Feeling the Heat and Music in Vienna

The beauty of being in London is that we can take a short weekend trip to a country we've never been to in Europe. We did that last weekend with a quick holiday break to Vienna. We both have never been to Austria, and we found a good deal on flights and a hotel.

Vienna was full of history, delicious food and classical music. It reminded me of quite a few other countries we've been to, but mixed into one: Germany for the bratwurst, beer and language, but also Hungary, Italy, France, Czech Republic, which made Vienna feel familiar in a way.

We arrived late on friday, so we headed to a nearby café for a beer. Cafés are a huge part of the culture in the city. Locals actually take the time to sip their coffees on the patios outside while enjoying a sachertorte or cigarette.

The next morning, we hopped on a bus tour around the city.  It drove us all over- through old town, new town and out to the many palaces. We even saw the world's oldest still-running ferris wheel (but decided for safety reasons not to get on...) But it was so hot (about 98 degrees!) so we had to get inside to cool down. We stopped off for lunch and toured the Opera House.

I had wanted to go to an opera but unfortunately there are no performances during the month of August. The opera house has so much history, but not all of it is as beautiful as the music housed inside. It first opened in 1869, but public response was not good. People didn't think that it was magnificent or grand enough. Because of the poor feedback when it was being built, one of the architects committed suicide and the other one ended up passing away shortly thereafter. Neither ever saw the completion of their work. The structure was also bombed in WWII and much of it had to be rebuilt. We saw what has been rebuilt, the original structure, backstage and seating area. It was incredible to think of all the composers that had their works performed there: Mozart, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner and Beethoven to name a few.

Afterwards, we walked through a city market and then made our way to a beer haus that brewed their own beers. We enjoyed pints in the sun before walking around some more and then using our guidebook to find a place for dinner. The restaurant we ended up going to was perfect. Griechenbeisl opened in 1447 and is Vienna's oldest. We ate outside and enjoyed goulash and beers.

Then Aaron decided he wanted to explore the inside of the restaurant. We stumbled upon one room which had a man playing an akkordolia, an instrument that we both have never seen where you play strings and press down on buttons. After listening to the musician for a while, we peered into another room and about to turn and go, when the bartender said we needed to take a look at the back room on the left. He proceeded to take us back there where people were eating their meals! The ceiling and walls were covered in signatures (photo here). And he pointed out signatures of Mozart, Beethoven, Mark Twain, Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin, Phil Collins, etc. Wow. It was one of the coolest things we've seen.

After dinner, we walked around and ended up in a huge park that was hosting a festival. There were tents set up serving food and drink, and a huge screen set up in front of a cathedral showing a classical music performance. A few hundred people were watching it in the stands, standing (like us) or just enjoying the atmosphere and having drinks with friends. Afterwards, we went to a Heuriger which is a traditional Austrian wine tavern. You can find them because they have a "wreath" symbol above the door.

On Sunday, we toured Mozart's house. He lived there when he was writing the Marriage of Figaro, which premiered in Vienna in 1786. It was neat to learn more about his life (he actually had a terrible gambling habit and the circumstances surrounding his death were questionable), but the museum itself wasn't organized very well. Afterwards, we had bratwursts and walked back to our hotel to collect our bags and head to the airport.

We really liked Vienna. It was a very easy city to explore and everyone was really friendly. It's the headquarters for many International organizations including the United Nations and OPEC, and has a lot more history than we realized. Plus, I loved that music is so interwoven with the city. It wasn't on our "must-travel-to" list when we moved over, but I am so glad that we went and would recommend it to anyone visiting Europe!