welcome to Austria a country worthy of a never-ending stream of superlatives
thanks to its spectacular scenery its cuisine which can only be described as
divine in addition to its immense history I've recently visited Austria on
a short five day trip and in this series of six videos we're going to be sampling
just a fraction of what this country has to offer from the picturesque scenery of
Hallstatt and the magical Salzburg that comes with an abundance of history from
Baroque architecture to being the birthplace of Amadeus Mozart. In
addition this series also contains and slightly more functional videos in
relation to planning your trip such as some of my tips on how to get around. And
was starting off in the capital Vienna
right we're starting off this freezing-cold video outside a
Wurstelstand the sausage stand of course sausages are immense in Austria
and as a Brit, Austria has always been a country I've always wanted to visit
because I think we all know the Austrian are such an immense history relating to
the development of Europe you know don't approach the Roman Empire the
austro-hungarian Empire beyond if you are from Europe and you're looking for
maybe a short city break probably not in the winter Austria and Vienna itself
immense locations to visit because there is architecture, there are
galleries there are museums you name it so much history to explore you can do a
vienna pass to save a bit of money instead of just paying in every place
for your entry and I haven't done that because it's not really something I
want to do on this trip I'm going to cover some places now that are you know
your top attractions to visit and then we're gonna go into some places that are
slightly more off the beaten track and lesser known as I like to do on this
channel so my top spots to visit in Vienna would be the st. Stephen's Dom
which is the st. Stephen's Cathedral it's absolutely spectacular from outside
the architecture is wonderful and when you go inside it's just a so grand so
intricate so exquisite obviously it's slightly touristic you know it's a key
attraction as I said in Vienna so you do work we will have that aspect of people
everywhere taking photos but that's life you know additionally you can go to the
st. Peter's Kirche , St. Peter's Church just around the corner and actually I
found this to be significantly more impressive given that they were smaller
there were less people in there surprisingly and just the atmosphere in
there the fact they were smaller there was organ music playing inside
beautiful Christmas tree still up it is the middle of January right now so you
know those are two of my top places there are history of art museums Natural
History Museum to the world Museum the library which I'm going to go to later
in this video and a plethora of places such as though such as the Rathaus, I
apologize my German pronunciation, the Town Hall you name it so on that note
let's get going where they're showing a bit more of those places and then we're
gonna head to our first spot, also we're gong to have some food in this video let's go!
(MUSIC)
so it's been snowing ever-so-slight this morning it's very cold and I think it adds to
the lovely wintry feel in the middle of January and we're heading to our first
spot slightly off the beaten track it's not particularly beautiful but if you're
interested in the Second World War I find this absolutely fascinating it's
the thing that's in front of me in the middle of the screen let's take a
closer look it's a wonderful wintry scene in this park right now there are
people running around walking their dogs but we have come to see this this is a
flak tower they were located throughout Germany during the Second World War but
there's also this one in Vienna and another one just over to the left in the
distance and they were used by the Nazis as above-ground anti-aircraft towers and
they were used to deflect or fend off attacks from the Allied forces namely
the RAF and I've read that there were three located around Berlin in the shape
of a triangle and effectively they encompass the whole city so they could
fend off attacks anywhere in the city and these buildings aren't going to be
thick three meters from what I understand of concrete so you can
imagine they were quite strong in terms of its defensive capabilities and then
they were also use its air-raid shelters they were equipped with radar and many
of them have been demolished dismantled destroyed over the years but these ones
still remain and even though like I said it's not a particularly beautiful thing
to see actually I think it is it's a reminder of the horrendous history that
we've had in Europe over the last hundred years or so just had to put my
camera over the fence to point this out never again I think the graffiti on the
flak tower is quite poignant I was saying to an English student the other
day I was born 37 years after the end of second world
war years ago actually it wasn't in the grander scheme of things
I think this flak tower in Vienna is an absolutely hidden gem make sure you come
here when we come to Vienna there's a golden retriever or a Labrador I never
know the difference but anyway and final thoughts this
really reminds me of the Duga radar I think it was called in Chernobyl just in
terms of like a old remnants of the past spectacular look at it man who says that
traveling in the winter is a thing you shouldn't do it's beautiful a lovely
wintry scene and you know what we're gonna do now it's almost lunchtime so
we're gonna head back to the center and we'll have some food one of the many
pieces of food in this video it's gonna be a long one people sit tight the
architecture in Vienna is of course spectacular quite a variety of different
colors buildings like this around these market squares so you have markets like
this one Obst und Gemuse, fruit and vegetables wonderful and yeah things
around here as well as these markets we can get like meat and cheese and fruit
vegetables you can of course go to proper restaurants as well look at that
I would just go in Vienna as a real Explorer City a bit like Naples in Italy
by that I mean you can just walk around without a map get lost
explore discover and find these little streets cobblestone streets with these
interesting buildings different colors it's wonderful
okay no trip to Vienna will be complete without a visit to a Wurstelstand
sausage stand basically and when we think of sausages we think of German
sausages righ, Bockwurst, Bratwurst, Currywurst, well you know what they also exist
in Austria - but today we're gonna have something a little bit different
Good afternoon, how are you, I would like Cevapcici wih fries please? Box? Yes box
you can of course get all your usual favorites for at first as I mentioned we
have curry Wurst down there look at that that's beautiful but you know what we're
gonna do today because I live in Belgrade at the moment we're gonna have
something a little bit closer to home Cevapcici box with fries look at that
Yes I studied German but it was 20 years ago, a long time!
So my German is not os good. Wonderful!
Thankyou! This place is by Karlsplatz U-Bahn
U-Bahn is the subway to underground whatever you want to call it and we have cevapcici
with chips/fries, cevapcici with chips
when plenty of cevapcici, a taste of Belgrade in
Germany, not in Germany in Austria that's the one
and
stunning all that's missing is a bit of pitabread you go with it
that'll be exceptional and so much sauce as well ketchup mustard mayonnaise the
perfect thing to eat on cold January afternoon. Beautiful!
so after our unch we're now in the museum quarter as I said earlier there's a world
museum, art history museum art history and world museum natural
history as well, I'm heading to the bibliothèque the library I've read a lot
about it let's take a look It costs 8 euros when I
looked online it just said 3 euros, clearly that was an old website anyway
let's get going
(Beethoven music with long walking section)
so I bet you can understand why I wanted to visit theAustrian National Library
] spectacular I've got no words I love libraries and that one
completely blew me away firstly it's 250 years since the
birth of Beethoven who knew that he was born in Bonn right but he lived in
Vienna and studied in Vienna I think and there's a huge exhibition there and
detailing you know his life and achievements and things like that and
particularly for me as an exponent player who's been an orchestra you know
especially it especially close to my heart
in terms of composers and the work that they did and the artwork the Hollywood
speak the ceiling ornate exceptional I always wonder how the hell did they
create that in such intricate detail absolutely spectacular and just around
the library as well the the stacks of books I don't know what word I would use
but books like as high as the ceiling with those ladders so you can climb up
and get the books and there was also information about my restoration of
books and things of that sort some folks very old so they need to work on them to
keep them in tip-top condition really pleased I went there it's made my day
amazing we're gonna go to one other spot now and then have some more food before
we have this video we're onto the penultimate stop in this video we're in
Burggarten and as with the flak tower when I was researching this video I wanted to
put things in this video that may not be on everyone's tourist trail and that is
so the right here it's the butterfly house,
it's like a tropical enclosure for numerous butterflies I love butterflies
I love them as I was in Argentina many years ago and saw these absolutely
beautiful butterfly so it's something everyone do so let's take a look
(MUSIC)
oh wow this is another amazing thing in Vienna, I'm loving it!
it's so weird to come in from like the
freezing cold into like a tropical environment my glasses have completely
steamed up I can't see anything Wow beautiful
Ok that was wonderful, fantastic. I think the Butterfly house is very good for
children, many butterflies and flowers. I think it's
great for children there's lots of butterflies and lots of flowers and even
though I'm an adult you know as I said before I love butterflies they're really
pretty the ones in there a huge colorful wonderful I didn't see any monarch
butterflies though they were like feeding stations around as well so you
can take some good photos of butterflies feeding on like banana and stuff there's
a big treehouse thing in the middle and it's weird being in like a tropical
environment in January in Vienna but yeah great thing to do I think to add to
your Vienna list that you might not necessarily see everywhere it's quite
central as well brilliant so I won't we've got one more
thing to talk about in this video I actually did it last night because in
case you hadn't notice it's the next day I've got a different t-shirt on so let's
talk about that now as promised earlier there is some more food in this video so
when you google vienna you'll hear about Wiener schnitzel the other thing you
hear about is Sachertorte which is effectively a chocolate cake but there's
a lot more to it than that it was invented by an Austrian Jewish guy
called Franz Sacher in the early 1800s and not only has it become famous
throughout Austria but also throughout the world so in the US there's even a
Sachertorte day can you believe it the Sachercafe is part
of the Sacher hotel very central I chose to go about five o'clock on a Friday
afternoon so obviously it's going to be busy I had to wait outside for about 45
minutes to an hour to get in but was it worth it absolutely when you go in it is
very posh looking you know very high-end and there are chandeliers everywhere
portraits on the wall the decor is beautiful
and when you sit down you can you get the menu you can have a variety of
drinks as well as the Sachertorte and other meals I had espresso
effectively in a teacup I thought well posh you know I'm from West London I
don't do posh and the cake or the Sachertorte is divine I have no other word to
use to describe it than that divine the chocolate is extremely rich it's almost
on a par with some of the talk quite had in Mexico so it's something that I
couldn't eat a lot of so I think the portions
was absolutely right it costs around 750 euros which I think you know considering
that it is a quiet high-end establishment you know that's not too
bad actually and for the quality of it and the taste I'm happy to pay that so
you know I was absolutely blown away by it really made my day
sometimes when you you know set play sit sit of places like that you think oh god
was it worth coming in here but absolutely it was so and yeah go there
when you come to Vienna you hit before so that's my little trip to Vienna over
with I hope you've enjoyed this video if you have don't forget to hit the like
button down below if you've hated it don't forget to hit the dislike button and
also don't forget to subscribe if you would like to see future videos from
Austria you can check out the playlist which will be linked up above somewhere
at some point now obviously with Vienna I've only been here one day there's only
so much I can possibly put in one video and actually physically do so obviously
there are so many more things you can do in the city so why not if you have been
to Vienna put down in the comments your favorite things to do in the city that
will really help out other viewers so thank you very much for watching and
I'll see you in Salzburg which is where I'm going next see you soon, catch you later