(…with small wineries and beer gardens!)
Reader, I have been to Austria and it is good. Now we know this blog is primarily about outdoor adventures…but what if you could have outdoor adventure AND a nice glass of wine or a cool classic brew in the middle of the adventure? What if you could hike out of one of the world’s famous cultural center into the hills, pass through fields and meadows, and take a break at an outdoor wine bar/winery before finishing the hike? And if the weather is horrendous, take a day to shop, soak up some culture, and taste the result of a centuries-old secret dessert recipe? You can.
But first, go to Vienna!
Days 1 and 2: Food, culture, and touring the town (wait for day 3 if you want something more adventurous)
We arrived in Vienna late in the afternoon after a flight from Boston via Heathrow. A transfer in a sleek BMW got us to the Park Hyatt. When we arrived, the transfer driver had to park carefully due to another car parked a bit awkwardly in front of him. “Italian cars,” he said in disgust. It was a Ferrari.
The Park Hyatt is a wonderfully updated older building turned luxury hotel (staying with Hyatt points made this possible.). We never did use the spa, but the service alone was worth the stay. Every single employee was friendly, polite, and helpful. Some went way out of their way to be helpful, like the young lady at the front desk: I told her we were planning to hike some of the Vienna citywalks, and later that evening she delivered a bag of treats, sunscreen, water bottles, and hand-written instruction on how to get to her favorite walk!
Food at last!
Not too long after our arrival, we headed to a restaurant I had scoped out on the Internet before we left, Die Feinkosterei Judenplatz. Without a reservation, we weren’t able to sit outside (sadly on one of the few nice days of our trip) but promptly settled down to drinks–a local Gruener Veltliner for me, and a local beer for Mr. Travels, also known as Spouse Darling. Die Feinkosterei, which has two branches, one in Judenplatz and one in Neuer Markt. Judenplatz was around the block from the Park Hyatt so around the block we went.
The restaurant serves what are basically Austrian tapas with a smattering of other European style dishes. We had shrimp, lamb, and wienerschnitzel, all of which were excellent, and several other dishes as well.
Full and happy, we walked back to the hotel for the next day’s adventure, which we hoped would be a hike.
But the weather gods had other ideas.
And so it was pouring rain when we got up the next morning. But there are other things to do in Vienna, such as starting out the morning with an alfresco breakfast at one of Vienna’s famous cafes.
We did run into one problem…a surprising number of cafes and restaurants were closed for vacation, so my first and second choices were out. We finally walked to Cafe Landtmann, a Vienna classic, and had what was basically a yogurt sundae (me) and a full breakfast (Mr. Travels).
Why are their dogs so polite?
Vienna cafes are perfect for people-watching, of course. They’re also good for dog-watching. The mystery of how they can be so calm while sitting in the middle of a large group of humans eating a wide variety of foodstuffs is unsolved, as far as I’m concerned.
Of our dogs, only Dona Rosita is capable of politeness (and then usually only if treats are likely to follow.). Mr. Toberz, sadly, is very enthusiastic about greeting everyone, to the point where he is likely to knock small children and large adults alike over, with the end result being that he is allowed to greet no one.
Not so in Austria. The only crazy Mr. Toberz-style dog we saw in Austria belonged to an American. Austrian dogs, in contrast, are exemplified by this relaxed fellow:
who mysteriously did not leap at the table, lick the edge of it, strain to sniff the feet of the person next to him, bark loudly when a waiter approached, or do any of the things Mr. Toberz would do if allowed to sit at an outdoor cafe. In fact, as my son put it, this dog was calmer than Mr. Toberz has ever been in his entire life.
But I digress…
In any case, after breakfast we set off to obtain culture. It doesn’t sound adventurous, but navigating museum crowds on a rainy day in Vienna can be a difficult task.
First up was the Kunshistorisches. I’ll spare you the details, but there were many, many paintings. There were so many. I’ll just refer you to the Rick Steves travel guide to Vienna and let you find the museum tour in there.
We took a quick peek at the Egyptian collection as well. I wanted to see the above tiny hippo as it would be unsurprising if he was repatriated sometime in the future.
Time to eat…again!
Because, really, when is it not time to eat? And one of the items on my bucket list was having Sachertorte at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna.
Here’s the story, as told by the hotel’s website. In 1832, then-Prince Metternich requested a special occasion dessert. The pastry chef was sick and a 16 year old apprentice, the eponymous Franz Sacher, created the Sachertorte, a chocolate cake made with a secret recipe involving chocolate and apricot jam. The rest is delicious history.
(or torte, as the Hotel Sacher would have it)
Off to another museum
To the dismay of Mr. Travels, my plans for the rest of the still-rainy day included…another museum! Vienna is lousy with them and this looked to be the only day we would go to them. I had hoped to visit the Belvedere, where Klimt’s famous The Kiss is on display. News flash: when rain is predicted in Vienna, EVERYONE wants to go to the Belvedere, and they have a timed reservation system, which was sold out until late in the day. So off to the Albertina we went.
The Albertina
I chose the Albertina because it’s described as having an excellent print collection, especially prints of Albrecht Durer, including the very famous The Young Hare. We had actually studied some of Durer’s prints in my college Art History class. They also had an exhibit, Monet to Picasso, that looked interesting.
But are you ready for a second news flash? Yes, they have the prints. But they rarely display them! Virtually none of the prints by well-known artists were on display. The museum is seeking to preserve them by rarely showing them to the public. In fact, the last time The Young Hare was shown to the public was in an exhibition that ran until January 6, 2020.
Now all museums rotate some of their art through the galleries. But my feeling is that if you have something that’s so well-known and well-loved that it’s on half the gear you’re selling in the gift shop, you might want to people see it more than once every five years. But then, I’m not a museum curator.
Oops, I digressed again.
Moving right along, one of the pros of this museum is that you actually do get a workout before you even enter the Albertina. Just look at this fun stairstepping routine:
And you can even read the name of the current exhibition while you’re climbing.
We did see the Monets and Picassos, plus this fascinating and weirdly creepy painting by Franz Sedlacek:
What is even going on here? I have no idea.
And then…dinner.
Yes, I know this is not sounding like adventure travel. But who knows what you’re going to wind up eating when you go to a restaurant with a name like Artner am Franziskanerplatz? Answer: Wienerschnitzel, the classical Austrian delight of fried, breadcrumb-covered, thin-pounded veal. Or roasted lamb with fried onion strings and deliciously mashed potatoes!
It was wunderbar. And we enjoyed snacking on the tiny little sprouts and the bread.
Although, honestly, the only real adventure here was the disturbing couple next to us. They kept leaving, singly at first and then together, and then coming back, talking increasingly loudly. Eventually the male half of the duo began waving his steak knife around to the point where, since we were seated quite close to them, we decided to skip dessert and hustle out the door! (Note: we didn’t complain to the management, since it seemed highly likely this would result in an ugly scene with a guy waving a knife around next to Mr. Travels’s head.)
A walk through town
We ended the evening with a walk back to the hotel, through the town. Many others were out, as the rain had abated, and we looked in shop windows and enjoyed some of the art and architecture, like these items (some seen earlier in the day):
The item on the left is a “Holy Trinity” column is a memorial to the plague victims of 1679, conceived and by Matthias Rauchmiller, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, and a gentleman with the thought-provoking name of Paul Strudel based on a concept by Lodovico Burnacini. With this many artists (and those are just the designers, not the actual sculptors) and the fact that it was finalized during the Baroque period, it’s no wonder it seems a bit as if it is actually of the “Kitchen Sink” style of sculpture, with a lot of leftover gold from some other project included.
The Rolls on the corner was pure serendipity. Who parks their Rolls on a curb in the middle of the street? That guy, apparently.
But I must leave you with a lasting image of iconic Vienna, home of statesmen, composers, artists, and geniuses:
Yes. You are not hallucinating. It’s a giant rabbit on top of a hot dog stand preparing to drink an equally large bottle of champagne. Don’t ask questions; just enjoy.
Helpful links:
die Feinkosterei Judenplatz: feinkosterei.wien/en/judenplatz/
Cafe Landtmann: landtmann.at/en/150-jahre-cafe-landtmann.html
Kunsthistorisches Museum: https://www.khm.at/en/visit/besucherinformation/hours-admission/
Albertina Museum: https://www.albertina.at/en/visit/
Cafe Sacher: Be sure to make a reservation well ahead of time, or wait in a very long line. https://www.sacher.com/en/restaurants/cafe-sacher-wien/
Artner am Frankziskanerplatz: https://restaurant.artner.co.at/franziskanerplatz
Belvedere Museum: Make reservations the day before, or two days before if it looks like rain. https://www.belvedere.at/en/visit