Vienna: Waltzing Through Imperial History, Culture, and Cuisine
This week, we’re exploring Vienna, a city once at the heart of the Habsburg Empire, filled with imperial grandeur, world-class music, and rich history. Often overlooked in favor of Paris, London, or Rome, Vienna is a hidden gem that deserves a spot on every traveler’s list.
Tim, a Vienna veteran, shares his latest experiences dancing in honor of Johann Strauss II, exploring historic palaces, and tasting the best Viennese cuisine.
Topics Covered:
A City Built for Dance & Music 🎶💃
- Why Vienna? Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss II, Vienna is hosting special waltz-themed events and is home to a thriving ball season.
- Learn to Waltz at Elmayer Dance School – Even with zero dance experience, a short lesson at this historic Viennese dance school will have you moving gracefully in no time.
Top Attractions & Landmarks 🏰✨
- Stephansplatz – The city’s main square, a perfect starting point for exploring Vienna’s rich history.
- Hofburg Palace & The Sisi Museum – The former residence of the Habsburg dynasty, featuring a museum dedicated to Empress Elisabeth (Sisi), one of Austria’s most fascinating historical figures.
- Schönbrunn Palace – The former summer residence of the Habsburgs, grander and more elaborate than Hofburg Palace.
- House of Strauss – A restored 19th-century dance hall, now a museum dedicated to the legacy of the Strauss family.
- New Dimensions Museum – A brand-new immersive experience showcasing Johann Strauss II’s life and music with interactive audio and visuals.
Vienna’s Christmas Magic 🎄⛸
- Vienna Christmas Markets (Rathausplatz) – Considered one of the best Christmas markets in the world, featuring:
- A beautiful ice skating circuit.
- Classic holiday treats like sausages, mulled wine, and handmade crafts.
Where to Eat & Drink 🍽️🍷
- 🍰 Palais Todesco – A historic palace-turned-café, perfect for desserts, champagne, and live piano music.
- 🍖 Restaurant Rote Bar – A Michelin-listed restaurant in the Hotel Sacher, famous for its suckling veal Wiener Schnitzel.
- 🥩 Café Central – A local favorite, serving Tafelspitz (boiled beef in broth with horseradish).
Hidden Gems & Unique Experiences 🌍
- The Plague Column – A striking monument commemorating the end of the Black Plague, blending art and history.
- Two Capitals in One Day: Day Trip to Bratislava –
- A 75-minute ferry ride from Vienna takes you to Bratislava, Slovakia.
- Explore a charming old town and a hilltop castle, making this a perfect two-for-one European trip.
Where to Stay 🏨
- 🏰 Palais Coburg – A true Viennese palace, built into the historic city walls, featuring luxurious suites and an incredible wine cellar.
- 🌟 Park Hyatt Vienna – A stylish option with one of the city’s best hotel bars.
- ✨ The Ritz-Carlton Vienna – A luxury hotel housed in four 19th-century palaces, offering a classic yet modern stay.
Final Thoughts:
Vienna is underrated but unforgettable, offering a blend of imperial history, music, and culture. Whether you’re learning to waltz, visiting world-famous palaces, or indulging in classic Viennese dishes, this city deserves a spot on your European itinerary.
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Transcript
Welcome to travel in 10.
Speaker A:This week we're diving into a place that was once the heart of the Habsburg Empire, one of the most powerful dynasties in Europe.
Speaker A:A city that shaped culture, music and politics for centuries, but now maybe a bit underrated when it comes to being a travel destination in Europe.
Speaker A:Paris, known for its romance, London, for its energy.
Speaker A:Rome, its Asian history.
Speaker A:But Vienna, I don't know, what is Vienna all about?
Speaker A:What is it known for?
Speaker A:It's a city I haven't been to yet, but I know my co host has been to many times and been there very recently as well.
Speaker A:So today we're diving into Vienna.
Speaker A:Tim, how are you doing this week?
Speaker B:I'm great, David.
Speaker B:Great to see you.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, I really, I really agree with that assessment.
Speaker B:I really think that Vienna is, you know, it was obviously the capital of the Habsburg Empire.
Speaker B:It has all that accumulated wealth over the centuries, and it's left all these most beautiful, stunning things to see.
Speaker B:But I really do feel like it's underrated.
Speaker B:You know, I mean, people talk about, oh, I'm going to go to Europe, as you mentioned, I'm going to go to Paris, I'm going to go to London, I'm going to go to Berlin, even Istanbul, Athens, I mean, all these cities.
Speaker B:Barcelona, we just talked about Barcelona.
Speaker B:But I think Vienna often gets left off the list.
Speaker B:And I've been several times, I've been there on river cruises most recently.
Speaker B:And we'll talk a little bit more about this.
Speaker B:I was there to dance.
Speaker B:And so it is, it is really a beautiful city.
Speaker B:And I believe that it's a city that every traveler should have at the top of their list.
Speaker A:Okay, well, we got to start there to dance.
Speaker A:What is that all about?
Speaker A:What, what was the story there?
Speaker B:So I.
Speaker B:So it is, this year, significantly, is the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Johann Strauss II.
Speaker B:And maybe our listeners would not be necessarily as familiar with him as they would be with somebody like Beethoven or Mozart, but he was known as the Waltz King and he is iconic.
Speaker B:He is really, you know, a person in Vienna that is venerated.
Speaker B:And so in honor of that, they are doing a lot of special celebrations this year in addition to the normal ball season, which every trade union, every, you know, all the different groups in Vienna do their own ball.
Speaker B:And so one of my editors emailed me and she said, how would you describe, in a word, your dance skills?
Speaker B:And I emailed her back and I said, terrible, terrible.
Speaker B:And she said, perfect, we're going to send you to Vienna and you're going to learn how to waltz.
Speaker B:And so this is probably one of the big recommendations that I would have when you're in Vienna.
Speaker B:And I have other related recommendations, but I'm just going to start out with the.
Speaker B:You can take Walt's lessons like I did at the Elmire Dance School.
Speaker B:I did about an hour.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, it wasn't like a.
Speaker B:Like a big commitment.
Speaker B:It might have been two hours.
Speaker B:And even with my complete lack of coordination and rhythm, by the end, I felt like I was, let's not say proficient, let's say, let's not even say capable.
Speaker B:I was okay.
Speaker B:I didn't fall down.
Speaker B:I didn't knock anyone else down.
Speaker B:And so, you know, I felt like I learned the basic steps.
Speaker B:And so this is something that.
Speaker B:That people can do, that people can do when they're in Vienna.
Speaker B:David, how.
Speaker B:How are your dance skills?
Speaker B:Are you.
Speaker B:Are you much of a waltzer?
Speaker A:I'm not much of a waltz guy.
Speaker A:You don't strike me as much waltz guy either.
Speaker A:I was surprised to hear that that is what drove you to Vienna, but I'm sure a unique experience, for sure.
Speaker A:What else?
Speaker A:When people aren't dancing, what else would you say are sort of the go to activities, particularly a first visit.
Speaker A:If somebody's going to Vienna for the first time, what do they really need to do when they come visit the city?
Speaker B:I mean, Stevens Platz, right in the middle of the city is the main square.
Speaker B:And that's really a good place to start.
Speaker B:Not far away, the city core.
Speaker B:You know, even though this was basically the capital, not of the world, but of a significant part of the world for a while, the city core is quite small and walkable.
Speaker B:And you can get, you know, go from Steven's Platz to.
Speaker B:To the Hofburg palace, which was the main home of the Hab, the Habsburgs for many, many centuries.
Speaker B:And, you know, you can do the royal apartments there, which is, you know, are somewhat similar to what you might see at other royal apartments in other cities.
Speaker B:But the thing that.
Speaker B:That I thought was most interesting there was they had a museum dedicated to Sisi, who was Empress Elizabeth.
Speaker B:And she is, I think, for me, as a North American, was not familiar to me.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I don't know if you've heard of her, but they had a museum there in Austria, in Germany, everybody knows about Sisi, and she had this very complex, sometimes dark, fascinating life, and they have a museum dedicated to her.
Speaker B:So that was really my introduction to Sisi.
Speaker B:So I would do the royal apartments at the Hofburg.
Speaker B:And then I would also do this CC Museum, Schonbrunn palace, also a little bit outside of the city core that I believe that was the summer palace, in many ways much more impressive than the Hofburg Palace.
Speaker B:So that's another place.
Speaker B:And I'm just going to mention two other spots that are worth it, that are related to, that are related to this anniversary of Strauss.
Speaker B:There's a place that is called the House of Strauss that was purchased by the Strauss family.
Speaker B:It's a former dance hall during this sort of waltzing rage in the 19th century.
Speaker B:People would get out of their houses and they would go and waltz and dance.
Speaker B:And there were many dozens of these dance halls.
Speaker B:So they took one of these and they restored it and dedicated it to the Strauss family.
Speaker B:So it's a museum, a traditional, traditional museum dedicated to the Strauss, not just Johann Strauss, but the Strauss family family.
Speaker B:And then there's this very new attraction, I believe when I was there just now in the fall, past fall, it was brand new and it's called New Dimensions.
Speaker B:And it is an immersive exhibit, an immersive museum dedicated to Johann Strauss II and his life.
Speaker B:And it's one of these places where you put on the headphones and you, as you walk through, everything automatically changes.
Speaker B:So, you know, for a composer and a musician to hear his compositions and to see, you know, in bright detail all of these scenes from his life and from the pieces that he composed, it really was super impressive.
Speaker B:So that those are kind of my main things to do when you're in town.
Speaker A:You've also mentioned to me, I know we were, a few weeks ago, we were talking about Christmas markets.
Speaker A:You were saying, for your money, this is probably some of the best Christmas markets in Europe as well, right?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Especially the ones, I believe it's at City Hall, Rathaus in, in, in Vienna, probably, you know, I mean, with apologies to Munich, because Munich's really good too.
Speaker B:This is probably the best Christmas market, I think, in the world.
Speaker B:I mean, it's just the, the grand scale that it's on.
Speaker B:And then they have this amazing track that you can skate on.
Speaker B:You know, it's kind of like a circuit.
Speaker B:And then all the usual beautiful things that you have at Christmas markets, from the arts and crafts and the sausages and the, the, the, the mold wine and everything.
Speaker B:So great Christmas markets as well.
Speaker A:You're talking a little bit about some of, some of what to eat there at the, at the Christmas market.
Speaker A:Let's maybe dive into that both like what are, what are your, some of your favorites in terms of places to eat but also any, any really unique or memorable dishes, things that you would recommend people really try when they're there.
Speaker B:For sure.
Speaker B:When I was there just, just on this most recent tour a few months ago, we went to, we did a tour, we did kind walking tour which I would recommend also to do in Vienna.
Speaker B:And then we finished.
Speaker B:It was kind of a chilly night, kind of a dark night.
Speaker B:And we finished at this place called Palais Tedesco which was a palace that was built by an aristocratic family in the middle of the 19th century.
Speaker B:And it's, that's mostly, you know, I wouldn't say this is a place where you go for a six course dinner, mostly desserts and champagne, but they had grand piano and just this beautiful.
Speaker B:I mean it feels, it's called a palace.
Speaker B:It feels like a palace.
Speaker B:It is a palace.
Speaker B:So great place to go.
Speaker B:I would say, you know, if you're looking for a date night with your wife or you're looking for just kind of a special place to go and have a quick, quick bite in a beautiful place for, for foodies, for people who really want great local food.
Speaker B:There's a Michelin listed restaurant called Restaurant Rote Bar which is in the Sasher Hotel.
Speaker B:And they take the Viennese favorites and then they put an upscale spin on them.
Speaker B:So you think about what's the, what's the most classic Viennese meal, you know, Wiener schnitzel.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so they take that and they make it with suckling veal and all these beautiful local ingredients.
Speaker B:And again it's a beautiful setting, historic building.
Speaker B:Um, so I would say Restaurant Rope Bar.
Speaker B:And then I'm just going to say, you know, kind of a local favorite.
Speaker B: ral or Cafe Central opened in: Speaker B:Which is better than it sounds, I should say.
Speaker B:And so yeah, so there's a lot of good food in Vienna.
Speaker A:And you know, you talked a bit about it being, you know, this, this underrated city in Europe.
Speaker A:I mean a, why, why you think that is?
Speaker A:Why is it so.
Speaker A:So underrated?
Speaker A:And, and B, you know, what would you say are kind of something that people don't know about it?
Speaker A:Something maybe more unexpected, quirky things that people might not know about the city.
Speaker B:That's a good question.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:It's underrated.
Speaker B:I think it's just, you know, even though Vienna Airlines, or I should say Austrian Airlines is one of the major world airlines, in some ways, it's not really on the way.
Speaker B:I think a lot of the places we visit are on the way to somewhere else.
Speaker B:So, you know, if you're flying Air France, you might stop over for a few days in Paris or, you know, London.
Speaker B:I know many of my visits to London were because I was flying through London to the continent somewhere.
Speaker B:So I think, I think that might be it.
Speaker B:And it's.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And in terms of things that are kind of quirky and interesting, I mean, it's got one of the best shopping streets in Europe, which is, which is beautiful.
Speaker B:And they've got this great.
Speaker B:And I guess many European cities have this.
Speaker B:But they have this great statue that's dedicated to the end of the plague.
Speaker B:And you see it and you're like, oh my gosh, this is beautiful.
Speaker B:Who's this dedicated.
Speaker B:What is this?
Speaker B:And it's dedicated to the end of the Black Plague, which is, you know, obviously something that was a big problem in Europe for many, many years.
Speaker B:And one of the other things, and I was going to put this into my can't miss, but I, you know, let's do, let's do the can't miss right now, which is kind of a quirky, not quirky, but kind of unexpected thing, is the fact that Vienna is very close to another European capital.
Speaker B:And this is definitely a European capital that people maybe don't have anywhere near the top of their list.
Speaker B:But it's Bratislava, which is the capital of Slovakia.
Speaker B:So people don't know for many years Czech Republic and what they call Czechia now in Slovakia, we're one country called Czechoslovakia.
Speaker B:Slovakia is a separate country.
Speaker B:Its capital is Bratislava.
Speaker B:It's on the Danube.
Speaker B:And from Vienna you can actually get on a ferry.
Speaker B:It's only 75 minutes.
Speaker B:The transit is on the Danube river, this world famous, beautiful European river, and you arrive in Bratislava 75 minutes later.
Speaker B:So you can do two European capitals.
Speaker B:You don't have to get a car or train.
Speaker B:You can ride on the river and you get to experience both in one day.
Speaker B:So I think that's, that's probably, that's probably my, my most hidden, quirky, interesting thing to do there.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:And so for, for people like me and you who like to try and cover off as many countries around the world as they can, an easy way to to get, get a two for one there and in one trip.
Speaker A:So that's good.
Speaker A:And for what I've seen, Bratislava is really affordable as well, right?
Speaker A:Like you could, could you like stay in Bratislava and use that as your base to explore?
Speaker A:Like, are they close enough?
Speaker A:And transportation's easy enough between that you could kind of stay on that side and, and tour Vienna from there.
Speaker B:You could, I mean, you could.
Speaker B:I have never, I've never actually stayed overnight in Bratislava.
Speaker B:I've been there again, riding the river, whether it's on a river cruise or something like this ferry.
Speaker B:But ostensibly, yeah, you could.
Speaker B:And I mean, Bratislava in itself is quite a lovely place.
Speaker B:It's, it's got this hilltop castle, it's got a very walkable old town.
Speaker B:Again, it's right on the Danube River.
Speaker B:So you could, you could do it in reverse.
Speaker B:Although Vienna, I would say Vienna itself, even though it is a major European capital, it's a historic place to some extent a popular attraction.
Speaker B:It is not necessarily the most expensive city in, you know, in comparison with Paris or London or places like that, it is relatively affordable.
Speaker B:So I would probably, my recommendation would be stay in Vienna, do the day trip to Bratislava.
Speaker B:But you could do it in reverse as well.
Speaker A:And if you, and if you are staying in Vienna, where, what are your go tos?
Speaker A:Where, where should somebody be checking out for places to stay?
Speaker B:Great, great question.
Speaker B:So on this trip that I just did in the fall, we stayed at a beautiful place called Palais Coburg.
Speaker B:Again, this is an actual palace, a lot of palaces in Vienna.
Speaker B:And it was built right into the city walls.
Speaker B:And the room that I had was just.
Speaker B:The ceiling was just glass skylights and the view out over the church spires of the city was just absolutely stunning.
Speaker B:You know, sometimes I would just sit.
Speaker B:They had a kind of a separate living room and bedroom.
Speaker B:Sometimes I would just sit on the couch and just love, you know, enjoy the view.
Speaker B:So Palais Coburg and they have a great wine cellar with, with a lot of unique cool wines.
Speaker B:You can do a wine tour down there.
Speaker B:We did that with the little group that I was with.
Speaker B:So that, that is a recommendation.
Speaker B:Couple other quick ones.
Speaker B:I would say, you know, Park Hyatt is a, is, is always a good option when you're in Vienna.
Speaker B:That's probably the hottest, coolest, hottest and coolest hotel bar in the city.
Speaker B:And you know what, you, you can't go wrong with the Ritz Carlton.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:So it was.
Speaker B:Ritz Carlton was built from four separate 19th century palaces.
Speaker B:And also again, feels like a palace.
Speaker B:So those would be, those would be my recommendations for places to stay.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Well, sounds like a great destination.
Speaker A:I'm disappointed.
Speaker A:It's one that I, on my recent trip to Europe I tried to get to but we just couldn't, couldn't make flights aligned to.
Speaker A:I managed to hit four countries in I think the 10 days I had in Europe last time I was there, but it was the fifth I was trying to sneak in and didn't, didn't manage to to get there.
Speaker A:So looking forward to getting there on, on a future trip.
Speaker A:But that's some awesome recommendations, Tim, and certainly somewhere I'm looking forward to checking out soon.
Speaker A:So thank you again for taking the time as you travel around the world.
Speaker A:Always great to get your recommendations and for everybody listening, you know, as always we would love it if you've got time to give us a reading or review, whether it's on Spotify or Apple Podcast or wherever you catch our podcasts.
Speaker A:And check out all of our other shows from around the world@voyescape.com, where not only can you find all the past episodes of Travel in 10 that Tim and I have done, but also several other travel podcasts with other podcasters and other content creators that we're working with from around the world to continue bringing you great recommendations on how to travel more and how to travel better to different destinations around the world.
Speaker B:Thanks so much, David.
Speaker B:Always a pleasure to chat with you and I hope you have a fantastic week.
Speaker B:Can't wait to chat with you next week.
Speaker A:Sounds great.
Speaker A:Thanks very much.
