Watching Vienna Go By

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One of the best ways to get to know Vienna, Austria’s capital, is by sitting in at a coffeeshop enjoying a mélange and a slice of mouthwatering apple strudel and watching the city go by.

A mélange, popular throughout Austria, is a combination of espresso and steamed milk topped with milk froth. The milk gives the bitter coffee drink a creamy texture and a flavor balance that is surprisingly delightful. The freshly baked strudel, with its crisp, paper-thin shell surrounding the sweet apples inside knows no peer when it comes to dessert, except perhaps for a sachertorte, a rich chocolate cake that is equally wonderful.

We began to settle into our Viennese visit with our first sip of mélange at Aida, a pink marble-lined coffee and pastry shop down the street from St. Stephen’s Cathedral located on the aptly named Stephansplatz. The area is a blend of both historical and commercial enterprises, like so many cities in Central Europe, and is walking distance from the museum district and the Habsburg-era winter castle and residence complex.

Many European capitals are chockful of history and impressive architecture. Vienna stands out for its elegance and its monuments, including one inspired by the bubonic plague, also known as the “Black Death,” which took the lives of an estimated 76,000 city residents in 1679. Statues of saints and statesmen pepper the downtown area, each standing taller than the next and representing various regimes that helped build the exquisite city on the ruins of Vindobona, an early Roman settlement said to be the place where philosopher Marcus Aurelius died at the end of his reign as Roman governor in 180 A.D.

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City with a Soundtrack

But Vienna has more surprises, including the Weiner Reisenrad, a 125-year-old Ferris wheel in Prater Park that still offers passengers a bird’s-eye view of the city. It’s also a city with a soundtrack, including the strains of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Richard Strauss, the later responsible for “The Blue Danube Waltz,” which gives the nearby river its familiar although inaccurate moniker. Today live concerts abound in Vienna, and they are something you should at least sample once.

For us, it was a stroll through the Habsburg compound that was especially impressive. You can walk the grounds or pay for various tours that showcase the elegance of the monarchy that ruled Austria and the surrounding countries for centuries, making Vienna the de facto capital.

The buildings are massive, the history fascinating, especially in the hands of a knowledgeable guide. The 1914 assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, presumptive heir of the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is credited with starting World War I, which led to conflicts for much of the rest of the 20th century.

But as with other cities on our journey, history continues its flow and, as Shakespeare said, what is past is prologue. It will be fascinating for future generations to see the Vienna of the years to come. But even now, it’s worth a visit.

Where are you, Harry Lime?

Fans of the film The Third Man, the 1949 noir espionage classic that takes place in post-World War II Vienna starring Orson Welles, will be pleased to know that there is both a museum dedicated to the film, as well as tours of film locations in the city. Tours include the sewers beneath the city streets that were part of the film’s climax. We didn’t take the tour, but as sewers go, we’re told the aroma and occasional rat are not as bad as might be expected. (Info: visitingvienna.com/songsfilms/third-man-tour.)