30.

Overall Graz was somewhat disappointing. As a group, we had a blast but the sights would have been better in warmer weather - when they are actually open. Although it is a big city, Graz can easily be done in two days. We were happy that we went, and will now have time in the spring to go somewhere else. We were also excited that our first independent trip went smoothly, especially without any german speakers with us!