I'd always heard that Vienna was beautiful. Now people hear it from me. I can honestly say that it's the prettiest city I've ever visited. The architecture if what separates Vienna from other cities. It's an experience in itself, and while you will want to do a couple of attractions and tours to get a glimpse under the surface, there's no doubt that you can spend a full day just wandering around and gazing at all the buildings.
Anyway, here's my takeaway on a good way to experience the city.
Summary
- Walking tour focused on architecture
- Spanish riding school performance (not the training!)
- Musical performance
- Finding street art
- Great gluten free place
- Searching for Pho
Walking Tour (Great first day activity)
Something that I learned was that like for most trips, starting with a walking tour of the city is a good idea. It's full of gorgeous architecture which is great to look at, but the architecture tells stories and has messages within it which you'll be better able to appreciate if you have taken a tour which points some of these out. After that you'll be analysing every building to see if you can identify what ancient God, ideal or period it represents.
I tried the free walking tour of the city but I don't recommend it. The guide wasn't very informative, gave only cursory details about some buildings and we got in trouble because she brought us into a cathedral without permission which ended with everyone getting chased out angrily. Instead I'd check out these two: Oldtown Tour and Highlights Circular Walking Tour.
Naschmarkt
Going for the afternoon walking tour leaves the morning for a bit of exploration. I don't like to start my trips aggressively, so in the morning after I arrived I made sure to head down to the naschmarkt. The picture below doesn't really communicate the atmosphere and busyness. It's packed, and full of shops. Down one side of it you'll find shop after shop of teas, snacks, candy and groceries. Down the other side of it you'll find what I think is the real reason to visit; tons of restaurants with great menus. It isn't fancy, they're open air for the most part and right in the middle of the buzz.
Hofburg Tour & Sisi Museum
After a nice morning at the market with a leisurely lunch, and a walking tour in the afternoon, I felt like I had settled in. The city was a little more familiar, and I wanted to start scratching under the surface. In other words, I started looking for some history.
A must-do for getting under the surface is Hofburg. This palace used to be the residences of the Habsburg dynasty though the family still live and work in Austria today.
I recommend dedicating a day to this experience because the Sisi Museum is also there. They are usually bundled together and I recommend doing it that way. There's a good ticket for the two which comes with a line skip as well; a good idea since you don't want to waste your time here in a queue. Check it out: Vienna: Skip-the-Line Hofburg Ticket & Sisi Museum Tour.
Spanish Riding School
We spotted the famous white show horses while on our walking tour and our guide suggested that we catch a performance, so we bought tickets for the Spanish Riding School Training which happens daily. The arena where the training takes place is stunning and feels so majestic. You would think having a horse arena in the middle of the city would be very strange but somehow here, in this gorgeous city it just felt right. The ceilings tower high above the horses and people crowd along the sides to look down on the performance. You can really feel what it must have been like when the royalty were the ones to enjoy these performances instead of tourists.
However, I strongly recommend that you go for an actual show, and NOT the training. The training is cheaper but the experience leaves you wanting and is fairly boring. The horses don't do any of the impressive tricks that they save for the real performance because they don't want to tire them or risk injury, and rather instead you just watch them exercising the horses and doing some basic stepwork. The show on the other hand is a real experience and I really recommend it. No spoilers here - go watch it. You can book it online here. If you can afford it I recommend the seated tickets but if you get standing tickets that's fine as long as you arrive early because the good spots get taken up quickly.
Important: If you book the tickets via GetYourGuide you can actually jump all the way past the queue and go to the last ticket counter which is for exchanging tickets. I wish I had known that before queuing!
Musical Concert in Karlskirche
WOW. Now this was for me the highlight of our trip to Vienna. The city is known for music, and so I wanted to be sure to catch one of the many performances. However, I wasn't really sure which performance to go for since there are so many.
In the end I decided to avoid the ones which have people trying to sell tickets to them on the street because I felt that was a sure sign of being very touristy. Because I love Vivaldi, and I wanted to enjoy the performance in a really beautiful space, I ended up going for the Vivaldi Four Seasons Concert in Karlskirche. I knew I made the right choice when we walked up. The church is impressive on the outside and resplendent on the inside. An excellent venue for a classical performance. You feel like you're in a special place and it lifts the entire experience. The performance itself was very good. The lead violinist was passionate, the performers were all talented. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the audience as well; the applause was real and long at the end. I strongly recommend going for the tickets in the front section even though they are more expensive. Watching the performers was a huge part of the experience. It was worth it.
Street Art
I didn't really think of street art when I was planning my trip, but as I was driving into the city I saw endless murals and graffiti art pieces along the riverside walk. Not your usual badly done tag art but really well done work. After doing a bit of reading on it I found out that the city is actually pretty well known for the graffiti that stretches along the river walk and dots the city. While I was there I even saw friends relaxing with drinks and working on a mural.
You can definitely pop down to the river yourself and check the artwork out. I dropped a pin on the map below to show you where it is. But I recommend that you take the street art tour for a real experience. Then you can hear a bit more about the pieces and what they mean.
The Search for Pho
I love Europe, but having grown up in Asia I always get a craving for those flavours after a while. In this case, I was thinking of Pho and so I did a little research on where I could get it.
I lucked out with my choice, so I want to share it with you too because this place had fantastic Pho and garlicky water spinach. I know that sounds weird, but those are two of my favourite dishes.
The restaurant is called Saigon Restaurant (bear with me here, I know that's a bit.. uninspired) and here's the location. I came here for dinner before our musical concert at the Karlskirche which is within walking distance.
Great gluten free place
My partner has coeliac so it's always a bit of a challenge to find gluten free food. Pho is an easy one. But a nice gluten free lemony cake on a sunny day is hard to find, and so we hunted around a bit. Ultimately we stumbled upon Allergiker Cafe and it was a resounding success. Gluten free breads, cakes, meals, etc. Definitely recommend it because it also has a cute little outside area to sit at in dappled sun.