As a child, my parents and I often visited Austria. As a young adult I skied in Pertisau. But for as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to visit Vienna. Especially in winter. Since I was 11 or 12 I have watched, every New Year’s Day, the famous Wiener Philharmonic Concert broadcast live from Vienna. Since I have lived in North America, I watch it on PBS each January 1. Alas, landing at Vienna Airport did not mean that we’d get to see the city since we had to travel straight on to Bratislava in Slovakia for writing presentations at an international school there.
However, the lovely educator who hosted us, surprised us by saying “Let’s go to Vienna on Saturday!” Turns out it’s only an hour drive from Bratislava, Slovakia to Vienna, Austria.
We dressed warmly, piled in the car and drove the highway to Vienna. There we walked for hours! We saw it all: the famous buildings, the statues, the squares. Well, not really all of it, I’m sure we will have to go back to see the rest of the splendor and historic buildings.
I love roaming the streets where Mozart once walked. His picture is everywhere since every store, it seems, sells Mozart kugels - those delicious chocolate and almond balls.
We watch Lippizaner stallions at the famous stables of the Hofburg. We walk by Sissy’s palace, admiring the wrought iron gates and statues. It’s November, with fall leaves blowing along the wide sidewalks and Christmas markets sprouting up everywhere. People skate on outdoor ice rinks and sip hot glühwein. Of course, we had to try a famous Viennese coffee shop for coffee with Sacher Torte.
But the absolute crowning glory of our day in Vienna is a visit to the National Library’s Prunksaal. This mind blowing ‘cathedral of books’ feels more like a church than a library but was indeed built as a library several hundred years ago and hosts more than 200,000 leather bound books. For a book lover this is paradise - to be surrounded by floor to ceiling gorgeous books in a place where books are revered… I felt very privileged to walk around, to see and sniff books in this historic building.
This brief visit to Vienna left me wanting to come back for more to this beautiful, musical city along the Danube.
https://www.hofburg-wien.at/en/
https://www.onb.ac.at/en/museums/state-hall
https://www.onb.ac.at/museen/prunksaal/
