Strandbar Herrmann, Danube Canal Photo: WienTourismus / Peter Rigaud
Vienna Opera Ball Photo: WienTourismus / Peter Rigaud / Couture Vivienne Westwood Vienna
Riding School Hofburg Palace.“ A Tribute to Vienna,” combines the“ Ballet of the White Stallions” with the ethereal harmonies of the Vienna Boys‘ Choir, which resonate magically in the ornate, Baroque setting of the winter riding school.
STROLL IN SPITTELBERG
No romantic trip to Vienna is complete without an arm-in-arm stroll under the glowing lamplight of the old town. Almost anywhere within the Ringstrasse will do, but just outside the southwest boundary at Maria- Theresien-Platz, is the fairytale. Spittelberg, the perfectly preserved“ village in the city” of cobblestone lanes, Biedermeier townhouses, and idyllic squares, is Vienna’ s second largest pedestrian zone and home to arts and craft shops, seasonal markets, art galleries, restaurants, design studios and small music clubs. It’ s made to be taken slow, warmed from the inside out in winter with a cup of mulled wine.
SIGMUND FREUD MUSEUM
Sometimes a museum is just a museum, except when it’ s dedicated to famed psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. The good doctor’ s former office and apartment, where he developed his revolutionary theories of psychoanalysis and lived until the Nazis forced him to flee, now tells his remarkable story in an exhibition documenting the life and work. Many of the furnishings and accouterments, particularly in the waiting room, are original, donated by Freud’ s youngest daughter, Anna. She also supplied films from the private life of Freud and his family. Additional galleries host exhibitions by artists exploring similar boundaries of consciousness and unconsciousness.
SCHONBRUNN PALACE
If your jaw doesn’ t drop at sheer size of this 1,411-room Baroque palace at the outskirts of Vienna, perhaps it will at the fact that it was merely the summer getaway for the Hapsburg family. Built to rival Versailles, it certainly made every effort, stuffing each room with an exhausting amount of frescoed ceilings, grand staircases, herringbone floors, crystal chandeliers, wall-sized tapestries, huge mirrors, and gilded ornaments. It was in the Mirrors Room that a six-year-old Mozart famously sprang upon the lap of Empress Maria Theresa and got a kiss from her. The surrounding 435-acre grounds are equally astonishing, with embroidery-like flower gardens, marble statuary, a hedge maze, fountains, an orangery, zoo, and botanic garden. Multiple tours inside and out are available according to your imperial appetite.
FLYWASHINGTON. COM 26 SPRING 2017