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A cultural haven that effortlessly boasts about its classical past.

Known for its music, its architecture and, yes, its schnitzel, Vienna in many ways seems like a step back in time, with cobblestone streets between Romanesque, Baroque and Art Nouveau constructs and among manicured gardens.

FRIDAY

A delayed departure meant a delayed arrival, but fortunately, having taken note of the times that trains depart Vienna Airport for the city, we didn’t miss much time. Rather than take the City Airport Train, or CAT, to Wien-Mitte station for €11 one way or €18 return, opt for the regional S7 train, which runs between the same two points for €2.60 and takes only 10 more minutes. Upon reaching Wien-Mitte, we took the U-bahn to Volkstheater and walked to our hotel — the 25Hours at MuseumsQuartier, which has a whimsical circus theme and was recommended by nearly every guidebook or website we visited.

After wandering through the MuseumsQuartier, a district including roughly a dozen specialist museums and exhibits, we wandered over to the Staatsoper [State Opera House], which was built between 1861 and 1869, bombed in 1945 but renovated and reopened in 1955. Tours will take you backstage, and while tickets usually sell out well in advance, you can line up for a chance to buy cheap, general admission standing room tickets on the day of a performance.

We didn’t do that, considering we had tickets across town that night, so we left the Staatsoper and wandered toward the Hofburg, a sprawling complex that contains the former imperial apartments, a chapel, a church, the National Library and the offices of the President of Austria. It’s also the location of several museums, including the Schatzkammer [Imperial Treasury], where the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire, the Reichskrone, is on display, and the Spanish Riding School, where dressage competitions have been held for 300 years. If you can’t get a ticket to the performances, which take place on weekends, take a stroll by the stables to catch a glimpse of the famous Lipizzaner horses — or for a closer experience, consider flagging down one of the horse-drawn carriages for a ride around the complex.

An earlier dinner awaited 10 minutes away at Figlmuller Wollzeile (Wollzeile 5), which is known for its Viennese cuisine and schnitzels that are practically bigger than their plates. The original is cozy and popular — the host told a couple who hoped to walk up that the restaurant was booked through the next five days — but there’s a second location that opened down the street to attempt to meet demand.

And, to top off our night, we headed across the city to the Volksoper, an intimate opera house that puts on nearly 300 performances a year. They’re almost always in German, but they do have English subtitles, and the tickets can be much easier to arrange than those at the Staatsoper.

SATURDAY

The day started with an early morning jaunt to Wien Hauptbanhof to catch a 6:55 a.m. train to Salzburg in what amounted to a fairly effortless, nearly three-hour journey to the central part of the country. Upon arrival shortly before 10 a.m., we made the short walk to the Schloss Mirabell, a palace with beautiful manicured gardens built in the early 1600s.

What To Know
Date of visit: April 27 to April 29, 2018.
Airport location: Twelve miles southeast of the city. There are enough rail transport links to the Wien-Mitte station on the east side of the central district.
Walkability: 7/10. Like many cities, the main sights are within walking distance of each other, but Wien Hauptbanhof, the main train station, and Schonbrunn Palace are some distance away.
English: Widely spoken in popular areas.
Must-See Attraction: Schonbrunn Palace stands as a testament to the might of the Habsburg empire. Even if a tour of military history and imperial might aren’t of interest, the beautiful gardens and tricky hedge maze are worth seeing.
Traveler’s tip: Austria still allows smoking in public places, including restaurants and hotels, so make sure to research any establishment to make sure it fits your needs.

A quick jaunt over the Salzbach River led us to the Getreidegasse, the city’s pedestrianized shopping district, where the usual lot of designer stores are intermittently woven in with a few local shops. The street leads directly to the Makartplatz and the Mozarts Geburtshaus, where composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and raised. The home has been turned into a museum to celebrate his life and works; we opted for the single-entry ticket, but a combination pass is available that also includes the Mozarts Wohnhaus, a home across the Salzbach and near the Mirabell where he spent his later years.

Continuing along the street, we passed the Altes Rathaus [Old City Hall] before ending up in Mozartplatz, a large public square adorned with a statue of Mozart that was installed in 1842. Adjacent are the Residentzplatz, which is towered over by the Salzburg Cathedral, and the Kapitelplatz, which we crossed to reach the funicular that would save us the 30-minute hillside walk up to the Festung Hohensalzburg.

A 900-year-old cliff-top fortress, it’s one of the best-preserved in all of Europe and is now the home to a number of museums, nearly all of which can be accessed with a basic-admission ticket. Climb the tower and take a look down to the city of Salzburg, or marvel at the Untersberg, the mountain that looms over the region. There are also a variety of restaurants within the fortress for those who need a bit of refreshment after racking up the steps.

After a return trip on the funicular, we hustled back across the river toward the Mirabell, where a pop-up food market provided us with a lunch of sausages and open-faced sandwiches. Not every visitor will be so fortunate, but you will be spoiled for choice with an array of outdoor cafes along the main streets in the old town.

The main reason we journeyed to Salzburg was to catch “The Sound of Music” bus tour, offered through Panorama Tours, which takes visitors via air-conditioned coach to some of the filming locations in the popular 1964 movie. It drags on slightly at four hours, and the tour somewhat disappointingly does not actually take visitors to the mountainside fields associated with the movie, but you can see the home where it was filmed and the church where the wedding took place.

Upon returning to Salzburg, we returned to the Old Town for dinner at Gasthaus Zwettler’s (Kaigasse 3), a casual Austrian eatery where I, without regrets, once again indulged in the schnitzel. And, with a three-hour return trip looming, we hurried back to the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof to catch the train to Vienna.

SUNDAY

Knowing we’d have to beat the crowds on a beautiful spring day, we woke up early to make our way to the Schonbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Habsburgs. Our 8:30 a.m. arrival was validated two hours later when, after we encountered no wait to purchase tickets, we saw hundreds of people snaking through a line in the ticket hall to gain entry.

There are a variety of exhibits and, thus, a number of admission options, but we stuck with the classical ticket, which allows access to the grounds and most of the portion of the palace open to the public. After touring the interior, we grazed the gardens, indulging in a bit of whimsy by getting lost in the hedge maze. And, on Sunday mornings, live music is played at the café beyond the Gloriette, the hilltop gate that overlooks the rear of the palace.

We spent about two hours there — but again, that’s without having to wait to enter — and made our way back to the dedicated Schonbrunn stop on the U-bahn to head to the north of the city and the Sigmund Freud Museum. The well-known Berggasse 19 address was the psychoanalyst’s office and his home, and his daughter Anna made efforts to preserve them both despite Freud being forced to flee by the Nazis in 1938. The museum is raising funds for a significant renovation, but for now, it focuses much more on the preservation of Freud’s belongings than shedding any light on his works or his theories, which we found to be a missed opportunity.

Considering the weather, we chose to walk along the Donaukanal in search of lunch, ending up at Juice Factory, a local chain offering sandwiches and smoothies. We then made our way to the Prater, Vienna’s largest public park, for a ride on the Wiener Riesenrad, a Ferris wheel that was, for 65 years, the tallest in Europe.

Another trip on the U-bahn led us back to Stephensdom [St. Stephen’s Cathedral], which graces the cover of nearly every Vienna guidebook. A church has been located on the site for more than 900 years, but most of the current structure dates to the 1300s. There’s so much to see here, and visitors have a number of options: merely passing through the periphery for free, take an audio guide onto the main floor or join a full guided tour, which allows access to the Katakomben to see the remains of victims of the plague that swept the city in the 1730s and urns that contain the internal organs of the Habsburgs. There’s also a viewing platform on the South Tower for a bird’s-eye view of the city.

With time remaining before our flight, we wandered over to St. Peter’s Church and stopped outside at one of the city’s more quirky points — the underground public toilets, which were designed by coincidentally named architect Adolf Loos as a showcase for a manufacturer in the early 1900s.

Heading back through the Hofburg, we returned to the Staatsoper, where we caught the 71 tram bound for the Zentralfriedhof [Central Cemetery]. Located in the southeastern outskirts of the city, it’s the resting place for each of the country’s presidents since 1945 and also a number of famous composers and musicians, including Ludwig von Beethoven, Johann Strauss (both father and son), Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert, all of whom are interred in plot 32A.

From there, it was a quick train connection back to the hotel to collect our bags, then a quick about-face to the airport to return home.

Verdict: A remarkably clean city, Vienna preserves its old-world charm better than most, giving visitors a distinct infusion of tradition and culture. Salzburg is similarly a beautiful city, though it was ambitious of us to roll in the day trip when we could have certainly used the extra time to explore more of Vienna.

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Disclaimers: All products, services and experiences were paid for and arranged by the author and the vendors named herein had no editorial oversight of this piece. All photographs were taken by and remain the property of the author; contact for republication rights.