Weekend Anniversary Holiday in Vienna

For our first wedding anniversary we wanted to take a city break without taking time off work. We decided to do a quick trip to Vienna from London. Vienna is a beautiful city with so much to see just by strolling around on foot. We managed to fit in many great sites and still have a very relaxing time. We went in late October and were rewarded with cool, sunny weather.

Travel Details for Vienna

Travel Guide: We used the Rough Guide to Vienna to plan the majority of our weekend.

Flight: We flew nonstop on Austrian Airlines, splurging on business class because it was our anniversary (and Troy needed a few extra tier points to make Senator status on Lufthansa). The lounges on either side were adequate but nothing special. The seats in the A319 are basically economy seats with the middle seat kept free. The food, though, was surprisingly exceptional on both flights.

Hotel: We booked a "Special" room at the Ring Hotel on Kärntner Ring. The room was large, elegantly furnished with an extremely comfortable bed. The hotel has an over-the-top, multi-course breakfast that you shouldn’t miss. It also has a fun bar with a cocktail menu that goes on for pages.

Tip: One word of warning about Austria: The indoor smoking ban that has proliferated through Europe hasn’t caught on in Austria. You’ll encounter many pubs and bars still filled with smoke. Sad.

Site Seeing in Vienna

Naschmarkt: This is an energetic food market filled with delicious treats ranging from sweets and pastries, stuff dates and olives, fresh sauerkraut, and little wine and cheese bars featuring the seasonal Sturm. It’s a feast for the eyes if not the belly. Be careful not to make a wrong turn into the nearby flea market where people are selling more worthless crap than I’ve seen in one place.

Ring Boulevard: Opera House, Rathaus (City Hall) and Parliament: The old city is encircled in a grand Ring Boulevard on which the best of Viennese architecture is on display. Buy a day travel card and use the tram along the ring as a way to hop on and off and see the sites. No need to bother with the tourist tram which is more expensive. The public ones work just fine.

Kärntner Straße and St. Stephen’s Cathedral: Kärntner Straße seems to be the big cosmopolitan shopping street in Vienna. Apart from being under a bit of renovation when we were there it was very clean and full of great window shopping. Stroll down to St. Stephen’s Cathedral and make sure to go inside.

Hundertwasserhaus: This apartment building, designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, seems to be an architectural rebellion of color and form. There are no straight lines or flat surfaces. These are private residences but fortunately you can explore the shop and cafe next door that continue on the same theme.

Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery): This cemetery is a 30 minute journey from the Old City by public transport. We were driven by morbid curiosity to see this site which is as big as the Old City itself. It contains the graves of several famous classical musicians including Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, and Strauss. There’s also a memorial to Mozart but he isn’t actually buried here.

Eating in Vienna

The restaurant in the Ring Hotel, "At Eight", serves an amazing breakfast with a street-level view over the Ring Boulevard. We had "The Ring Breakfast" which was a delicious, multi-course affair of pastries, cold cuts, eggs and waffles.

Cafe Central (Herrengasse 14): You have to try at least one Kaffeehaus while in Vienna. Cafe Central is huge with impressive interior and a lovely selection of coffee, light breakfast and cakes.

Do & Co (Stephansplatz 12): Do & Co is a glam restaurant up several floors with a view over St. Stephen’s. The menu is a mix of Asian and Viennese.

Brezlg'wölb (Lederhof 9): Very cozy restaurant serving very yummy traditional Viennese food.

Next Time

There were a few things we missed in Vienna that I would make a point to see next time: The Belvedere, an Opera in the Staatsoper, and seeing The Third Man. That said, I’m probably more eager to see the Austrian country side where I can re-enact the scenes of The Sound of Music. "The hills are alive..."