To get from Prague to Vienna, the capital of Austria, I took a 4h long train with beautiful landscapes along the way. The apartment I stayed at, in Vienna, had its windows facing a Gothic church, with its charming tall windows and stained glasses. I loved the apartment and the view so it was a good start to keep me interested in what Vienna would have to offer.
Vienna is the epicenter of culture. It has everything from museums, to castles, to opera houses. I enjoy a museum visit once in a while, but I don´t fancy visiting each of them, as I didn´t do in Vienna. Still the architecture of the buildings is amazing and if you don´t want to go in, you can just admire from on the outside.
There are so many places to go in Vienna and I only had 3 days to take it all in. I had to decide what to do and what to leave, because I really wanted to enjoy my time there and not be running around trying to fit every single thing into my schedule.
So here is the selection of the things I decided to see and do in Vienna. Hopefully it will help you decide if you want to do the same or pick the ones you like and make your own itinerary.
There are plenty of churches in Vienna to choose from. But one you should really visit is the St. Stephan´s Cathedral. It´s one of the touristic places, but the huge Gothic building is worth plunging into the group of people that want to get in, to have a look at its interior.
More hidden and not so visited is the Jesuitenkirche, a church from the Baroque age, with awing paintings on the ceiling and gold everywhere.
The Maria am Gestande church, the one bedside the apartment, is little but very beautifully decorated, with its colorful stained glasses.
The St. Charles´ Church is in the Karlsplatz and since this is very frecuented you will surely come across the Church. It´s built in a Baroque style and very beautiful.
You don´t have to go to all of them, but I would recommend you not to skip the the St. Stephan´s Catedral and the Jesuitenkirche, they will be worth your time, I promise!
At the Kohlenplatz you will find every fancy shop you could want, but it´s not them you should be looking for. The Demel chocolate and sweets store dates from the time when the Emperors reigned over Austria. You can also walk to the back of the store and watch through a glass panel as the bakers make their creations.
The Rathaus is a beautiful building, like so many others in Vienna, but really only worth seeing from the outside. The interesting things don´t happen on the inside but on the outside. Depending on the season there will be something different going on in the square before the Rathaus. As I was there in summer, the Filmfestival was taking place. Throughout 6 weeks they have all sorts of performances going on, from concerts to open air movies! I hadn´t enough time to visit any of those, but I´m sure it would be a great thing to do. There are also foodstalls where you can taste all types of food. I was also told they place an ice-skating rink when it´s winter, that should also be lots of fun!
I entered the Welt Museum for one reason only. Here´s an interesting fact: if you are Mexican and have an ID with you that proves so, you are allowed to enter the museum for free to see the Penacho the Moctezuma, a headdress from the ancient Mexico, used by rulers as a symbol of power. It´s adorned with huge quetzalfeathers (a Quetzal is a bird typical from Mexico and in danger of extinction) and gold pieces. Even if you aren´t Mexican is worth taking a look at, since from all the headdresses that where sent by the Spanish from Mexico to Europe, it´s the only one left.
This Welt Museum is just beside two other great buildings, also museums, facing each other with the fountain of Marie Therese between them. They close, so walk a few steps further and take a look at them.
Not to forget is the Belvedere Museum, for it houses the famous painting The Kiss, from Gustav Klimt. It´s wonderful to look at, with its added silver and gold leaves and the love and passion it transmits. Although most of the visitors crowd in front of the painting (no need to panick, there´s still enough room for you to apreciate it), there are plenty other masterpieces to marvel at at this museum.
My absolute favorite museum was the Castle of Schönbrunn. It went from being a hunting quarter in the times of Maximilian II (built in 1559 and destroyed) to a summer residence for Marie Theresa (in her time the palace got it´s Rokoko style, one of the fiew buildings decorated in this style in Vienna) and finally becoming the permanent residence for the Emperor Franz Joseph, since he was born, to the day he died beneath those same walls. His wife, Sisi, you´ve probably heard of her, is quiet a legend around Austria and most of Europe. If you haven´t heard her story, I won´t tell it, so you´ll have to go to Schönbrunn to hear it yourself: the intricate relationship between Franz and Sisi, what´s their connection to Maximilian from Habsburg, emperor of Mexico, and how life was at the castle. It wasn´t only the stories that captured my heart, but also the gardens. They are huge: there are fountains, flowerbeds, runningtracks, a maze, there´s even a public swimmingpool I didn´t know about until later! It´s a place full of secrets you will definitely enjoy exploring.
One of the most unique places I´ve ever been to is in Vienna. It´s called Hundertwasser. It´s a neighborhood in with a unique architecture. Hundertwasser is very psychedelic with its many patterns, colorful tiles and irregular surfaces. You can´t enter the buildings where people actually live but the Museum of Hundertwasser, in black and white, presents a collection of the paintings, buildings and building ideas of Friedrich Hundertwasser. If you enter, you will notice that not only the paintings are special, but also the building itself!
If you love food and going out, the Bäckerstrasse is for you. There you have Figlmüller, the place the famous Wienerschnitzel was born. There´s also the Weinorgel, a bar where you get a bowl of peanuts and you must throw all the shells on the floor. If you put them on the table, a waitress will come and throw them on the floor for you!
Café´s are known in Vienna for being a place where people go to drink a cup of coffee, read the newspaper and smoke a cigarette. If this is your kind of thing, then head to the Café Alt Wien, also in Bäckerstrasse. With its relaxed atmosphere and walls full of posters, it´s the perfect place to go and take a break in the afternoon!
Not very known is the Gusto Italiano, a very tiny Café in the Opernring, where they serve the best focaccia and coffee, according to locals.
To end the trip, I headed to the 18th floor of the SO/ Vienna hotel building, called The Loft, on the Praterstrasse 1. It isn´t cheap, but if you go for a drink at the bar it will be around 3-15 Euros, depending if you drink something alcoholic or only an iced-tea or sparkling water with lemon juice. Just one drink and the view will be worth it. You can see the whole city from up there and at sunset it is twice as beautiful! It´s the best way to end the trip and get to see the whole city one last time.
Extra:
There´s one place I would really like to recomend you to go eat. It´s the restaurant Tian, in the Spittelberggasse. It´s a vegetarian restaurant, but even if you aren´t vegetarian, you should go only to get a taste from their amazing risotto, I will leave you an image here just to tempt you!!!
And finally while in Vienna you can´t miss eating a Sachertorte, a chocolate cake and Austria´s speciality. But don´t go to the Café Sacher to taste it, although it has the name and is very beautiful I wasn´t impressed at all with their Sachertorte. I hadn´t time to find myself another place but you still can. Don´t waste your time, money and hopes going here, it isn´t special.
