We love Vienna! It’s no great surprise, considering how much it reminds me of my hometown of Munich. Still, this beautiful city has a grander scale (2.9 million residents compared to Munich’s 1.6 million), so Austria’s capital feels more compressed, with narrower streets and many more picturesque four- and five-story buildings nestled close together.

*Vienna State Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper)*

At least in District 1, where we spent most of a week, that intimacy gave the city a fairytale-like feel. With its opulent baroque and rococo architecture, Vienna felt majestic.

In addition, their public transport system is excellent; spotless, efficient, easy to navigate, and with minimal wait times, it brings you everywhere in the city, especially the CAT train from the city center with a non-stop transfer to the airport within 15 minutes. Also, everything is impeccably organized. I even love how each district not only has a name but also a number, clearly displayed on every street sign—so you always have a sense of exactly where you are.

Just like in Munich, the city government and various institutions take pride in working together for their residents, offering a remarkable range of activities, many of them free, spanning art, history, and culture and they cater to every age group from children to adults. It’s that vibrant big-city spirit that makes living here so enjoyable, something I never quite experienced back in Boston or New York.

Vienna was also the last stop on our trip with our friends Paula and Doug, who headed home a few days later after we enjoyed four wonderful weeks together in Athens, Istanbul, three Greek isles and now here. The fresh breezes and cooling air of our final days on the Greek Isle of Paros eased us into Vienna’s chillier early autumn, which had us scrambling for warmer clothes during our first few shopping days. Well equipped, we set out to explore Schönbrunn Palace and its vast, fascinating gardens, a summer residence of Austria’s ruling Habsburg family for over 600 years including Empress Maria Theresia and the beloved Empress “Sisi” Elisabeth.

*Sharing a moment in the Schönbrunn Palace gardens*

Of course, we strolled through the city center, visiting St. Stephan’s Cathedral, saw the clock on Schwedensplatz, and dined at the famous Café Central. Many of Vienna’s cafés, some more than a century old, embody the city’s famous Kaffeehaus culture, often described as a “second living room,” where people linger for hours over coffee and pastries, reading newspapers, meeting friends, and debating important issues of life. That coffeehouse culture has even earned a place on UNESCO’s cultural heritage list. Fittingly, the flavors and huge variety of delicacies offered all over town are the best sweets you can find anywhere in the world, at least Randy and I think so.

One elegant evening, Randy and Paula attended a performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) by Rossini at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House), a magnificent building in the Neo-Renaissance style. Otherwise, we indulged in classic Austrian dishes from Wiener Schnitzel (Doug 3 times), Cordon Bleu, Gulasch with Serviettenknödel, Kaiserschmarrn, Apfelstrudel (Doug 4 times) with Vanilla sauce, and many other dishes whose names I can’t recall, to the biggest of all, a special wish from Paula, which was an enormous Schweinshaxn (pork knuckle) we all shared.

On our final day together, we ventured beyond Vienna to the romantic village of Dürnstein, surrounded by terraced vineyards. Its narrow streets reminded me a bit of the Greek isles, yet the architecture was distinctly Austrian. From there, we boarded a Danube River Cruise, gliding past rolling countryside and spotting castles up on the cliffs. We disembarked in Melk to explore the impressive Melk Abbey, still home to a small group of Benedictine monks. Impressive in its size, the most interesting fact for me was that the inside of the abbey church was adorned with uniquely decorated pieces, mainly portraying the apostles or later religious figures, instead of Jesus.

*Impressive size of the Melk Abbey (the picture is taken from a postcard)*

After our friends departed for home, Randy and I lingered in Vienna longer and got really lucky as the next Saturday was the “Long night of Museums”. About 133 small and large museums were open from 6 pm until midnight, and we spent our time well, arriving back at our hotel shortly after 12 am.

We visited an exhibition titled “From Monet to Picasso” at the Albertina Museum which contained the vast collection of a Liechtenstein benefactor displaying paintings including famous Eastern European artists unfamiliar to us, and guiding us with insightful wall descriptions through various art periods that, although sometimes brief, greatly influenced later ones.

We also visited the Hundertwasser Museum. Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a visionary Viennese artist and architect who captured my imagination when I saw him live on TV at the age of 13, denounced dull, bland white facades in lieu of colorful, fluid designs to interrupt static and lifeless geometric architectural forms. He fascinated me all my life, and 20 years later, I saw him during my first visit to Vienna, finishing up construction of the famous Hundertwasserhouse, an affordable housing complex commissioned by the city of Vienna.

Roughly ten years after that, we invited my mother to spend Christmas with us at Rogner Bad Blumau, a spa and wellness resort in the Austrian countryside designed by Hundertwasser.

Years later, while traveling through New Zealand, we made a special stop in the small town of Kawakawa to visit the quirky and famously colorful public Hundertwasser Toilets.

So, yes, I like a lot of his ideas, the uniqueness and unexpectedness, the multitude of colors. For me, he is like an Austrian Antoni Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect and designer. I’m a fan of both their architecture, but not so much of their art.

Another Viennese figure who deeply impressed me was Gustav Klimt, one of the leading artists of the Jugendstil movement. We visited Klimt’s villa, where he created many of his masterpieces. As a painter myself, I found the villa almost more compelling to see than the artworks (that I can look up online). Sure, this villa was modified a bit, but his original studio and self-planted garden with all the flowers depicted in his paintings are still visible. Yes, for sure, this is how I would like to have my studio as well. I really enjoyed being there, and seeing photos of his real-life models who stood for his famous paintings. Interestingly, he married several times and reportedly fathered fourteen illegitimate children.

We were shocked to read about the harsh treatment received by many of his patrons, wealthy Jewish collectors whose art was seized during the Nazi regime. Much of Klimt’s artwork was destroyed or confiscated, and after the war, surviving heirs were often denied restitution by Austrian authorities, forcing some to engage in lengthy legal battles to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.

As our stay in Austria drew to a close, we made a spontaneous getaway to Burgenland for a few relaxing days at a thermal spa resort. Just two hours south from Vienna, the rolling pre-Alpine hills provided a peaceful retreat. Our room offered a lovely view of the countryside, and we spent time soaking in indoor and outdoor pools warmed by natural springs. The food was excellent and plentiful, and we even played nine holes of golf one warm and sunny autumn afternoon. I especially enjoyed the electric “rolli” that carried my clubs in the direction and speed I chose. I had never seen something like this before, and really had fun using it, as the least pleasant part of playing golf for me is navigating the many rolling slopes that courses often have.

*We luckily hit a patch of warm, sunny weather in Burgenland*

Austria is definitely a place that we put on our list to explore more often and we are already making plans to return next Fall.

Enchanting Austria

Pacific Peregrination

Enchanting Austria

Golden October: Returning to Germany

Istanbul

Pacific Peregrination