Vienna off-season
Written: Nov 25 '02 (Updated Nov 27 '02)
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Pros: historical sites, culture, public transport, friendly laid-back city
Cons: only in the eye of the beholder
The Bottom Line: Vienna is great for people who love old buildings and statues, art and music, and the chance to wander with ease around a magnificent city.
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| fredddy's Full Review: Vienna |
We stayed in Vienna for two weeks in November 2002. One of us spent a university year in Vienna many moons ago. We are recently retired and travel frequently, trying to time our trips to the off-season. While Vienna started off as an exercise partly in nostalgia, it exceeded our expectations to the extent that we will probably return there next year.
We rented a tiny apartment from a Dr. Nathaniel just outside the Ring for about $41 a day. It was newly refurbished, impeccably clean, and furnished with everything we could imagine wanting. Just down the street is an Internet cafe and public transportation is within a block either way. Such places can be found on the Net by typing in the city plus "vacation apartments." We had a choice of several.
Historical locations that we particularly enjoyed in Vienna include St. Stephens Cathedral (Stephansdom), Hofburg and Schonbrunn palaces, the winter and summer residences of the Hapsburgs, and the Kunsthistorische art museum. [we are not using the Umlaut, those two dots over vowels in some words, but we refrain from adding the replacement "e" - e.g. Schoenbrunn - to minimize confusion for non-German speakers.]
Being retired music teachers, we also made pilgrimages to residences lived and/or died in by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, but one of those (at most) would suffice for most tourists. There is also a newly opened music museum (Haus der Musik) that is fabulous if your tastes are so inclined - everything from rooms dedicated to the above-named composers and a few others to interactive exhibits with lots of hardware. Youngsters would enjoy the chance to bang on some of the exhibits and listen to the sounds that emerge.
The food is, well, somewhat Germanic, and the Hungarian influence was less than we had recalled. As in Germany, street vendors sell a deliciously spicy "Doner Kebap," a Turkish wrap filled with spicy meat or vegetables. One of the best places to buy one is the Nasch Markt where there are two blocks of food stalls great for "noshing."
The public transportation system is fabulous (try to avoid rush hours) with several major U-Bahn routes and convenient connections to street cars ("Strassenbahns") and buses (routes marked with an "A"). The best deals are to buy a ticket good for eight trips which two or more can share for about $12. For about the same price, one person can buy (on the weekend or the first day or so of the week in question) a seven-day ticket that has got to be one of the best travel bargains anywhere.
Since we had a lot of time, we explored the U-Bahn out to its limits in a couple of directions. For example, one Sunday we went out to Siebenhirten (the end of a line) and enjoyed a long walk in a little neighborhood and an adjacent rural area with a pathway set out for walkers and joggers.
We went out to Grinzing several evenings (streetcar #38) and visited heurigens, the wine taverns that sell their own wine. Most of them have musicians playing schmaltzy old favorites. If they drop by your table and you make a request, it's good form to tip them a few bucks -otherwise, sit back and enjoy the music. You can buy a "viertel" (quarter liter) of green wine for three bucks or so and nurse it as long as you want.
People who complain about Viennese "service" perhaps don't quite understand a cultural difference from North America. Whether you are in a coffee house, heurigen, or restaurant, the seat is yours for as long as you want it. You will seldom hear "care for another one" unless you catch the waiter's eye. We find it relaxing while others might find it "distant."
Perhaps our favorite restaurant was the extremely cozy and atmospheric Bretzl Gwolb (the Pretzel Vault)near the center of the city. It is mentioned in at least a couple of guidebooks but does not seem to be "spoiled." They do have an English menu (with some fairly lame translations - e.g. the popular near-wine "Most" available only in the Fall was described with the words "biological" and "turbid") and we enjoyed it enough to return a second time. Their "Krautsuppe" (cabbage soup) was wonderful, as was the Milchrahm strudel! We went to Demel's one day and enjoyed the most expensive cup of hot chocolate we ever had. Next trip we'll have a tort at the eponymous Sacher Hotel, but we could only budget one such splurge per visit!
The big Christmas Market (Kristkindl Markt) outside the City Hall (Rathaus)opened while we were there (the weekend in mid-November). It's a great place to wander past hundreds of stalls and buy some surprisingly inexpensive Christmas presents while drinking a mug of Gluhwein and noshing on Viennese snack foods (food is omni-present in this city - from Wurst stands to vendors selling cones filled with potatoes and chestnuts on most street corners). We bought a number of striking metal candholders for about $5 each.
We attended one opera (Don Giovanni) at the Volksoper. Good seats were about $30 each, but those with endurance can line up for standing room (Stehplatz) here and at some of the other major venues. We avoided the State Opera, in part because they were running their annual festival of modern music, and we don't enjoy many operas written anytime after 1890 or so. Vienna has a wonderful website that allows you to check all major happenings, or narrow it down to different music events, art, etc. and we strongly recommend it:http://www.info.wien.at/welcome.html You can even purchase tickets in advance.
We found the Viennese to be courteous and friendly. More than once, we saw teenagers assisting the elderly as they tried to move on or off a U-Bahn. The one of us who does not speak German found people to be just as pleasant. As with almost anywhere, being able to say hello, please, thank-you, do you speak English, I'm sorry I don't speak German, carries you a long way. Talking a little more quietly than some of us are used to is also helpful.
We would describe Vienna as a laid-back city, perhaps because history has now passed it by. It feels safer to wander in than any major city we have visited in North America or Europe and is it ever clean! We also found it a little cheaper than most other places.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
fredddy
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Location: "in transit"
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
early retirement from public education allows us to travel extensively
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