Whirling around the Viennese
If you’ve read my blogs for any length of time, or know me even vaguely well, then you know breakfast is essential to me. Well,good coffee and biscuits, preferably Jammie Dodgers first. But especially when travelling. And having spent a few days in Austria, I grew to love Austrian breakfasts. I took the journey a few hours bus ride from beautiful Budapest in Hungary, to Vienna. As I’d booked a stupidly early trip I was there in plenty of time to ensure that I had ample opportunity to sample what the city had to offer before lunchtime.
And girls and boys was I in for a treat! Mainland Europe is pretty good for looking after its hungry folk at hotels and I arrived to a sea of Meats, cheeses, honeycomb, yes honeycomb (I went crazy over this), jams, and everything you could want for your a.m. meal.
I also worked my way through these. Sacher-tort. This Austrian chocolate cake is one of the most decadent desserts and is shipped all over the world. And if you’re in Austria then you can’t avoid Apple strudel. It’s sweet, cinnamon and apple filled pastries are the finest anywhere. You can’t go wrong. Oh, and on the subject of coffee. If you appreciate good coffee then you must go to the aptly named Cafe Central in the heart of the city. Their selection is amazing and I could have stayed there all day. I’d have been awake all night however.
I headed to Schönbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Hapsburgs, the Austrian Royal family to you and me. I highly recommend coming here! It’s well laid out and interactive, with a free audio guide with your ticket. The palace and museum focus on the royals who lived here, particularly, Franz Joseph who at 18 became ruler and survived the suicide of his son, and the murder of his wife Sisi.
A short walk away are the beautiful palace gardens, very well kept, hardly a blade of grass out of position. Ornate waterfalls are a feature and there are plenty of places to rest weary legs. There’s also a Zoo to check out as well, but I prefer my animals to be out in the wild, so I gave that a miss.
One of the best things about Vienna is how close in proximity everything is. You can easily walk to see all the beautiful buildings or pop into a palace if the mood takes you.
Vienna is a UNESCO world heritage site for two reasons: the Spanish horse riding school. Why the long face I hear you cry, and coffee!. Did you know that Cappuccino was actually invented here? The oldest coffee shop, Frauenhuber, dates to 1825 and you can still grab a cup here today. Both Mozart and Beethoven once performed here so it has a long history. I reflected upon this as I played the drums with my notebook.
I also visited the Sisi museum to learn about the interesting life of the aforementioned young queen. She lived a somewhat normal life, then at age 16 married Franz Joseph and moved on to a life of rules and order. It’s safe to say she wasn’t a fan. She was also fanatical about her tiny figure and maintained her 21-inch waist by not eating much and doing lots of exercise, much like me, ahem.
Quite handy if you’ve eaten a lot of food.
After a short stop for a bit of sausage and a beer I went to get a glimpse of beautiful St. Stephen’s Cathedral. This Gothic style cathedral towers over the city and makes a resounding statement. I particularly marveled at the multi-coloured tiled roof. It reminded me of visits to B&Q on a Saturday, choosing colours for the bathroom.
I also took in The Kunst Historiches museum which is my new favourite. ( But no need to swear) . Just look at the incredible walls and ceiling, it’s nuts! I can’t imagine the patience and crafts ship that went into this. Crazy!
I’d been looking forward to a walk along the River Danube, but in some ways this is where the city lets itself down. It’s quiet dirty in parts with lots of street graffiti and overgrown grassy areas. However the talent behind the street art is pretty special, so it’s a bit chicken and egg in some ways. However if you head back towards the centre of the city the walk here becomes very tree lined and pleasant.
Austria is also famous for its wine production. Probably it’s two most outstanding grapes are Grüner veltliner and Reisling.
Gruner is the most widely planted variety in Austria accounting for nearly 30% of Austria’s vineyards. It produces wines with citrus and orchard-fruit flavours, commonly found in these crisp and usually dry wines. Riesling only actually accounts for around 5% of the country’s vineyards, although this is growing. Its common style in Austria is dry, elegant and steely with fresh citrus flavours. These wines are often drunk young and whistle clean, but they can age wonderfully. There are a number of lovely wine bars in Vienna to try these brilliant whites.
On my last night there I went to Enrico Panigl, a restaurant come wine bar with wooden floors and low ceilings. I nearly knocked myself out on more than one occasion. Their House Reisling was awesome and after a bottle of that any pain from smashing my head would have been minimal. I immersed myself in a cornucopia of other beautiful Austrian Wines.
Austria is mostly known for its dry white wines, with white grape varieties constituting almost two thirds of the wine production. Red wine varieties such as Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch as well as sweet wines made from the Welschriesling variety are also becoming increasingly popular. These are mainly produced in the south and very east of the country.
Aside from Grüner Veltliner, the second place among white grape varieties goes to Welschriesling, which is often used to produce fresh and acidic wines but is highly praised for the sweet wines that can be made from it. Other common white grape varieties in Austria are Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc.
The most successful and most widely cultivated red grape variety in Austria is Zweigelt, from which fruity, low-tannin and colour-intensive wines are produced. Another important grape variety is Blaufränkisch, which creates well-structured wines with powerful acidity and aromas of wild berries or cherries. Internationally known red grape varieties grown in Austria include Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The Zweigelt was a winner – perfect with the excellent Knödel (Flavourful Dumpling) and Tafelspitz (Boiled Beef) that I chose.
It was a nice way to end the tour, much cake eaten, sausage swallowed and breakfasts to die for. The coffee was spectacular – as were the Austrian Pastries. The Viennese Whirl actually has nothing to with Vienna – or even Austria – its British – they are just named as such because they resemble their Austrian cousins. A fascinating fact at a pub quiz. I await it coming up at a quiz somewhere. Soon.
My top ten Vienna facts!
- About one-fifth of the population of Austria lives in Vienna.
- Schönbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsburgs, has more than 1,440 rooms. That’s a lot of cleaning!
- The Tiergarten Schönbrunn, founded in 1752, is the oldest zoological garden in the world.
- Vienna’s Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof) has over 2.5 million tombs, it’s more than the city’s live population.
- The magic words for wine drinkers in Vienna are ein Achtel (an eighth of a litre), which is the most common serving size in Vienna. That and ‘where’s my glass’.
- Legend says that a Polish military officer under the command of Jan Sobieski during the 1683 invasion of the Turks, opened Vienna’s first coffee house using coffee beans left by the retreating Ottoman Turks. If they’d been fighting Emporer Nero that would have been brilliant!
- Located in the 19th district of Vienna Karl Marx-Hof has the longest single residential building in the world at 1km long!
- In Vienna, mineral drinking water comes out of the taps. Fresh spring water comes through two pipelines directly from the Alps.
- Vienna is one of the few capital cities in the world which produces its own wine. 240 wine framers produce 2.5 million litres of wine every year. And I can tell you it was very nice indeed!
- Vienna has been ranked as a number one city with the highest quality of living in the world.
Ian Erridge
