By Anthony Dylan Anak Frankie Jurem
Bratislava, Slovakia was a great short stay and full of historical places within the old city. On the last day, we left Bratislava, Slovakia by Slovak Lines to Vienna. We reached Vienna Haupt Bahnhof (HBF), Vienna’s main train station, a trip of just over 1.5 hours and walked through the station to our IBIS Wien Hbf Hotel.
After a quick check-in, we took the opportunity to do a leisurely walk towards the city of Vienna. They call Vienna, “Wien.” It was about a 3 km walk to the centre of the city of Vienna. The weather was rather gloomy when we arrived in Vienna and luckily it held until we were back from our whole quick city afternoon walk.
We had the opportunity to head into Café Demel without much fuss as surprisingly, there was not a long queue. This place was well known for its desserts along with Hotel Sacher’s Café. We were ushered upstairs in a very elegant European setting. We ordered ‘Kaiserschmarrn’, a ‘Sachertorte’ and a Café Latte to share between the both of us.
According to the internet, “The Demel Kaiserschmarrn refers to the famous, deconstructed pancake dessert served at Demel, a historic Viennese pastry shop established in 1786. The dish features a fluffy, torn pancake with a crispy exterior, typically served with a tart plum sauce that perfectly balances its sweetness. The dessert is a highlight of the Demel experience, offering a taste of Austrian history and craftsmanship within an elegant and traditional setting.”
Vienna is home to the highly competitive chocolate cake. This chocolate cake is typically a chocolate sponge cake with apricot jam and chocolate glaze. One is by Café Demel and another by Hotel Sacher. The feud is still felt today. Hotel Sacher won the claim to be the Original Sacher-Torte, and this would be imprinted on a chocolate piece on each slice. Café Demel has the right to place Eduard Sacher-Torte’ as an imprint.
The difference was that Café Demel’s version has one sponge layer whilst Hotel Sacher has two sponge layers. As we could only choose one café on this day, we decided to try Café Demel’s version first. The cake was indeed quite rich without being overly sweet. The Demel Kaiserschmarrn was something different and it was served with stewed tart plums. After having our fill, we wandered awhile within the old city and went into St Peterskirche (St Peter’s Church). The Baroque styled Roman Catholic Church was completed in 1733. Visitors were allowed in as long as no church mass are in service. The beautiful domes and interior were a sight to see and experience.
After a good night’s sleep, we had our fill at the included breakfast buffet. The weather remained gloomy and cloudy as we set out on that morning. Rain threatened to fall. We strolled around the magnificent Belvedere Palace Grounds and marveled at the Schloss Belvedere. We then walked towards the Palais Schwarzenberg (1907 Summertime Palace) before stopping by as the Hoshstrahlbrunnen fountain. We then took a turn to see the grounds of the Roman Catholic St Charles Church (Karlskirche 1737). On the way to the city, we passed by the historic Karlplatz Stadtbahn Station which was designed by Otto Wagner.
We took a break from our walk to queue up at the famous Hotel Sacher to try their Sacher-Torte. This was to complete our taste of the two best known Sachertorte in Austria. As mentioned before, the Hotel Sacher version had the “Original Sacher-torte’ word imprinted on a chocolate piece on each slice. We also ordered the “Apfelstrudel” which had chunks of tart apples and the right sweetness. Between Demel and Hotel Sacher, who had the best Sacher-torte? We liked both as each had their own character.
We also passed by Musikverein Wien (concert hall) and made our way to the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera). There are a lot of museums to cover in Vienna. The Albertina Modern Museum, Albertina Art Museum, Hofsburg with the landscaped Heldenplatz in the front and the Sisi Museum. Vienna has many plazas with the main ones being Rathausplatz, Michaelerplatz and Stephanplatz. You could also find the Sigmund Freud Park with an excellent view off the neo–Gothic Roman Catholic Votive Church 1879.
We also visited the Pfarre St Michael (St Michael’s Church 1217) the Augustinerkirche (St Augustin’s Church 1349) and Domkirche St Stephan (St Stephen’s Cathedral 1578). As a Roman Catholic Cathedral, St. Stephen’s Cathedral is the symbol of Vienna and the very center of the city. At 136 meters in height, it is the tallest church in Austria. The internet has this fact, “The tallest of its four towers is the south tower at 136 meters. The tower room, from which there is a gigantic view across Vienna, is reached via 343 steps. A total of 13 bells hang here. However, the best known of them, the Pummerin, hangs in the 68-meter-tall north tower. It is the second-biggest free-swinging chimed church bell in Europe.”
We went to The Figlmüller for dinner. They have two locations near the cathedral, and we went to the newer place. The older space had been filled up with a longer queue. They have been serving golden breaded schnitzel since 1905. Opened by Johann Figlmüller, they are known for the Wiener Schnitzel made with pork or veal. Veal is the original choice of meat though pricier than pork. I had to get the original It came well breaded and was up to expectation. The vogerlsalad completed dinner with a dom wasser which was water of which the proceeds went to the cathedral.
We ended our day with a slow walk back to the hotel via the beautiful gardens. We clocked quite a bit of steps and kilometres this day but felt fulfilled. On the way back we bought some groceries and that include cans of sardines, olives and the famous Manner Neopolitan Wafers.
A fun fact from their website reads. “Manner wafers are made of five layers of tender wafers filled with four layers of delicate hazelnut cocoa cream, containing 12% hazelnuts in the cream. The wafers are cut into bite-sized pieces and are available in the convenient 75g package. Manner Original Neapolitan Wafers were invented in 1898 by the company’s founder Josef Manner I. The format and basic recipe remain unchanged to this day. For instance, up to 4,000 Manner wafers are sold at the Manner shop at Vienna’s Stephansplatz each day. Around two packs of Manner wafers are eaten every second!
We had a good sleep at the hotel before we yet again filled ourselves at the buffet breakfast overlooking the train station. Our next destination that morning would be Graz. We took the “railjet” train using our pre bought Eurail Pass. This pass must be bought via an app which you can use to add, or change based on the package you got. Ours would cover our travels from Vienna to Graz, Graz to Salzburg, Salzburg to Innsbruck and lastly to Zurich in Switzerland. The ride was great, and the cabins were comfortable. The trip was about 2.5 hours.
This ends the second part of my series of travel writing in Europe. Next would be the second largest city of Austria, Graz. It is also the capital of the Austrian state of Styria.
