TRAVEL Enchanting Vienna and chocolate heavens
Brimming with history and tradition, Vienna is a wonderful place to hear classical music, see a treasury of art, feast on fantastic meals and be overwhelmed by so much grandiose imperial architecture, you’ll feel as if you’re wandering through the set of a Baroque opera. Even stopping for a coffee and a slice of delicious chocolate cake involves peeling back the centuries.
My favourite season is right now, when the chill and moodiness of winter gives way to spring, a time when the locals no longer feel the need to hibernate inside the city’s snug cafes, but shed their loden coats and sit and sup alfresco, faces turned like sunflowers to face the warming
rays of the sun. Most places of interest lie within the girdle of the Ringstrasse, so it’s easy to walk with just an occasional hop on a tram, as much for the pleasure of the ride as a means of transport.. Lovers of views could climb the 343 steps to the top of St Stephen’s cathedral. If you don’t fancy the workout, compromise with its amazing gothic pulpit, carved from solid blocks of sandstone.
There are more than a hundred museums, from the Funeral to Freud’s consulting room – minus the famous couch, which is in London. I devoted a morning to the Leopold in the huge Museums-Quartier within the former baroque stables of the Habsburg emperors, crammed with Expressionist paintings by Schiele and Klimt.
The 18th-century Spanish Riding School at the Hofburg Winter Palace, where the Lipizzaner horses daintily perform their pirouettes to music, and the Haus der Musik, where rooms are devoted to different composers, are also essential. Don’t miss the opportunity to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic on an interactive screen; you stand on a podium, wave a magic baton and the entire orchestra follows your tempo. Move too slowly, and the first violinist stands up and complains!
Vienna is no place for a diet. Or a vegan. Although spring is in the air, appetites remain tuned to winter fuel. I tucked into tafelspitz, a hearty broth of boiled beef and dumplings, and a wiener schnitzel, as big as a frisbee, the latter most famously at the historic Figlmüller restaurant.
However intense your sightseeing agenda (or full your stomach), there’s always time (and room) for a kaffee and kuchen in one of the many historic cafes, such as Demel, a grotto of dark panelling, foxed mirrors and crystal chandeliers. Sachertorte was also born in Vienna – for the most authentic version and perfect souvenir, still made to a closely guarded 19th-century recipe, head to the shop at the Hotel Sacher. Visit vienna.info for further information