Posted by pdittman on May 20th, 2025 in '25 - Europe
First impressions on arriving in Vienna seemed almost a bit of architectural whiplash after spending time in Prague, with its diverse historical architectural styles, including Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque.
In fairness, Vienna has its share of Gothic landmarks like St.Stephen’s Cathedral, and opulent Baroque palaces such as Schönbrunn and the Karlskirche, these seemed to be scattered throughout the parts of the city we visited, and less so of the ‘everyday’ streets.
For us, perhaps that impression is just a reflection of our drab AirBnB.
That said, our visit to Vienna did include some amazing sights, as well as a day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia.
FIrst on our list included St. Stephens Cathedral. With its ground breaking in 1137 and evolution over the years as the mother church of the archdiocese of Vienna, the cathedral has been the site of many important events in Habsburg and Austrian history. Its multi-coloured (230,000 glazed) tile roof, is one of the city’s most recognizable symbols.
St Stephen’s Cathedral
Vienna known, among other things, for it’s incredibly rich musical tradition, included a number of famous classical masters like Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert, all of whom are central figures of Viennese classicism.
To honor that, it seemed fitting to include a classical concert in our visit, and where better than the Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, including 1,441 rooms!
The Schönbrunn Palace
Part of our visit to the palace included a concert in the palace’s Orangery by the Schönbrunn Palace Orchestra. A very enjoyable time!
Orchestral stage in the Schönbrunn Palace Orangery prior to the concert.
The next day, we paid a visit to the Albertina Museum – which had featured a special exhibition of Van Gogh and Matthew Wong’s works entitled “Painting as a Last Resort”. The exhibition in part draws parallels between the two artists to go beyond their stylistic influences into their own characters: a parallel Wong himself noted. Both faced mental health challenges, for example. Both also died far too early.
Some masterful pieces included Van Gogh’s the garden of Daubigny and Wong’s Starry Night (2019)
Matthew Wong’s Starry Night
and other Van Gogh paintings, such as “the Garden of Daubigny” – one of three versions of the same motif. Note the black cat in the foreground indicates this is the first in this series.
While in Vienna, on a whim, we decided on a day trip to Bratislava – about an hour’s boat ride on the Danube. Read about it in this separate post.
On return from Bratislava, we ducked into a traditional Viennese restaurant – to escape the light rain and enjoy some schnitzel served by waiters in Lederhosen. An enjoyable dinner.
Soon, though, it was time to depart Vienna, on to our next destination – Budapest.
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Yes, it was an epic adventure – exhausting but in the end, it became everything we had hoped for when we first started planning, and then far exceeded our hopes! Having returned safely and without any snags in our journey, it seemed only fitting to share some key takeaways – those things that we learned and more deeply appreciated about the world we live in – as well as a few tips we found valuable and which helped make it
