Travels: 5 hours in Vienna, Austria

We had 5 hours in Vienna. We had taken the train into the busy downtown and the weather was not cooperating. Rain and wind made for a gloomy day. But, this would deter me to hit some of my foodie stops.



Our first stop was the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular market. Lots of fresh fruit, vegetables and breads but I was enthralled by all the ethnic spices and prepared foods. Plenty opportunities to buy nibblies along the way.



We walked north until we saw the Vienna Opera House and the Hotel Sacher, which are across the street from each other.



Hotel Sacher is the place to buy the famous Viennese Sachertorte. It is layers of chocolate cake with apricot jam and chocolate outer layer. I bought mini tortes to share with the family.



After doing some sightseeing we ramped up our appetite for a traditional Austrian dish, the schnitzel! Bad luck has it, the infamous Figlmueller was closed for renovations so we stopped into another restaurant for it. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the place we ate, sorry peeps.



Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the famous composer was born in Austria, so if you are looking for some sweet goodies to bring home, don't forget to stop and buy some Mozart kugel (Mozart balls!). We passed the Mostly Mozart store on our journey. We also stopped in at Oberlaa Konditorei for some coffee and cakes/desserts.



Our friend, a pastry chef, highly recommended the place. You will not be let down on all the top notch offerings. We also decided on a sachertorte duel. While Oberlaa's torte was good, we found it a bit drier so I would still recommend the Hotel Sacher for sachertorte.



Further north, we stopped into St. Stephan's Cathedral.



Right across the street from the cathedral, you will find the Manner store, another great place to stock up on Austrian sweets. By this point, we were tired and stuffed so we hopped onto the subway.



We made our way out to Wiener Riesenrad. The famous giant ferris wheel in Vienna.

Looking high above, I wondered where my newlywed parents lived and worked. They moved to Austria and lived nearby the Wiener Riesenrad. Vienna is my birthplace and I had wished we had time to scout out the area and the hospital I was born in.

5 hours is definitely not enough to time to see Vienna but I think we made a good dent, especially with all the rain and with 2 young children in tow. Next time we will definitely spend a lot more time there.