My anxiety about not doing enough ‘stimulating’ activities with my two oldest kids, hereby referred to as LL and Middle, reached peak height last week. As to not spend another Sunday afternoon watching Cocomelon and having discussions with myself as to why the Dad on Cocomelon wears house slippers to the aquarium, I decided to take them to! The! Butterfly! House! A delightful place perfect for the under 5 set.
In case you’re in need for a fun, not too stressful outing with your kids (toddler activity parental stress level a solid 4, 1 being the least stressful, 10 being the most stressful) head to the butterfly house in Vienna’s inner city for either some delightful butterfly sightings and landings (they may land on your hand or shoulder) or terrifying butterfly sightings and landings (they may land on your hand or shoulder). It depends what your take on butterflies are. And moths. Did you know some caterpillars become butterflies and some become moths? Poor bastards.
Anyway! Off we went, first on the tram, which was an adventure all on its own. We could have ridden the tram all day. All LL wanted to do was hear me explain what the heck this sign of the guy trying to get in the door meant:
Once I explained that the man got his hand caught in the doors, and the red symbolized his ‘ow-ie’ or blood, she was satisfied and a little too excited. Then she had me explain it again. And again.
To get to the butterfly house, which used to be part of the imperial palace of the Habsburg family, you take a tram, subway or bus, to the station Karlsplatz. And then it’s a short five minute walk.
Kids under three get in for free, kids above three pay €4 and adults are €7. And there’s a basket with FREE balloons!
Oh, I forgot to mention, the butterfly house is also excellent for lots of Instagram-y pictures. There were a lot of big hats, sunglasses, outstretched-palms- holding-butterfly-pictures being taken there. So. Not just Family Fun!
There’s plenty of room for storing strollers, and hanging up your coat And hang up your coat, you should, because once you get inside the giant heavy, flappy doors, it gets VERY humid and very hot fairly quickly. But the kids LOVED it!
To take everything in takes approximately twenty minutes, but we spent close to forty-five minutes there. Their favorite part, once surveyed?
“The Elsa cave!” said LL, who found a long cave, deemed it the Elsa from Frozen cave, and spent the entirety of our visit bellowing ‘Show Yourself,’ while running up and down this cave.
“Stairs.” Middle declared. There were some stairs leading up to a little pond where you could throw coins into and marvel at the wonderment that are the butterflies. Middle just liked the stairs. Going up. Going down. Repeat.
Nobody really cared too much for the butterflies, but they did enjoy the Koi pond.
All in all, it was a total success, and we treated ourselves to the famous Bitzinger sausages next to the Albertina museum. Sacherwürstel are like Frankfurters, and they come with a bread roll, aka: the perfect toddler snack. Hot dogs with ketchup and bread! What’s not to love!
Then we added a little bit more culture and I let them run around the balcony at the top of the Albertina museum and taught them the word “Opera house.” They kept saying “Opa house?” but I deem it a success anyway.
For more information on the butterfly house check out:
