SWITZERLAND & AUSTRIA VIENNA DESTINATIONS A
ustria’s capital is an explosion of imperial
grandeur. It’s a city packed with ancient palaces and extravagant opera houses, but it’s also a very modern capital, with an efficient metro system and fantastic rail access to Europe’s best bits. Take the time to explore
VIENNA
Have a whirl of a time in Austria’s capital, says
Tamara Hinson
beyond the opera houses and palaces, and you’ll also discover a city which is both wonderfully quirky and achingly cool.
w DAY ONE 09.00: Start the day with breakfast at the Vollpension on Schleifmühlgasse 16. Referred to by locals as the ‘granny cafe’, it was the brainchild of local designers Mike Lanner and Moriz Piffl, who wanted to create a business which would allow Vienna’s elderly citizens to top up their pensions while also providing a place where they could socialise. Lanner and
Piffl also had a mutual love of their grannies’ cakes. Today, the 30-strong workforce includes 20 grannies and granddads, who work five-hour “granny shifts” – there are always two at work baking and one serving customers. The cafe is kitted out with vintage magazines, lovingly up-cycled armchairs and faded photographs, but the Vollpension is anything but fusty – regular events include sets by local DJs and erotic literature readings by one of the grannies.
10.00: Equally quirky are the Vienna Ugly tours (€5). Run by Eugene Quinn, a Brit who moved to Vienna seven years ago, the tours are designed to expose visitors to the structures often overshadowed by Vienna’s finery. Highlights of the tour include the garish, multicoloured facade of Leopoldsgasse 39 and the Second World War anti-aircraft
towers which loom over the city, which Quinn sees as a reminder of a darker period of Vienna’s history – one often airbrushed from view.
13:00: Head to Lingenhel on Hauptstraße 74 for a light lunch. Part restaurant, part deli, it opened its doors last year and is owned by cheese aficionado John Lingenhel. The monastery- like interior is beautiful, with curved stone ceilings and huge marble tables. You can dine on everything from risottos to enormous sharing platters of local cheeses, although the passion for local produce means that the menu changes daily. There’s also a great range of local wines; Vienna is one of the few cities in the world with vineyards inside its boundaries.
15:00: Time for some retail therapy. The city centre
20 July 2017
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PICTURE: WIENTOURISMUS/CHRISTIAN STEMPER
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