A Weekend In Vienna

Rathaus at night

Ah Vienna. What a beautiful, beautiful city. Last year at this time Dave and I were traveling through central Europe and spent a weekend in Vienna. We absolutely fell in love with its old world charm, touches of Bohemia, coffee houses, architecture, glorious statues everywhere (previous post) and endless gardens. One weekend was not enough and I am sure we'll be back to visit.

We spent our first evening in the old city center at an outside film festival in the Rathaus Square. We slid in to the audience with the locals and enjoyed the city through their eyes. Something that I just love to do. 

The following day we got up early to explore the city and returned to find a jazz festival back at the gardens that surround the Rathaus. There was a light rain, but no one cared. We grabbed a late lunch and a table under an umbrella and sat back to listen and enjoy the music. We were there all afternoon and into the evening just listening to great music, sampling local food, wine and beer. One of things about the places we visited last summer was that at the heart of so many of the cities it wasn't an endless tourist trap full of souvenir shops. It was a place that the locals still enjoyed themselves. As much as I love to travel, I absolutely hate feeling like a tourist. 

Each morning we found another one of the coffee houses of Vienna to try with my favorite being Cafe Mozart. We tried the more famous Cafe Central, but it was absolutely over run with tourists. Cafe Mozart was the right blend of tradition, amazing food, perfectly steeped tea and a current newspaper in English. Exactly how I wanted to spend Sunday morning. After breakfast we took off for more walking through the side streets of Vienna. Anyone who follows me on Pinterest knows I'm slightly obsessed with doors. The older the better for me. I love how they capture history and architectural beauty. 

We ended our weekend with a walk through the gardens of Schonbrunn Park and a tour of the palace. Hard to believe anyone lived this way, but leave it to the Habsburgs. The grounds were originally created as a fenced hunting grounds, and a little hunting lodge Palace was built as an addition to the original mansion. Seriously, click the link and check out how expansive this place is. The shaded walking gardens were beautiful and a welcomed relief in the heat of summer. We spent quite a bit of time strolling through them as we waited our turn to tour the palace. It was redecorated in the 1740s in a Neoclassical style with plenty of ornate gilding. Not really my style, and I would have been happy to just keep wandering the park for the afternoon. 

We loved our time in Vienna and have since talked about returning and spending more like a month to explore the city as there is just so much to see and do in this beautiful place. For the rest of photos from the weekend you can see them over on my Pinterest.