Vienna: Five Weeks in the City That Became Ours

G had been to Vienna before. Multiple times. She knew it the way you know a city you keep returning to. Every time she came back, she'd tell me about the coffee, the architecture, the way afternoons seemed to stretch without anyone getting anxious about it. She kept saying I had to see it.

We flew from Toronto into Zurich in late August, made our way to Austria, and didn't leave for five weeks.

We bounced between three hotels. The Hilton Vienna Park became our main base, on Am Stadtpark, right across from the park with the golden Johann Strauss statue. Also stayed at The Levante Parliament near the Austrian Parliament building, which had more personality: contemporary art in the rooms, rooftop terrace overlooking the Ringstrasse. And the FourSide Hotel & Suites, which was fine but turned into a months-long refund fight with Hotels.com. For extended stays: book direct with the property. Always.

The first week was palaces. Vienna is a city built by empires, and the empires left everything behind. We started with Schonbrunn Palace, the Habsburg summer residence. over a thousand rooms. Baroque gardens stretching behind the building for what feels like a mile. A maze that's been confusing visitors since the 1700s. We did the Grand Tour (40 rooms, not the 22-room Imperial Tour) on a Tuesday morning at 9 AM when it opens. By 10, the tour buses arrive and the rooms get dense. The gardens, the maze, and the walk up to the Gloriette pavilion on the hilltop are all free. The view back across the grounds toward the city from up there stopped us both for a few minutes. The zoo on the grounds, Tiergarten Schonbrunn, opened in 1752, is the oldest operating zoo in the world, and is surprisingly good. Not a sad zoo. We spent a full afternoon there.

The next day we did Belvedere Palace, which is where Klimt's "The Kiss" lives. That painting alone justifies the visit. But G was more taken with the gardens between the Upper and Lower Belvedere: free, immaculately maintained, with a view from the upper terrace looking north across the reflecting pool that became one of our favorite spots. We went back twice more in five weeks.

Hofburg Palace took most of a day on its own. Winter residence of the Habsburgs for 600 years, now housing the Spanish Riding School, the Sisi Museum, and the Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer). The Treasury was the standout for me. The Imperial Crown, made in the 10th century. The Holy Lance, supposedly the spear that pierced Christ's side, which the Habsburgs kept because if you're going to collect things, might as well go big.

By the second week, we stopped doing tourist things and started doing Vienna things. Mornings at Cafe Central, which opened in 1876 in a vaulted marble hall that feels like a cathedral repurposed as a living room. Trotsky played chess here. Freud had coffee here. We'd order a Melange and the Apfelstrudel, made in-house with pastry pulled thin enough to read through. The filling is warm, spiced with cinnamon, rum-soaked raisins with just enough booze to notice. We stayed for three hours on our first visit. G was reading, I was people-watching, and at some point we'd been sitting in silence for 45 minutes and neither of us had noticed. We went back almost every other day after that.

Afternoons were for walking the Ringstrasse, the boulevard circling the inner city, built in the 1860s after they tore down the medieval walls. The full loop takes about an hour and passes the State Opera, the Parliament, the Rathaus, the Burgtheater. Every building was designed by someone who assumed the empire would last forever. Late afternoon, when the stone turns gold, was the best time.

The Naschmarkt became our Saturday morning routine. About a kilometer of stalls: olives, cheese, cured meats, fish, kebabs, strudel. The falafel near the Kettenbruckengasse end is some of the best outside the Middle East. We learned quickly to arrive before 10. By noon, you can't move.

Week three is when the food got serious. Steirereck in the Stadtpark. Three Michelin stars. World's 50 Best for over a decade. Chef Heinz Reitbauer Jr. sources from the restaurant's own farm in Styria and a rooftop herb garden. The signature: char cooked in beeswax. They pour hot beeswax over a raw fillet at your table and the fish cooks inside it for nine minutes. Then it comes back plated with yellow beetroot and sour cream. G turned to me after the first bite and said "this is the best fish I've ever eaten" with the kind of certainty that doesn't invite debate. She was right. Andi's Brotwagen, the bread trolley, carries loaves from ten Viennese bakeries. We went back for seconds. Lunch is the smart play: four courses for about 155 euros versus 225+ for dinner. Same kitchen, better light.

Figlmuller became our schnitzel spot. Open since 1905, the Wollzeile location is the original. Veal, pounded thin, breaded, fried in clarified butter, hanging over the plate. Potato salad with vinegar dressing. We went three times in five weeks. By the third visit the host nodded at us like regulars. That felt like an accomplishment in a city where we didn't speak the language.

The last two weeks were about the Heuriger. Wine taverns in the outer districts: Grinzing, Neustift am Walde, Stammersdorf. They serve young wine (Heuriger means "this year's") with simple food: cold cuts, cheese, bread, pickles. You sit in courtyard gardens under old chestnut trees with a carafe of Gruner Veltliner and watch the afternoon disappear. G kept saying "this is what I was trying to tell you about" and I finally understood.

Mayer am Pfarrplatz in Heiligenstadt is one of the most famous, partly because Beethoven lived in the building in 1817. 10er Marie in Ottakring has been running since 1740 and has a garden that feels like you stumbled into it by accident. Neither shows up in tourist guides. Both are better than anything that does.

Our luggage got wrecked on the return flight. Lufthansa. Forms, more forms, months of back-and-forth.

Vienna became our city after this trip. Not because we did everything. We didn't. But we stayed long enough to stop trying. That was the whole trick. ---