Vienna: In the Land of Waltzes
Notes from an Atlas Traveler Living Abroad
One of our agents (Lori Harrison) has stayed in touch with a wonderful client now living and working in Vienna. This dear friend has sent in great notes that she has provided for those coming to Vienna, Austria, to visit. It's always wonderful to get a local's perspective on a destination and this is our good fortune, which we share with you. It contains the kind of insight and detail you only have from living in Vienna!
The Ultimate Strolling Place
Time is best spent in Vienna strolling, and sitting in coffeehouses. Vienna is a wonderful city to walk in - imperial and impressive, with many beautiful little streets winding their way through the center of town. The city of Vienna was once defined by a wall surrounding it. The wall no longer exists. It's now the Ring Road and everything inside of the Ring is the First District and the other districts of Vienna radiate from it.
It's easy to get lost in Vienna, the streets seem straight, but are circular, not gridded as in NY...but you'll always end up somewhere interesting, and never too far from the center of town! The streets are often curiously empty. We joke about it, and I always ask "Where is everyone?" The answer could be, “In the coffee houses.”
We live in the 7th district, which includes the Museumsquartier. It's a lovely district, the Spittelberg, distinguished by its cobblestone streets, artists and artisans, late night bars, plentiful and easy restaurants. It's something akin to the Village in NYC.
A Mile-Long Produce Market (with some great little restaurants)
Out of doors, to the Naschmarkt, a mile-long stretch of produce stands where the old Austrian vendors have stands side by side with Turkish, Russian and other immigrant vendors. In the past few years, the Naschmarkt has had a renaissance, and a slew of restaurants have opened am Naschmarkt. They open for lunch, and many now stay open until late in the evening. If the weather's fine, it's a great way to eat in Vienna.
The best is UMAR, a fantastic fish restaurant at the end nearest the first district, by the fish stands. Best Indian food in Vienna is at a tiny stand here, too. If you want inexpensive Asian food in Vienna, Lee's Kitchen/Cuisine is ok (not Mr. Li's). New addition, an Israeli-owned café called NENI's.
During the day, stroll the Naschmarkt and see (and sample) what's in season.
In early Spring, barlauch (a wild onion grass good for soups and strudels - ramps, here, so expensive in the greenmarkets, but you can pick it in Vienna at the Prater!) In Summer, it's spargel (white asparagus, the best), and it's everywhere; next, eierschwammerl season (chantarelles). These will be featured in every restaurant at their times of year, best bets.
On Saturdays, one of the best flea markets in Europe (so they say), at the far end of the Naschmarkt. Go early! to avoid the thickest crowds.
Things to Do
If your visit is short, the things to see, art-wise, would be the Klimts and Schieles. Formerly residing in the Belvedere, which is a beautiful castle museum in the 3rd district ( still worth visiting if you have time!), many of the paintings have moved to the Leopold Museum in the Museumsquartier.
The Leopold would be my first museum stop.
The Belvedere has renovated its Untere Belvedere, lower museum, and is beautiful. Check out the exhibition there, they change regularly, and are now world class.
Another must see would be Klimt's famous Beethoven Frieze, at the Secession Museum, near the Naschmarkt. Go early in the morning to have it to yourself.
The MAK, Museum of Angewande Kunst (applied arts/design), on the Ring, is fantastic. The building alone is worth the visit, though the same could be said of many in Vienna. Our favorite cafe, the Pruckerl , is across the street.
If you're interested in 15 -17th century European work, antiquities, etc., head to the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Vienna's Met). The lobby of the building is gorgeous.
Freud's couch is in London, not at the Freud Museum in Vienna! This is a good place for a rainy day in town, where you have many, many letters to read and smaller artifacts to admire, but I wouldn't race over unless you have a determined interest in Freud.
The most interesting contemporary art gallery, which is found in the first district, is the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. It is committed to supporting the production of contemporary art and is actively engaged in commissioning and disseminating unconventional projects that defy traditional disciplinary categorizations. It's in a beautiful old mansion…great stuff.
Not to be missed is the Musikverein, the most beautiful concert house, home to the Wiener Philharmonic, and to the annual New Year's concert (broadcast on television). It's almost worth seeing anything there, just to experience the hall, especially the Grosser Saal, where music aficionados come with their scores and follow along. Really fun to sit in a box over the stage and look down on the orchestra and back over the crowd.
The Opera House, on the Ring, is worth looking at from the outside. The Opera House was bombed during the war and the renovation less interesting than the original must have been. The tour is disappointing. If you're an opera buff, well, it is the Vienna Staatsoper! Forget the tour, see an opera.
In the First District, you'll find the obvious places: the Hofburg Palace, the riding stables (you can go see the Lippazaners rehearse if you want to, the rehearsals are more interesting than the shows).
A fantastic night view from the Heldenplatz, the square in the center of the Palace (where Hitler addressed the adoring crowds of Vienna ). You're granted a beautifully lit panorama of Vienna's official buildings: the Rathouse (City Hall), the Parliament, the University, and behind you, the Palace...best lighting in any city, I think.
Bounding the palace are two gardens good for strolling through: the Burggarten, the palace's garden, with its large café and a butterfly house (and lilac grove in May). On the far side of the Burgarten is the Albertina Musuem, newly renovated.
Used to house the great drawing collections, and generally has interesting international traveling exhibitions.
The Volksgarten, the people's garden, is my favorite place in Vienna to sit and read. There's a beautiful rose garden here in spring/summer. It's a perfect spot to observe those old Austrian women with their little dogs in their purses (they love dogs, but not kids...). A perfect place to sit and read and rest and think, and just a stone's throw from the Museumsquartier.
At the other end of the Volksgarten, the impressive Burgtheater, state theater. The Wiener Festwochen is Vienna's international performing arts festival, May/June.
Back in the First District, other side, wander around the Judenplatz, the Jewish Square. Visit the Staadttempel, the City Synagogue, which survived the war, first, for an overview. You can only visit the Stadttempel on a tour. Make sure to bring your passport, and check with your concierge about tour times.
Just around the corner, a very good restaurant, Salzamt, is open all night.
For a quick, inexpensive snack, the best felafel in Vienna, is at the Israeli MASCHU. Be sure to ask for the mango sauce. This may be the only felafel with sauerkraut you'll ever have!
The Four Danubes
There are actually four "Danubes" in Vienna: the Donau (Danube) canal; the Donau; the Neue Danau (the New Danube); and the Alte Donau (the Old Danube). In the middle , the Donau Insel, a long pedestrian island constructed for biking, hiking and rollerblading. This is a great city for biking.
Wonderful Park!
The Prater is Vienna's big park. There you can visit the Riesenrad, the ferris wheel in THE THIRD MAN. If you're a THIRD MAN nut, you can take a tour of the sewer system in Vienna where the film was shot. If you haven't seen it, rent it before you go! Joseph Roth's RADETZKY MARCH and many books, films, etc. refer to The Prater. It's in the second district, formerly the Jewish district, now home to diverse immigrant populations, as well as Orthodox Jews.
In The Prater, at the end of the 4 km. Praterallee, is the LUSTHAUS, a lovely gazebo , Empress Sissy's hunting lodge, now a charming café. Difficult to get to by public transportation, but something special. You can cab (cabs are very expensive in Vienna!) or bike to it. Soon a subway (u bahn) will stop nearby.
COFFEHOUSES, RESTAURANTS, etc.
Again, you could spend many happy days in Vienna just wandering from one coffeehouse to the next. You can sit forever (no one will ask you to leave or to keep ordering) with a melange (something like a cappucino), pretending to read the papers, listening in on conversations...
Everyone has their own regular coffeehouses. In the old days, regular guests had their mail delivered to their coffeehouses! You'll read about the coffeehouses most visited by tourists, but here are our choices:
My favorite is the CAFÉ PRUCKEL. On the Ring, just across from the MAK, near the lovely Stadtpark, 50's décor, a meeting place for artists and journalists.
Nearby, the CAFÉ ENGLANDER which is more of a restaurant, also populated by a theatrical crowd...
One of our favorite coffeehouses, especially for the inside months, is the CAFE BRAUNERHOF in the First District - old, smoky, a classic, just around the corner from the Jewish Museum. Live music (an old Polish trio) on Sundays.
You'll have to plan on dry cleaning away smoke from any visit to any coffeehouse in Vienna, there it is.
In the 6th district, a kind of perfect café is the CAFÉ SPERL, on the Gumpendorferstrasse, very close to the Naschmarkt (and the Wiener Festwochen office.). Though it's been renovated, it's the café you see in movies whenever someone needs a Viennese coffeehouse for a film.
In the first district, DEMEL is one (of many) famous cafés, on the Kohlmarkt, Vienna's most exclusive shopping street (Chanel, Gucci, Meinl am Graben - the Dean and Deluca of Vienna-...). I think the coffee at Demel is mediocre and the pastries are fine, but they have Beautiful gifts and the displays are fantastic. Café Central is also fun, if you're interested in a famous Vienna coffehouse.
If you're a pastry lover, you'll be in heaven in Vienna.
Honestly, the pastries and coffee are just great - and extremely economical at a chain of cafes (very “Howard Johnsonish,” pink and white), CAFÉ AIDA. The Café Aida across from the Opera House is the gay Aida; the one on the Stephansplatz is a classic.
Fun to try the CAFÉ SACHER in the Sacher Hotel.The Sacher torte is dry, if you ask me, but the little cubes with the coins on top are fantastic! While I don't eat frankfurters, my friends tell me that the Sacher is a great place for a pair of frankfurters with a dry semmel (roll).
You can buy frankfurters at the wurstelstands, as do all the Viennese. I think there's a good one next to the Staatpark.
On the Dorotheegasse, near the Jewish Museum, is a famous, tiny snack place called TREZNEWSKI's where the only thing served is/are brot with aufstrich, little breads with different spreads, herring and pickles, egg salad and peppersalad, etc. You can order several and stand at little tables and eat them with a pfiff (a whistle) of beer, a tiny glass (these make good presents, we drink our morning oj from pfiffs!) Fun.
In the Museumsquartier, eat at Halle (just upstairs from the theater) .
In the 7th, about 10 blocks behind the Museumsquartier, everyone's favorite healthy great lunch at Naturkost St. Jozefs, a healthfood store on the Zollergasse/Mondsheingasse. Terrific fun lunch, amazing salad bar.
We eat lunch there regularly. Also just behind the Museumsquartier, try the Café Lux, on the Schrankgasse. Great coffee, and reliable food. Where Peter Sellers and the Viennale (film festival) crowd hang out. Good for post- shows in the Museumsquartier.
New on the Neubaugasse/Lindengasse, a new branch of Maschu, the felafel place is also good.
In the 4th and 5th districts, near the Naschmarkt, the ORF, the Kunsthalle...recommended by a friend: in the hotel TRIEST (4th district, on the wiedner hauptstrasse 12) - they have a great restaurant, called COLLIO (Italian style food luxury.)
Cafe DRECHSLER is in the 6th district, linke wienzeile 22 / corner girardigasse - close to the theater an der wien (typical austrian kitchen in a modern interpretation - it's totally newly renovated and the owner is the hotel triest.)
Nothing but Wine and Vineyards
In the hills surrounding Vienna, you'll find nothing but wine and vineyards. A tradition is the heurigen. Long ago, wine farmers would open their homes and you could sit in their gardens and drink the new wine, bring your own picnic. Now it's an industry, heurigen evenings; most serve buffets of hot and cold foods ,and you can still sit outside and drink the new (and old) wines. Grinzing is a district loaded with heurigens, and the tour busses drag tourists up there. But there are also many still more authentic, where you can actually sit in the middle of the vineyards and sip the wine and eat bread with schmalz (uch - here I think it's pig fat)...or liptauer, which is a kind of peppery cheese spread. It's a beautiful thing to do, take a long walk in the hills and wind up at a heuriger overlooking Vienna.
I would suggest SIRBU, on the Kahlenbergerstrasse (public transportation and a nice hike, or cab -able); take the u-bahn to Heiligenstadt, take the 38A bus up to the Kahlenberg, hike down, have a glass of gruner veltliner, ask them to call you a cab home. Check with your concierge about opening times.
There's also WEINGUT AM REISENBERG on the Obere Reisenbergweg, a newer heurigen with a lovely yard and fantastic view of Vienna over the Danube.
Some Tips:
Try the gruner veltliner, an Austrian classic white wine, spritzy, green.
Try kurbiskernol, pumpkin seed oil, served sometimes on salads or potatoes, from the Steiermark region of Austria.
Also from Steiermark, the Schilcher, a pink (not rose) wine, a special taste, as an aperitif..
Most, if not all, restaurants in Vienna offer a mittagsmenu, an inexpensive special or two at lunch... a very good cheap way to eat, and a good way, too, to try out the "fancy" restaurants at a much more reasonable price!
Our favorite "special" restaurant in Vienna, and that of the Festwochen staff, is SCHNATTL, Langegasse 40, in the 8th district. (for "new Viennese kitchen").
We prefer SCHNATTL to the STEIRERECK, which is Vienna's top restaurant, recently relocated to the Stadtpark.
STOMACH is another great restaurant (with an unfortunate name) in the 9th district.
In our neighborhood, the 7th district, behind the Museumsquartier. our local is SPATZENEST, a little Viennese beisl in the shadow of a lovely church on the Burggase/St. Ulrichtsplatz. It's a perfect, typical Viennese restaurant. If you're after a Wiener Schnitzel, might as well enjoy it here (or at any of the restaurants listed below in the First District). Here, some like the leberpfandel (liver served up in a frying pan, if you eat liver...I always opt out for the Bauernsalat, the farmers salad, beans, roasted potatoes, fried onions, soft lettuce in a kurbiskernoil dressing.) Perfect for lunch, and if you're working in the Museumsquartier, close enough to get there and back on your lunch break.
The bread in Vienna is fantastic! You can buy a loaf and it will last for a week.
In the First District, for fine traditional Austrian food/hip crowds:
IMMERVOLL - very highly recommended!
OSWALD AND KALB
NEU WIEN
For the best tafelspitz (brisket-ish) in Vienna, PLACHUTTA across from the Café Pruckel in the First District.
At the Museumsquartier, we recommend HALLE upstairs from the Halle E (the owner also owns MOTTO in the 4th district, one of Vienna's liveliest and gay restaurants).
The "top" rated restaurants in Vienna (Korso, the restaurants in hotels, Do and Co, etc.) are overrated, nothing you can't top in NY.. Very expensive:
Friends love TEMPEL, in the Second District.
Perhaps a “Bath?”
Something else - Vienna was a city of baths, one of Europe's (eastern Europe's) greatest pleasure. If you have a day or a half a day off, I so recommend the AMALIENBAD, especially (for women), when the sauna is just for women (check with your concierge). Several saunas, cold pool, Olympic swimming pool, bathing room, beautiful body temperature floating pool, 1/2 hour massages available, etc. Really fun and a pleasure. Particular to Austria, the aufguss: every ½ hour, an attendant announces "aufguss" in the saunas, and then you're in or you're out - if in, you sit in the sauna, someone drops an aesthetic oil onto the stones, and whips the heat around with their towel. Most often, it's an overweight sauna regular with large breasts, lots of jewelry on (nothing else), and is applauded at the end of the aufguss, and then everyone heads to a cold shower or the cold pool and then to relax in the lounge chairs around the floating pool (or into the café for a beer and a cigarette! ) A treat.
AIRPORT:
The Vienna International Airport is about the size of the airport in Portland, Maine.
Vienna cabs are very expensive.
From the airport, it's simple to train to town, and to cab to your hotel from there; or take a bus to the city, and cab from there.
Or you can order a taxi at http://www.ck-airportservice.at/bestellungengl.htm
(1/2 the price of a city cab from the airport to town).
By the way…fun fact… there's a UN in Vienna! There are three in the world: one in NY, one in Switzerland, and one in Vienna.
Have fun, walk, and have coffee (coffeinfrei, decaf, offered too!)
For more information on travel to Vienna, contact any of Atlas Travel International's vacation agents!
800-878-8626
