Alter Ego

Travel

Wien to Eat and Sleep

I must confess that Austria was not that high on the list of countries that I wanted to visit. Neither was Wien (or Vienna to the English speaking world). However, my wife wanted to take the boys skiing and so we planned a skiing trip to the Austrian Alps in 2006. As it turned out, our number two, David, could not join us due to scout activities that coincided with our travel period. For various reasons, we decided to fly to Vienna and then take the train rather than to fly to Salzburg even though the latter was closer to our skiing area. One reason was to enable us to visit the famous Vienna Christmas market, Christkindlmarkt. We had about a week in Vienna before making our way to Dorfgastein in the Austrian Alps for five days. After that it was two nights in Salzburg and two more nights in Vienna before returning home. As it turned out, 2006 was the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth and evidence of this was everywhere, especially in the Mozart souvenirs and Mozart Kugeln chocolates everywhere. We tried some of the milk and dark chocolate with hazelnut nougat and pistachio marzipan praline centres and I found them quite good even though I normally prefer plain dark chocolate.

We bought KLM tickets early so it was cheaper but it required us to change planes in KLM's hub in Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. On the positive side, it meant an opportunity for me to pick up stroopwafels, my favourite Dutch biscuits. These traditional goodies are waffle-like biscuits baked from a mixture of butter, flour and eggs and filled with vanilla syrup. If I recall correctly, we bought 18 packs of stroopwafels in all. However, KLM is not like Singapore Airlines, with a personal LCD screen for every seat. The boys complained about crammed seats and asked if we could avoid flying on a budget airline the next time, thinking that all non-budget airlines provide personal LCD screens. (I call them boys only because of their ages but in fact Mark, at 17, is just about two inches under six feet and weighs over 200 pounds and Michael, at 13, is not that far behind in both respects. Incidentally, Mark does quite a good Arnold Schwarzenegger accent when he mimics the most famous person of Austrian origin he knows, in saying: 'My arms are like legs and my legs are like people').

Austria turned out to be a pleasant surprise and Vienna more so. Vienna is an old European city that was once the residence of the Habsburg rulers. Most people probably know Vienna from their world-class orchestras and famous boys' choir but to public international lawyers, Vienna has been the host to many important international conferences, including those leading to the famous conventions on diplomatic relations and the law of treaties. Probably less well known is the fact that Vienna has numerous museums and some of the world's best art can be found in them. I visited a number of museums but my favourite was the MUMOK (or Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien), a dark gray basalt cube-like building in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier.

An installation by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm of an upside down house smashed into the roof of the museum building was the first thing that attracted me to the building. We did eventually visit Christkindlmarkt at Rathausplatz where we also had some delicious chocolate fondue and jagartee (an invigorating hot drink of fruit snapps or rum with strong black tea). Although it was winter, the shoppers were out in full force, especially in the city centre. Most clothing stores had their winter wear on display but I could not help noticing that there were many lingerie stores in the city (really). These 'latest in women's winter fashion' stores appeared to be on every street in the shopping district. However, unlike some other European cities, there were not as many stores selling t-shirts for tourists apart from some selling the popular 'No kangaroos in Austria' t-shirts.

One bonus of our Vienna stay was a side trip to the spa town of Baden. It is less than half an hour away by train and was once known as the 'the dowager empress of health spas in Europe'. Apparently, it was first visited by the Romans in A.D. 100 and called Aquae by them. Needless to say, we enjoyed the thermal waters of Romertherme Baden, a new hot springs bathing complex built from two traditional hot sulphur spring baths in downtown Baden, and it was the highlight of our trip to Baden.

Eating in Vienna
Vienna is undoubtedly the food capital of Austria, with a wide selection of eating places besides the usual Austrian restaurants. Vienna is famous for its pastries and it's Kaffehaus (a café or up-market 'kopi-tiam'). However, eating in Vienna is an expensive activity, especially with the Euro being so strong. Luckily, there were some cheaper options. These included the ubiquitous pizza and kebab stalls and the wurstelstand (sausage stand). However, we preferred the food stalls in Naschmarkt and the mensen (university canteens) to them. The following are some of our favourite eating places.

Big Mensa (Technische Universitat, 4 Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10)
Big Mensa, like most mensen, is also open to the public. It is located in Technische Universitat and we had lunch there on three occasions. Apart from a range of a la carte dishes, it also serves a good daily set meal that averaged less than five Euros. It was also the mensa that was the closest to our apartment. Among the dishes we tried there were beef fusilli pasta, cream soup, grilled pork, pineapple chicken with rice, spaghetti bolognaise and grilled chicken with fries. The food was comparable to what the average restaurants served but often at about half the price.

Mensa (Neues Instituts Gebaude, 1, Universitatsstrasse 7)
We had lunch at the Mensa in Neues Instituts Gebaude once. The selection here was not as good as in Big Mensa but it is worth coming here just to experience the dumb-waiter lifts. The two lifts have no doors and the lifts move slowly but continuously up one side and down the other side. You are supposed to step into it like you step onto a moving escalator, but I did not know and pressed what looked like a 'going up' button that triggered off a loud alarm, a lot of commotion and Mark to comment 'I don't know you, Dad'. Once, we got the hang of it, the experience was really quite fun. So thrilled was Mark that he insisted I videotape him going up and down the lifts to show his friends back home. The Austrian students looking at us in amusement probably thought we were from some foreign provincial town or distant planet.

Naschmarkt is probably the best fruit and vegetable market in Vienna and fortunately for us, it was also within a short walk from our apartment. Apart from buying seafood, meat, dry groceries, fruit and vegetables, you can also dine at the various seafood, kebab, pizza, rice and noodle stalls in the market.

Café Sacher, in Hotel Sacher, was founded in 1876 by the son of Franz Sacher, the inventor of Sachertorte, that famous Viennese layered chocolate cake. The cake consists of two layers of chocolate dough with a layer of apricot jam in between and chocolate icing on the top and sides. It is usually served with a generous helping of whipped cream. Needless to say, I had to try Café Sacher's Sachertorte. My wife and I both had kaffee verkehrt and shared an apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and an Original Sachertorte. I found their Sachertorte to be the best of all those that I have eaten. By the way, I also tried the Sachertorte at their closest rival, Café Demel (see below). Demel's version is slightly different but almost as good. Apparently, the two were in a long running legal battle over the use of the name 'Original Sachertorte' and Demel lost.

Central Café was opened in 1860 and is probably the most famous of the Viennese cafes. In fact, Trosky was supposedly once a regular there. I spent a pleasant few hours there drinking a cup of mocca (a strong tasting Viennese black coffee similar to expresso) with my Sachertorte and listening to the resident pianist pay both classical and contemporary music. Although neither the coffee nor the cake was the best in Vienna, the overall cafe experience was the best I had in the city.

Founded in 1786, Demel is one of the most famous pastry shops in the world and an institution among pastry lovers. According to one writer, they have recipes for hundreds of pastries including Dory-Torte (a thin, elegant light chocolate cream Torte), Butterteigscheneckerln (a puff pastry filled with ground nuts and raisins), Bienenstich (a yeast cake filled with vanilla cream, covered with sugared almonds) and Jubilaeumskrapfen (a biscuit dough filled with a vanilla-raspberry cream, covered with raspberry gelee and ground almonds). Glass walls surround much of their kitchen and this allows customers to see the pastry chefs at work. From our table at the back of the café, we could see the non-stop activity that was going on in the kitchen. We had hot chocolate and melange (similar to a cappuccino) there with their Sachertorte and two other pastries.

Augustinerkeller (1, Augustinerstrasse 1)
Vienna is famous for its Heurigen, a traditional eating place located just outside the city in the wine-producing villages nearby. However, December was not a good time to visit the Heurigen and my wife and I settled for Augustinerkeller instead. It is a Stadtheurigen (or wine tavern) located in the cellar of a former monastery in the city centre. As promised by The Rough Guide to Austria, it served hearty Viennese food. I had a traditional soup of pancake strips and a wiener schnizel and my wife had a roast pork knuckle dish. I also had a glass of dessert wine from the region and we shared a Sachertorte. It was a very enjoyable meal.

Sleeping in Vienna
Hotel rooms in Vienna are expensive and so it was our good fortune to find quality accommodation that was both conveniently located and very reasonably priced. Both places where we stayed were superb.

Apartment II Opernring (1010 Wien, ElisabethstraBe 6/Stg.4/8.Stock/24)
My wife booked us to stay in an apartment that belonged to Familie Duschel for our first week in Austria. The apartment has a living room that doubles as a second bedroom with two sofa beds, a bedroom with a queen-sized bed, a medium-sized but well-equipped kitchen, a toilet and a bathroom. It also comes with cable television (although all but the CNN channel, appeared to be in German) and a notebook computer albeit with a slow internet connection. They even have a mobile phone for you to use although we did not need it. The apartment is very clean and also comes with a washing machine for you to do your laundry. Best of all, the SPAR supermarket and Karlsplatz underground station are within close walking distance. For 100 Euros a night for all four of us, you will be hard pressed to find a comparable deal in Vienna.

Wombat's The City Hostel - The Lounge ?(Mariahilfer StraBe 137)
I had the task of booking a place to stay during our last three days in Vienna before flying home. As it was for the period around New Year's Eve, most of the hotels were already fully booked and we did not have many choices left. Fortunately, I found Wombat's which had won awards from Hostelworld as the cleanest hostel in the world in 2003 and also as one of the top hostels worldwide. Wombat's The Base is the original hostel and Wombat's The Lounge opened about six months before our trip. I booked us for The Lounge as it was newer and closer to the underground station at Westbahnhof. For 96 Euros (or 24 Euros per person) a night, we got a private room with four beds and an attached toilet cum shower room. In addition, the price also included a buffet breakfast for each person.

Wombat's was a good choice as it was very clean and the staff were friendly and helpful. They also have a sense of humour. After going to the WomBar (their bar in the basement) to get our welcome drinks, we found helpful Austrian sentences translated to English on the menu, including the following:

Du bist wunderschon. - You are very beautiful.

Wie heisst Du? - What's your name?

Willst du mich heiraten? - Will you marry me?

Breakfast was a buffet spread of breads, ham, butter, jam, pate, eggs, pastries and cheese. There was also a choice of juices and a nifty drink-making machine that could make different types of coffee and hot chocolate. My wife and I visited their kitchen to see how much space was available for cooking and found that it was not very big. We also found a sign saying:

WE ARE NOT YOUR MOM! OR DAD
Please wash the dishes after you have used them. We don't do that! Others want to use them too.

It also went on to say:

Please label anything you put into the fridge with your name. There are people who think unlabelled food is common food.

We don't take responsibility for anything you leave in the fridge. If someone nicks it, bad luck! If you nick something and it sickens you, you should have learnt a lesson - we don't care …

As you leave the hostel, you are directed to leave through one of the glass doors. The other is meant to be kept shut all the time and had the following notice:

Fact: The one who uses THIS SIDE OF THE DOOR is damned not to have sex for the next 2 years!!!!

We did not see anyone use this door during our stay there.

There is so much more to Vienna than what we had seen, but unfortunately we did not have more time to spend there. In fact, on New Year's Eve, the day we were flying home, the entire city centre of Vienna was to be transformed into a giant ballroom with more than 700,000 people from Austria and abroad expected to cluster around the various stages set up all over the city. Public waltzing lessons were being provided in the early afternoon and the evening events were intended to include a wide range of music from samba to classical music. Needless to say, I enjoyed my stay in Vienna very much and it now goes on my list of places to revisit. In the words of that famous Austrian, 'I'll be back!'