No city in Europe is more defined by its history and imperial legacy than Vienna. The capital of the former Habsburg Empire has been a center of art and music for centuries and a trendsetter in Central Europe in everything from café culture to fashion. A city I would happily find any excuse to return to, whether it’s to enjoy imperial splendor, chocolate-covered cake or mulled wine at a Christmas market.
I've visited Vienna several times, but this year I visited the city for the first time in the summer. So join me on a 1,5 day trip through imperial halls, golden gardens, crispy schnitzels and coffee houses where time seems to stand still.
Tips for a few days in Vienna
Although you can walk between almost all the attractions in Vienna, it's nice to have the option of taking public transport if the weather isn't on your side. The city has a well-developed network of metro, tram, train and bus, and you can save a lot of time by just hopping on and off at a few stations.
With a 24-hour Vienna City Card (19 euros for adults, 2026) gives you free access to public transport and discounts on all major museums and attractions – something I found very convenient. You can also add discounted transport to the airport. If you only want a 24-hour ticket for public transport, it costs 9,70 euros, but there are no discounts included.
The Vienna City Card is available for purchase for 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours and 7 days. The 7-day card is very affordable at 39 euros.
First thing first – Wienerschnitzel
There's something special about a Wienerschnitzel in Vienna, so it had to be our first stop after the airport. A real Wienerschnitzel is supposed to be a plate-sized piece of thinly pounded veal, fried crispy golden brown with air bubbles and served with a tangy potato salad, lemon and lingonberries. The perfect combination of crisp, salty, sour and sweet that makes the dish so irresistible. But where can you find the perfect Wienerschnitzel in the city with its name?
Weinerschnitzel is not a dish from the Middle Ages, but was created in the late 19th century. A restaurant that claims to be the oldest restaurant to serve schnitzel is Figlmüller wool line. There, pieces of meat have been pounded and fried since 1905 and it is without a doubt the restaurant that is most famous for its schnitzel. The last time I visited Vienna I managed to get a table here and was able to try their gigantic schnitzel. Incredibly good schnitzel, but with a clientele that consisted only of tourists. How fun is that? This time it was schnitzel in a different place.
A place recommended by the Michelin Guide is the restaurant Meissl & Schadn. Here, in front of large glass windows facing the street, under a gigantic chandelier, schnitzels are served in combination with classical music, stylish decor and a nice atmosphere. We didn't even have to wait for a table, but were immediately given a table indoors by a green courtyard. It felt good as soon as we sat down. At Meissl & Schadn you will find locals, businessmen, tourists and families with children. A delightful mix of people who didn't just eat schnitzel, even though it was probably the most ordered dish.
We each ordered a Wienerschnitzel.”with all the harassment” (with all the trimmings) and it was a lunch that probably couldn't have been better. Perfectly crispy schnitzel fried in butter and lard, accompanied by Viennese Garniture (chopped parsley, capers, eggs and anchovies), potato salad, lingonberries and lemon. I would have to say this is the best schnitzel I have ever eaten – even though I am a picky schnitzel fan.
For those of you who are not just satisfied with eating the perfect schnitzel, Meissl & Schadn also offers schnitzel courses, where you learn how to cook schnitzel and then eat it. An activity I will definitely book myself for the next time I'm in Vienna!
In Sisi's footsteps at the Hofburg Palace
To understand Vienna, we need to start by understanding its imperial history. The powerful Habsburgs ruled large parts of Central Europe from here for over 600 years, and this is evident in everything from architecture to culture. In the middle of Vienna lies the large palace complex Hofburg, which was the imperial center for centuries. This is where the imperial family lived, the empire was governed from here and prominent guests were received here.
One of the imperial personalities that has received some extra attention in recent years is the 19th-century profile Sisi – actually Elisabeth of Austria – who was married to Franz Joseph I. Two TV series have in recent years told the story of the beautiful young woman who married the emperor and received all the luxury and money one could dream of, but never felt like she fit in. After plowing through all the episodes of the series, it therefore feels natural to start the day on Sisi Museum, to understand more about the person behind the myth.
A visit to the Sisi Museum also includes entry to the imperial apartments, which are the beautiful apartments where the family lived and worked. I start with the Sisi Museum to try to understand more about Sisi's life, but the visit does not make the image of Sisi any less complex.
The Sisi Museum paints a picture of a woman with a strong need for freedom. It tells the story of her life and travels, her difficulties with the rules of the court, her eating disorders and the conflict between her public role and private personality. The whole story from her being a relatively “ordinary” upper-class girl in Bavaria to her shocking murder in Geneva when she was 60 years old. This is not a Cinderella story with a happy ending, although Franz Joseph clearly loved her deeply all his life.
In the imperial apartments, you can see the shared life of the imperial couple. Franz Joseph worked hard in the study and received people from all over the empire two days a week. In total, he met 260000 people here during his lifetime – he often received over 100 people in one day. The emperor lived relatively simply and slept in a single bed.
Sisi, on the other hand, was obsessed with beauty and being thin, and her day usually began with several hours of hair care before she worked out intensively in her room on the barre and Roman rings. The family ate together in the dining room on Sundays. A fairly structured life.
At the Hofburg you will also find the famous Spanish Riding School with its Lipizzaner horses and shows and The Treasury with the imperial crown jewels, but we chose not to visit them this time.
Break from the rain at the Schmetterlinghaus
After many days of heatwave in Vienna, the weather took a turn for the worse the moment we landed at the airport. The temperature dropped by 10 degrees and the rain poured down. Right next to the Hofburg is Butterfly House (the butterfly house), a small exotic oasis that was perfect to visit when it was raining the most.
The butterfly house is located in the Palmenhaus, which is an attraction in itself. The glass-covered house was built between 1901 and 1906 in the Art Nouveau style and is located in the former imperial garden, the Burggarten. This is not a classic museum, but a tropical oasis where butterflies fly freely among exotic plants and waterfalls.
Although this seems to be primarily a family destination, I have to say I enjoyed it. Being able to sit on a chair in an exotic forest in the middle of Vienna, surrounded by butterflies, is probably one of the most meditative things you can experience in the big city.
The butterfly house also shows visitors how butterflies develop in different stages and there is a pupa box where the pupae hang until they hatch.
Please lock your jacket before entering the butterfly house, otherwise this will be a very hot and humid experience.
Music profiles from Vienna
No city is as associated with classical music as Vienna, and you'll find it everywhere - in restaurants, in shops and with street musicians. For centuries, this was where Europe's greatest composers and musicians gathered, among nobility, emperors and the church. Everyone who has ever been anything has passed through here.
Right next to the Hofburg is Burggarten and here we find one of the city's music profiles – Mozart. Mozart was born in Salzburg, but lived the last ten years of his life in Vienna. Which is a significant part of his life, as he only lived to be 35 years old. It was here in Vienna that he wrote The Marriage of Figaro and it was here that The Magic Flute came to life. Mozart even got married in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the great cathedral in the center of Vienna. But Mozart is just one of many celebrities.
Beethoven was born in Bonn, but lived here for most of his adult life. Here he wrote, among other things, Für Elise, despite increasing deafness over the years. Schubert was born and died here and Haydn was born here and spent most of his life here. But the city's real music star, it's Johann Strauss II.
No dance is more associated with Vienna than the waltz. The waltz didn't actually come from Vienna, but it was here that it developed into the sensual, tightly coiled dance it is today. During the early 19th century, interest in dancing the waltz exploded and the uncrowned waltz king became Johann Strauss the Younger. If you think of a waltz, you probably think of 99% of the time of "An der schönen blauen Donau". The waltz of all Viennese waltzes. Strauss's most famous work. If you want to meet Strauss in Vienna today, you will find his golden statue in the Stadtpark.
The waltz's connection to Vienna was also strengthened by the city's ball tradition. No other city in the world is likely to have as many waltzes. In January and February alone, Vienna is filled with hundreds of balls. If there's one thing on my bucket list, it's to someday put on a shiny long dress, step into a lavish ballroom and pretend for an evening that I can waltz.
Klimt's fantastic world at the Belvedere
A short tram ride later we find ourselves at a new castle, the cream-white Belvedere Palace. Belvedere is one of Vienna's great attractions and perhaps the place where art, imperial splendor and Vienna's history around 1900 come together best. Belvedere is actually divided into Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere, but it's Upper Belvedere that you should head to first – especially if you have limited time.
Belvedere offers a Baroque palace with 800 years of art history, including the world's largest collection of Klimt. And you will learn all about Klimt when you come here. You have probably seen most of his golden paintings, such as the most famous painting The Kiss, but you will quickly discover that Klimt is so much more than gold leaf. The way he portrayed women is something completely unique. The strength and beauty of the women completely radiate from the panels and some paintings look more like photographs than paintings. The shadows of the skin. The sparkling gaze of the eyes. Klimt was a master of portraiture and a master of symbolism.
Although the Belvedere today focuses on the art on the walls, sometimes you also need to look up at the ceiling. Especially in the magnificent Marble Hall, where the entire room looks like it is covered in arches and niches and details, but in reality it is just Optical illusion – “trick the eye” – a 3D painting technique. A small room can be tricked into being larger with the right technique, marble is not marble if you look closely and the stucco is really just paint and painted shadows.
It's easy to spend an hour or two at the Upper Belvedere, and for those who have time, the temporary exhibitions in the Lower Belvedere are also worth a visit.
We take a short walk through the famous castle garden before we leave here, but it doesn't impress today. Weeds are growing in the aisles and the flowers seem to be singing their last verse. Maybe it's the heatwave that has hit the flowers hard. Maybe you need to see the garden from above to see its grandeur. Regardless, it didn't show its best side today.
Sachertorte at Café Sacher
But Vienna is as much about cake as it is about art, and especially about the classic Sachertorte – Sachertorte.
When I was little, we used to bake a chocolate cake with apricot cream for my dad's birthday. It was his favorite and even though it took many hours to make the cake, it was worth it. Fluffy, rich and something to look forward to every year. But my mother never called it a Sachertorte. It was a chocolate cake with apricot cream. Actually, I think the recipe actually included a baby food jar of apricot puree, but I could be wrong.
Sachertorte, a compact chocolate cake with apricot jam and chocolate glaze, has been baked in Vienna since 1832. Whipped cream is served on the side of the cake – so that the cake doesn't feel too overwhelming? A decadence that's hard to beat.
I have to admit that we had already eaten a Sachertorte the day before. It was pouring rain and we had to run into a café and wait out the rain before we could check in for our river cruise. The salvation from the rain was a small bakery right by the subway. Not particularly cozy, but with good coffee and a piece of Sachertorte it cost less than 5 euros. So we had something to compare it to when we were going to have coffee at the birthplace of the Sachertorte – Hotel Sacher. Or what about the legend of the Sachertorte, does the Sachertorte really come from here?
The Sachertorte was created by the young Franz Sacher in Vienna in 1832. When the court pastry chef was ill one day, the then 16-year-old Franz was tasked with conjuring up a dessert for Prince Klemens von Metternich. The result was a chocolate cake with apricot jam – and it was apparently a success. A pretty good debut for a 16-year-old, one might say.
Franz later opened his own pastry shop, and his son Eduard continued the family tradition. Eduard worked for a while at the historic Demel pastry shop, where he brought the Sachertorte with him and began selling his own version. A few years later, he founded the Hotel Sacher and began serving the cake there as well. And somewhere there begins what would become perhaps Vienna's most delicious neighborly feud. Who really had the right to the name for the real Sachertorte?
By the 1950s, the conflict between Hotel Sacher and Demel had become so inflamed that it finally ended up in court. After several years of fighting, the parties reached a settlement in 1963. Hotel Sacher was given the exclusive right to the name Original Sacher-Torte, while Demel was allowed to call its version Eduard Sacher-Torte. Potato, potato, I say. Both are Sacher cakes – but with some small, and apparently legally very significant, differences in how they are constructed. We decide to try the cake at Hotel Sacher.
We were so lucky that we got a table right inside in one of the velvet red halls. Here a piece of Sachertorte costs 10,90 euros, but you can also order a Sachertorte for two people with four different pastries and cakes for 30 euros. It didn't feel like anything to think about. It had to be a Sachertorte.
If I've ever had a chocolate coma, it was that day at Café Sacher. In addition to Sachertorte, they served chocolate pralines, chocolate mousse pastries, and chocolate parfait with berries and custard. What was the best? Actually, not the Sachertorte, but the chocolate parfait.
Vienna's beautiful neighborhoods
But Vienna is not just museums, cafes and schnitzel. Before we head to dinner and our accommodation at Viva Moments we manage a few thousand more steps. We peek into Swarovski's glittering flagship store on the elegant shopping street Graben. We step into the enormous, dark and atmospheric St. Stephen's Cathedral. We stop at the slightly unpleasant plague statue and think for a moment about what it really wants to tell us about the city's history. And then, in the middle of it all, we exchange a few words with the beautiful horses that clip-pat around with tourists in elegant carriages through the city's streets.
I'm not done with Vienna after this visit either, but the 1,5 days have at least added to my knowledge of Sisi, Klimt and Sachertorte. That's not a shame. Tomorrow the journey continues along the river towards Budapest, but tonight I plan to sleep soundly and dream sparkling dreams of crystalkronor, beautiful dresses and a heavenly chocolate parfait.
Have you been to Vienna? What were your favorite museums? Did you find an even better Wienerschnitzel? Tell us!
More information about Vienna and Austria can be found on my Austria page.
Discover more from Rucksack.se
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
