At the end of October, I took a wee trip over to Austria. It was a long overdue birthday present from back in 2020, so Vienna does indeed wait for me. It was a beautiful city to spend a few days in and would definitely recommend, particularly if you like history, classical music or cakes!

So on the first day, after we arrived in Vienna, we took the train into the city and grabbed some lunch before we could check in. Then we seized the afternoon and went down to the Theatermuseum at the Palais Lobkowitz, where I learned about someone who made schnitzel and strudel costumes. It wasn’t my favourite museum as it talked about a lot of artists and films that I wasn’t familiar with but it was cool to see a concert hall where Mozart and Beethoven had played and a Klimt painting. We then had our dinner in the gorgeous Palmenhaus surrounded by plants which was really lovely. The first evening’s plans were to catch a concert of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons performed in the stunning Karlskirche (as recommended by Letitia) which was so nice. It was a very grand setting to see talented musicians playing iconic music in that epic setting.

Day 2 was mostly spent over at Schönbrunn Palace. It was cool to learn more about the Hapsberg empire as well as wandering the lovely gardens, checking out some pretty incredible carriages, and learning how to make an authentic apple strudel. We went for authentic Viennese goodies for dinner at Lugeck before heading to the opera house to see the ballet Giselle. The opera house is so stunningly ornate, our seats were amazing and the ballet was as beautiful as ever.

The next day was kicked off in the pursuit of the original Sacher Torte at Café Sacher, which was nice but not necessarily worth the wait, if I’m honest. A very touristy option next was Mythos Mozart, a multimedia experience dedicated to the maestro. These sorts of things can be good (like Van Gogh Live for example) but this was another miss for me. We spent the afternoon over at Prater Park which was really cool. We went on a few wee rides, the famous big wheel and got some banging food at Schweizerhaus. It was a pretty packed day of running around, we checked out the Freud Museum which was interesting before grabbing a spritz by the Danube to rest our feet. In the evening we headed to the Raimund Theater to see Rebecca das Musical based on the classic du Maurier novel. I’ve learned a lot about this show over the years via theatre podcasts so it was great to finally see it in person, even while reading the surtitles the whole time as I don’t know any German.

Our fourth and final day began with patisserie in the absolutely stunning Café Central, there’s usually a queue outside but it was worth it in my opinion. We then visited a bunch of spots in and around the Hofburg Palace, including a museum about Esperanto language and globes, a museum about Empress Elizabeth or ‘Sisi’ who they’re obsessed with, and a trip to the treasury where they display all the crown jewels. Finally, and most up my street was a visit to the unbelievably beautiful Grand Hall of the National Library which was the room of my dreams.

And sandwiched around all that activity was a lot of tasty food! We made sure to try the local delicacies; goulash, weiner schnitzel, stelze (ham hock), Käsekrainer (cheesy hot dogs), Kaiserschmarrn (cut up pancakes), Sachertorte, and of course, apple strudel. All very tasty but all very beige foods so I was glad to get home and eat some vegetables. The one food item that surprised me, and I’m not sure wholly in a good way, was sweet noodles for dessert which was tagliatelle style pasta covered in chopped nuts, icing sugar and apricot jam. It wasn’t bad necessarily but just a combo I wasn’t used to, and not sure I needed pasta after already having a main course.

So yeah, it was a blast! We fairly packed in a lot of history, food and culture, which is the best way to travel I think.