Drinking coffee in Vienna

In Vienna you are always looking into the windows of the most enticing places to eat and drink coffee ...

I seriously doubt there is such a thing as mediocre food in this city. 

The pics above and below were taken at Vapiano - (off shopping-mecca Mariahilferstrasse) - where fast food has never tasted so fresh and delicious - and Phil in the Museumsquartier - a cosy bookshop café where along with your  salad or sandwiches you can browse or buy books, music, and even their retro furniture, or just settle in to their comfy sofas to enjoy the free Wifi with your coffee.

Viennna's coffee houses are legendary and they each have their distinctive styling and history, but on a few things you can depend ...

... your coffee will come served on a silver tray alongside a glass of water with an upturned spoon perfectly balanced across its top and a silver bowl of sugar cubes; there will be a handy coat-rack near every table for easy divesting of your outer street wear; there will be plentiful reading material in the form of racks of all the latest newspapers, magazines or reviews ... 

... and, best of all, you will be made to feel you can stay as long as you please. Does life get more civilised than this?  

Café Hawelka is low-lit and atmospheric in bohemian style ...

Owned and run since 1939 by Leopold Hawelka, together with his wife Josephine who died in 2005 (you can see them in the black and white photograph on one of the poster-covered walls above), Hawelka saw the end of an era with Leopold's death just a few weeks ago, on December 30th 2011, aged 100 - see here and also Merisi's photographic tribute here.

Along with your kleiner or grosser Brauner, or perhaps a Mélange (get your coffee lingo right, for heaven's sake), you might try their sachertorte - preferably mit schlag, the Austrian version of whipped cream, which is not only less sugary but light as air ...

Café Diglas, on the other hand, goes with stylish bold reds and espresso-cup chandeliers ...

... while Café Sperl is traditional, old-time Vienna with wood and brass, antique glass chandeliers and red brocade. You can sit here for hours with the newspapers and endless coffee ... 

and perhaps succumb to an apfelstrudel, why not? 

Leaving best to last? ...

is Demel, right in front of the Hofsburg palace - seen in the photo below through strings of Christmas lights in Kohlmarkt ...

Demel's location is no lucky coincidence. Dating back to 1786, they were suppliers to the royal court, and a particular favourite of Empress Sissi who had their confectionaries personally delivered from over the road. It still bears the official title of K.u.K (Imperial and Royal) Hofzuckerbäcker 

La Bella blends beautifully with the decor upstairs at Demel's. That hot chocolate was to die for! 

They were doing a roaring trade before Christmas, their famous fresh Demel cakes flying off the shelves practically as fast as they could get them out of the oven. (We bought one that traveled to family in America in time for Christmas ... and rave reviews).

At the back of the store it's possible to watch the bakers and patissiers in action, creating their masterpieces ...

In my dream-life I would come here every day for a taste of these delights, or a little Wiener frühstück, sitting at the little window table upstairs where Merisi first introduced me to Demel's and some of the finer points of Viennese coffee and pastry ... but given reality (and in the interests of my waistline) I will settle for visiting here at Vienna for Beginners, and so should you, for the virtual experience through photographs so much better than mine :)

Imperial Vienna at Christmas

Going away before Christmas means double the levels of rush and disorganisation that are already built into this time of year with festive celebrations and family birthdays rolled into one. This is why I'm only now, when I need to be preparing for a busy term, getting around to sifting through the millions of photos I took in late December of beautiful Vienna!

Pre-Christmas Wien was snowless but freezing, with some days of perfect sunshine when its gold shone ... 

I could not stop snapping the incredible dome of the Hofburg, Vienna's former Imperial Palace. In its chapel you can hear the Vienna Boys Choir sing mass every Sunday morning.

Power at Sea fountain, Hofburg Palace

Exploring the first district or Innere Stadt - Vienna's original walled city, now bounded by the circular Ringstrasse - we walked our feet off (this being the necessary justification for pigging out in Viennese kaffeehäuser, which will need a whole other post) ...

Joseph II gets on his high horse in Josefsplatz

... and how lucky were we to meet up with the best possible guide for our ventures, in the form of blogging friend, the generous and all-round-wunderbare Merisi, whose superb photographs on Vienna for Beginners are a daily fix for all who love this city!

Medieval Blutgasse, around the corner from St Stephans cathedral (left), is where the blood of the Knight Templars is supposed to have run red in a massacre in the 1300s. Mozart lived around the corner in Domgasse.

Minoritenkirche, right

The sounds of Vienna that I will forever hear in my head whenever I think of it are church bells ...

Michaelskircher

and the constant clippety-clop of horse-drawn carriages ...

These sounds and sights, and the mix of medieval and grand-scale Austro-Hungarian Empire architecture are what combine to give the eerie sense of being out of time, half-inhabiting a different era ...

Franciscan church, left; Emperor Leopold comes over all humble on the Pestsäule (right), erected after the Great Plague hit Vienna

Facade of the Staatsoper. Its opening premiere in 1869 was Mozart's Don Giovanni, with Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Sissi in attendance.

The Hofburg by night

The Heldenplatz, where Hitler announced the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938

But unlike Prague (see here and here), capital of the Holy Roman empire, which felt as though its historic centre was preserved for sightseeing while everyday life happened elsewhere, Vienna's heart was unmistakably inhabited and full of modern life ...

Every shop window, street and facade was prettied up for Christmas ...

Café Mozart on Albertinaplatz, where Graham Greene drank coffee while working on the film script for The Third Man

Cafe Frauenhuber, where Mozart gave his last public performance in 1791

Italian restaurant Danieli, almost next door

The grand Hotel Sacher, named for the creator of the original Sacher-Torte, dressed for Christmas, with a line-up of flash cars

... the Christmas lights, from mid-afternoon through the night, were the most gorgeous I've seen in any city 

Illuminations on Graben street, where hundreds of Christmas trees were on sale

The Hofburg dome (again!) seen through a veil of golden lights

Shopping crowds in Kohlmarkt

I figured this stylish Viennese lady would lead me to all the best shops if I followed her through this elegant arcade of boutiques ...

does she buy monogrammed handkerchiefs here at Zur Schwäbischen Jungfrau, as Empress Maria Teresia did? ...

Even Vienna's dogs and old Franz Josef himself were getting into the holiday spirit ...

Viennese Westie in Santa suit; Emperor Franz Josef gets his Christmas groove on at Fromme Helene restaurant, Josefstadt

And finally, of course there were the Christmas markets ...

where from quaint to kitsch ...

(how many ways to say I love you?)

it's a feast of colour, taste and delicious smells ...

Warming up with a mug of glühwein is absolutely the Viennese thing to do while freezing one's buns off at the Christkindlmärkte

the Rathaus, below, is the sparkly setting for one of Vienna's biggest Christmas markets ...

There's more to come, I'm afraid (the coffee! the food! the shopping!), as I appear to have lost all capacity for restraint in my enthusiasm for this fantastic city. For now, auf wiedersehen.