Paula Maia's Wine blog

Stepping off the train from Vienna felt just like coming home. I love Munich for many reasons beyond my understanding. Maybe those deep roots do have an influence after all. My great grand-father was German and my great grand-mother was Austrian or Hungarian- or both. I, on the other hand, never had any interest in Germany until I met my husband, who’s German.

I don’t know if it’s the beer, the wine, or the Schnitzel that gets me, or if it’s something about their obsessive methodology, efficiency and perfectionism that draws me to it. Perhaps it’s all those wursts, all that green and all those fancy cars, but there’s definitely something about Munich that feels so homey. I love to walk around the historical city center, to stroll through the Englischer Garten and to simply wait and count the seconds until the bus arrives at the exact scheduled time.

From the Hauptbahnhof we walked to Hofbraukeller at Wiener Platz, where we had a Schnitzel of course, in their Biergarten near the Gasteig- Munich’s Philarmonic. It was the perfect way to end the trip and prepare myself psychologically to go to my real home in New York. Actually, the trip really ended at the airport, where I enjoyed a Currywurst with a Weissbier at the Airbräu- the next closest thing to heaven.

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Heuriger is pretty much an Austrian wine tavern where wineries serve their latest vintage or their freshest wines along with traditional Austrian food. Heueriger means ‘this year’, which refers to this year’s harvest. The word comes from the Latin ‘hodie’, meaning ‘this day’, however it wasn’t until 1784 that emperor Joseph II allowed Viennese vintners to sell their home-made products that Heurigers were born.

As charming as it can be, many Heurigers are in the middle or surrounded by vineyards, and most have communal wooden tables in the garden where one must try a Sturm. Another Austrian tradition, Sturm is made of both red and white freshly pressed grape juice known as must. Highly anticipated and sold for only a few weeks, Sturm is slightly carbonated, thick and cloudy like a juice, but infinitely better.

Only a couple of tram stops away, Grinzing is the best known place to visit a Heuriger, although plenty of others can be found within and around Vienna.  A part of every day life, Heurigers attracts locals and tourists craving a part of Vienna life style. Grinzing is a sublime place to watch the sunset overlooking both the vineyards and Vienna. I cannot think of anything more romantic than drinking my wine under the stars on a hot summer night.

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The next day my friend Silvana and I took a train from Munich’s Hauptbahnhof to Vienna, capital of Austria and UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. Founded around 500BC, Vienna was once the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that ended after the first World War in 1918. The city though, seems to have been preserved in its grandiosity.

Culture life in Vienna is at all times sizzling. Home to a number of opera houses, theaters, museums, churches and famous for its architecture and design, Vienna is a true metropolis with a medium town feeling. With an abundance of outdoor spaces, it seems like the Viennese really know how to enjoy life. Everywhere you look there’s a Kaffeehaus, a Biergarten or a Gästehaus, where one can enjoy an Apfelstrudel, a glass of Grüner, a Schnitzel or simply stare in wonder.

We were in Vienna for only 5 days, which is enough time to get to know the city, visit most prominent sites and- if you are lucky- even catch an opera for $6 Euros a pop. However, if you fall in love with Vienna, like I did, then you probably will never get enough of it. I cannot wait to go back, but in the meantime I rejoice in local alternatives as close as a block away from home.

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