Three Days in Vienna

Location: Vienna, Austria

Visit: December 2018

When people decide to visit Europe, especially if it’s one of their first times, Vienna is rarely on the radar. It’s a little off the beaten path from hubs like London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt and doesn’t have the warm weather of the Mediterranean hot-spots like Greece, Italy, Spain and even Croatia. But what it does have, it has in spades: music, dance & architecture.

The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt.

– Karl Krause (Austrian writer)

Vienna also has some of the best winter markets in Europe, so when the opportunity came up to visit Vienna as part of a longer European holiday over the Christmas/New Years, we jumped on it. Since neither of us had been to Vienna before, we took our own advice to heart and looked at the list of top places to visit while we were there.

• City center (worth it)
• Schonbrunn Palace (outside only)
• Imperial Palace (Hofburg) (worth it)
• Belvedere Museum (skip it)
• St. Stephen’s Cathedral (worth it)
• Vienna Opera House (worth it)
• City Hall (worth it)
• Christmas Market (worth it)
• Spanish Riding School (worth it)

Our trip to Vienna started in London, after a red-eye from San Francisco. We had a little bit of a concern about making a short connection, especially as we were changing carriers (Virgin Atlantic to London and British Airways to Vienna), so we opted for a slightly longer layover and, as a result, got into Vienna a little late. Our hotel (Hilton Vienna Plaza) is located right along the edge of the City Center and has super easy access to the tram (which basically circles the City Center) and is close enough to all of the major sites to walk to them. After checking in, we walked down to City Hall (Rathaus). The building is beautiful, especially at night, with gothic towers reaching over 300 feat. It is the back drop for the most famous “Christkindlmarkt” (Christmas Market) in Vienna, although it is, by its nature, very touristy. The food scene in Vienna is a bit behind that of the other major cities in Europe and we struggled a bit finding places that served great food and/or were open late.

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Day two we hit the ground running. Our neighborhood had a great little spot called Le March Cafe, where we were able to get a hearty breakfast to start our day (avocado toast, eggs benedict, lattes, etc.). From there we just started walking. Vienna City Center is extremely walkable and many of the sights are near each other. The first place on our to do list was a visit to St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The draw here is less religious and more about the views from the tower. The walk up the tight, spiral staircase, is no small feat, but the resulting views are worth it. You can see almost every major building and historical monument from the various windows on the observation level. After a somewhat harrowing walk down those same stairs, we headed over to another nearby Christkindlemarkt to wander around and see what was for sale. Unsurprisingly, it’s a lot of Christmas stuff: ornaments, crafts, hand-made goods, etc. The highlight is definitely the mulled wines (or other spirits) that you can buy and wander around with. Nothing better to warm the bones on a cold Vienna morning than some hot wine! We grabbed a bite at Cafe Klimt (along with another glass of wine) and then made our way to the Imperial Palace complex. There are a lot of things to see in this area, including the royal apartments, the treasury, the chapel (where the famous Vienna Boys Choir perform) and the Spanish Riding School. We got tickets for the Riding School rehearsal for the following day and continued our walking adventure. Our path took us back to City Hall and then looped us right back to our hotel so that we could rest up for dinner. After a quick nap and shower, we hit the town again, grabbing dinner at another local spot Wein & Co.

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Day three was both our favorite and most disappointing. One of the things that we were really excited to see, was the rehearsal for the Spanish Riding School. The Riding School was founded in 1572 and is home to the best trained horses in the world, the Lipizzan stallions, which are the preferred horse for competition-level dressage. From what we’d seen and heard, the performance (or even the rehearsal) is a must see. We had gotten tickets to the rehearsal the day before, but when we showed up, we were told the rehearsal had been cancelled and that the performance was sold out. With our morning now freed up, we took the opportunity to wander around the city and see a few things that we might not have otherwise done, such as checking out Mozart’s house. The real highlight came in the evening, when we got the see Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker performed at the famously impressive Vienna Opera House. The performance was fantastic. Whether it was the setting or the skill of the dancers and musicians, it was by far our favorite viewing of this global, holiday tradition. The setting is just as you’d expect, with the audience peering down from red velvet-lined box seats, perfect acoustics and not a bad line of site in the house. We opted for better-than-average seats by working with the hotel concierge and it did not disappoint. Additionally, the Opera Cafe (located in the same building) will allow you to order a drink that will be ready for you at intermission, so we had a nice glass of champagne to top off the evening. A little disappointed in the local food scene, we opted for Italian for dinner, at a nice spot called Procacci Wein. Nice meal with a great wine pairing to send us off to sleep.

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We will end with the sites that only need a cursory visit. Schonbrunn Palace is a beautiful Baroque palace that was once to primary summer residence of the Habsburg rulers. It’s got a little bit of a Versailles vibe, with large gardens and lots of details. Only about 15 minutes from city center, it’s worth the visit to walk around the grounds, but the interior is just okay. Additionally the Belvedere Museum is another opulent palace with beautiful grounds. That being said, our taste in art runs much more toward classic Italian sculptures, Dutch masters and French impressionists. Klimt is nice, but overall, the art is underwhelming and on a short trip, we wouldn’t sacrifice the 1/2 day to do more than walk around the exterior of either of these palaces.

Overall, Vienna was fantastic! So glad we got an opportunity to explore this cultural and historic city. Definitely worth coming back to some day, but for now, we’ve had a great time. On to the next adventure!