48 Hours in Vienna
words & images © Gilly Pickup
Vienna is a beautiful city – towering palaces, imposing museums and manicured parks and gardens. But on a whistle-stop weekend tour, I also discovered a whimsical capital, with some wonderful hidden treasures.
I began in Vienna’s 3rd district where I found myself looking at one of the strangest buildings I had ever seen. “This is the Hundertwasser House,” my guide explained, waving expansively to include the entire higgledy-piggledy building plus the rooftop trees, “named after the local artist who designed it. It symbolises architecture in harmony with nature.” The lavishly coloured building looked a bit Alice-in-Wonderlandish to me with its spontaneous vegetation, trees growing out of some windows and undulating floors. Hundertwasser claimed an uneven floor is ‘a melody to the feet’.
It was almost as idiosyncratic as my accommodation, the 25hours Hotel, a sheer explosion of colour and fanciful circus-themed rooms. It offers free bike rental and wifi for guests while its rooftop bar is a popular hangout for the trendy. Some rooms have bath tubs on the balcony, others come with kitchenettes and Nespresso machines, there is even a seasonal food truck which serves burgers in the garden. No run-of-the-mill hotel this!
Earlier that day I visited the Prater. Like many grand European parks, Vienna’s Prater started life as a carriage-riding area for the nobility. No wonder Those-And-Such-As-Those got cross with Emperor Joseph 11 when he decided on a whim to open it up to the hoi-polloi in the mid 1700s. Before you could say ‘schnitzel’ it was awash with freak shows, fortune telling machines and barrel organs. Of course these have all long since gone and the park is now popular with joggers, walkers and cyclists. Besides its national football stadium, the main attraction is its year round fun fair best known for its Giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad) and the only one of its time still in use today. Erected in 1897 it towers over the city and if you don’t mind heights and want to let your hair down, you can follow Orson Welles example - as Harry Lime he starred in the visually stylish post-war film ‘The Third Man’ - and take a ride in one of its 15 ornate gondola-carriages, all big as garden sheds. Big enough, in fact, that they could probably hold an entire family including the in-laws. For those who want to hold a special event in the skies above Vienna, some are furnished with tables for catered dinners and parties.
All images below (c) Gilly Pickup
I began in Vienna’s 3rd district where I found myself looking at one of the strangest buildings I had ever seen. “This is the Hundertwasser House,” my guide explained, waving expansively to include the entire higgledy-piggledy building plus the rooftop trees, “named after the local artist who designed it. It symbolises architecture in harmony with nature.” The lavishly coloured building looked a bit Alice-in-Wonderlandish to me with its spontaneous vegetation, trees growing out of some windows and undulating floors. Hundertwasser claimed an uneven floor is ‘a melody to the feet’.
It was almost as idiosyncratic as my accommodation, the 25hours Hotel, a sheer explosion of colour and fanciful circus-themed rooms. It offers free bike rental and wifi for guests while its rooftop bar is a popular hangout for the trendy. Some rooms have bath tubs on the balcony, others come with kitchenettes and Nespresso machines, there is even a seasonal food truck which serves burgers in the garden. No run-of-the-mill hotel this!
Earlier that day I visited the Prater. Like many grand European parks, Vienna’s Prater started life as a carriage-riding area for the nobility. No wonder Those-And-Such-As-Those got cross with Emperor Joseph 11 when he decided on a whim to open it up to the hoi-polloi in the mid 1700s. Before you could say ‘schnitzel’ it was awash with freak shows, fortune telling machines and barrel organs. Of course these have all long since gone and the park is now popular with joggers, walkers and cyclists. Besides its national football stadium, the main attraction is its year round fun fair best known for its Giant Ferris Wheel (Riesenrad) and the only one of its time still in use today. Erected in 1897 it towers over the city and if you don’t mind heights and want to let your hair down, you can follow Orson Welles example - as Harry Lime he starred in the visually stylish post-war film ‘The Third Man’ - and take a ride in one of its 15 ornate gondola-carriages, all big as garden sheds. Big enough, in fact, that they could probably hold an entire family including the in-laws. For those who want to hold a special event in the skies above Vienna, some are furnished with tables for catered dinners and parties.
All images below (c) Gilly Pickup
Not far away is ‘Supersense’ on Praterstrasse, a contemporary take on the cafe culture for which Vienna is famed. Referring to it simply as a cafe doesn’t do it justice because it is also a recording studio, craft shop, delicatessen and print works set inside a grand 19th-century ‘palace’ modelled on Venice’s Ca’ d’Oro. Generally speaking, as far as eating out goes, Viennese food is rather bloodthirsty, with beef and veal featuring heavily on menus. Fortunately though, for those of us who don’t eat meat, more vegetarian restaurants are popping up across town which is good news.
During my stay, it seemed that everywhere I went I happened upon references to Vienna’s musical worthies. Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner and Mozart all lived here at one time or another. One much visited pilgrimage site is the Mozarthaus located on the Domgasse behind St Stephen’s Cathedral and the only surviving residence of Wolfgang Amadeus. Locals refer to it as the ‘Figarohaus’ because he wrote The Marriage of Figaro here. Another is the Pasqualati House, one of Beethoven’s abodes. Most of his winters were spent in this house, now a museum, which he rented from Johann von Pasqualati. The piano on which he composed his Fifth Symphony sits in the main room together with personal artifacts including paintings and musical scores. Exit the building and eagle-eyed fans of classic film The Third Man will spot a doorway from the movie, alongside Beethoven’s abode.
And of course Vienna is fabulous, but so is Salzburg - read about it HERE and there's an Austrian hotel with a difference HERE
Return to Features Index
During my stay, it seemed that everywhere I went I happened upon references to Vienna’s musical worthies. Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven, Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner and Mozart all lived here at one time or another. One much visited pilgrimage site is the Mozarthaus located on the Domgasse behind St Stephen’s Cathedral and the only surviving residence of Wolfgang Amadeus. Locals refer to it as the ‘Figarohaus’ because he wrote The Marriage of Figaro here. Another is the Pasqualati House, one of Beethoven’s abodes. Most of his winters were spent in this house, now a museum, which he rented from Johann von Pasqualati. The piano on which he composed his Fifth Symphony sits in the main room together with personal artifacts including paintings and musical scores. Exit the building and eagle-eyed fans of classic film The Third Man will spot a doorway from the movie, alongside Beethoven’s abode.
And of course Vienna is fabulous, but so is Salzburg - read about it HERE and there's an Austrian hotel with a difference HERE
Return to Features Index