Vienna, 10 Sep 2024. Tired as I was, I was excited to arrive. I had spent an extra day in transit because my nice small regional airport only had one on-call mechanic to do the 10-min signoff on our plane, and he took the planes in order even though the first one took hours. Oh well. I had a prearranged pickup by Hotel Austria. I don’t speak any German and the driver spoke little English, but did speak several other languages. I think he said he was Bosnian, and it certainly wasn’t German that he used to give a bus driver a piece of his mind. Hotel Austria is very nice: clean, cozy, quaint; laundry service, good breakfast, 10-min walk to Stephansplatz, a small elevator, and friendly, helpful staff.
With only 3 days, there was only time to hit the Vienna highlights, including St. Stephen’s cathedral, the Imperial Crypt (Kaisergruft), a glimpse of the Lipizzaner stallions in their stalls, the Hofburg Imperial Apts /Sisi Museum tour, and the Imperial Treasury—with the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. At the Kunsthistorisches (Museum of Art History) the highlight for me upstairs was Vermeer’s Woman at the Window. Downstairs, the Kunstkammer (Habsburg collection of objects d’art) was much more extensive than the one room I anticipated. I started out admiring the fantastic craftsmanship, the gold, the jewels, the rock crystal…and then it became overwhelming. Too much gold, too many jewels, too much rock crystal—and too much for one family to own. But the famous exquisite golden salt cellar from the 1500s, which was much bigger than I expected, is well worth seeking out. At the Naturhistorisches (Natural History Museum), again, there was too much to see; this is a museum that requires coming back several times. But I made sure to see the Venus of Willendorf—so tiny and perfect—and a slate figurine even older (36,000 years), along with lots of fossils.
I tried to sample as much tasty Vienna food as possible: lunch and strudel in the lovely Kunsthistorisches café, goulash in the Glacis Beisl outdoor garden, and a mélange and Kaiserschmarrn (shredded fluffy pancakes with plum compote) at Demel Café—so, so good!— in a very elegant room. (Thanks Emily for the recommendations.) I picked up some candied violets—favored by Empress Elizabeth—and mini Sacher-Tortes in the bakery at Demel too. Within a block of Hotel Austria, I had perfectly poached salmon at a restaurant called ef16 and schnitzel with cranberries and boiled potatoes with butter and parsley at Restaurant Vienne. There are more famous schnitzel spots, but this tasted just fine to me. I did have to wait until the evening before our flight home to finally have a käsekrainer (sausage filled with small chunks of cheese) and a mug of beer at a sausage stand (Wiener Würstelstand, outside of the airport terminal building). You will notice that restaurants and food feature a lot in this trip report!
The rain, which had begun on day two, increased to serious wind and cold driving splatty rain—part of the epic, catastrophic September 2024 Central European rain. My son and his partner arrived to move on with me to Bratislava, and fortunately I had booked a car to take us directly to our hotel there. We stayed at the Ibis Bratislava Centrum: good location with a short walk to Old Town sights, helpful staff, and a good breakfast. It was Saturday, so we went to the (dry, indoor) market for lunch and shopping, followed by (dry, indoor) St. Martin’s Cathedral, where Hungarian kings had been crowned. Broken umbrellas littered the streets. We had dinner at Bratislava Flagship, which has been recommended here on the forum; only a small part of the place was open, one rustic room. But the food was good.