Vienna 2026

We set off in the evening on the Nightjet from Hamburg to Vienna, our first trip on a night train. We had booked one of the mini cabins, small sleeping pods with their own door. The night was pretty bumpy, but we still slept quite well, and the noise wasn’t an issue at all. Breakfast was coffee or tea and two bread rolls with jam. We arrived in Vienna just 20 minutes late.

In Vienna, we first dropped our things off at the hotel and then walked along Mariahilfer Straße into the city centre. For lunch we went to s’Müllerbeisl and had a Wiener Schnitzel and a pan of Käsespätzle. After that we headed on to the Naschmarkt, where we got the full Vienna experience right away: first the cheese sellers pulled our leg with their banter and handed us cheese to try. But when we didn’t want to buy 5 kg of cheese for €50, the fun was over pretty quickly and the famous local grumpiness came out. We were sent away rather rudely. In the end, all we took home were some raspberry Manner wafers. Past the Austrian National Library and the Hofburg, we then made our way to the Sacher. We had booked a table at Café Bel Etage in advance, because the queue outside the café was really long. We had Sachertorte and a Melange, plus warm apple strudel and a tea. In the afternoon we went out to Schönbrunn. The Christmas market is already being set up in front of the palace. We walked behind the palace through the park up to the Gloriette and stayed there until it got dark.

On Sunday we went to a performance of the Spanish Riding School in the Winter Riding School at the Hofburg. For 70 minutes we watched young Lipizzaners still in training as well as fully trained horses with their riders. The hall is very grand and the performance was wonderful. Taking photos and filming wasn’t allowed during the performance, so there are no pictures of it. After that we went to Stephansplatz and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. In the afternoon, despite the drizzle, we headed out to the Prater and had Kaiserschmarrn there.