In central Vienna, visit the vaulted Gigerl and order a glass of Zweigelt red or citrusy Gemischter Satz along with a plate of local sausage, pickles, sauerkraut and cheeses – but this should only serve as a primer for the real experience further out. Vienna is the only capital city in the world with serious vineyards within the city limits and with Austrian wine the best it’s ever been, that goes for Viennese varieties too. Traditional, yes, but also long-standing champions of vine-to-glass drinking, much of it biodynamic. Much has been written about the city’s café culture, but heurigen are just as central to the Viennese character – little snapshots of the 17th and 18th centuries, they tend to be wood-lined dens with vine-covered courtyards and, more often than not, moustachioed men in lederhosen playing accordion and fiddles. Remember all that fuss about hygge? The Viennese have long had their own version of affable cosiness, Gemütlichkeit, best experienced in one of the city’s heurigen, or wine taverns. Amusement park aficionados should also seek out Böhmischer Prater, which is quieter and well pitched for younger children.Īddress: Wurstel Prater, 1020 Vienna, Austria Website: Entrance is free but take cash as you’ll need it to buy tokens for rides and games. Vintage lovers should seek out antique rides such as the pony carousel, the denim-clad cowboy hedgehogs of the Fifties-era Mecky Express, the Liliputbahn from the 1920s and one of the world’s oldest ghost trains, dating to 1948. And while there are many modern rides that spin you round and drop you from dizzy heights, the park generally has a gentle, vintage character – a little like Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. ![]() It’s set amid tree-shaded greenery – great for cycling around, so consider bike hire – on what was once the Habsburg’s hunting ground and is home to the famous Riesenrad, the giant, 65-metre-high ferris wheel built in 1897 and which played a leading role in The Third Man (and lesser-celebrated 007 film The Living Daylights). Most amusement parks are generally to be avoided by all but the masochistic but not the Prater. If you want to channel ‘Club Tropicana’, hire one of the ‘island’ pedalos which have ladders at the back and tropical foliage to sip cocktails behind. And the Alte Donau itself, which once formed part of the river but is now a lake (get there via the U1 metro), is great for hiring a pedalo, SUP or boat – try Marina Hofbauer or Eppel – which you can then jump off from. There’s also a healthy lido culture, best experienced at Gänsehäufel, a little island on Alte Donau (that’s the Old Danube) that has wave machines, splashy children’s playgrounds, a diving pool, tree cover and lots of access to the river itself – with entry points lined with flat stones so you don’t have to wade through gloopy mud. You could pack your swimming costume and head to one of several private swimming pools such as the smart Schönbrunner Bad, in the grounds of the grand Schönbrunn Palace, or KrapfenwaldBad, which has the best views over the city but can get crowded. There’s a few ways of doing this in Vienna. Insider tip: take the lift to the top of the Leopold Museum for a rooftop drink.Īddress: Museumsquartier, MuseumsplWien, Austria Website: In summer 2022, when temperatures sizzled upwards, there was only one thing to do: find some cold water and jump into it as soon as you could. At ZOOM, meanwhile, children up to the age of 14 can get experimental with animation, painting and glue, with an ocean-themed room for younger children complete with water grotto, mirror tunnel and a ship’s deck. MUMOK, meanwhile, is a brilliantly curated contemporary gallery that draws together Pop Art from Warhol and Claes Oldenburg along with chaotic, radical 60s movements such as as Vienna Actionism and Fluxus, with works by Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Duchamp and Rauschenberg along with a growing collection of photographic and video works. The Leopold, with its white-cube architecture, is a favourite for its works from the modernist Vienna of the early 20th century, with a large collection of fleshy Schiele paintings, several by Klimt (though The Kiss can be seen at the Belvedere museum) and bold-lined Wiener Werkstätte designs. ![]() ![]() And while there are other galleries in town, this is the place to head if you have limited time on your hands and a preference for modern and contemporary art. We’ve got the Habsburgs to thank for so much grand-scale venue space in Vienna – their former imperial stables are now home to the city’s main art hub, known as MQ and containing nine main museums.
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