European café culture with all its charm owes a lot to Vienna. Although not home to the first coffee house in Europe, Vienna became a hotbed following the siege of 1683, where a heroic Polish man who had notified allied forces about the desperate situation asked for sacks of abandoned coffee beans – which the Viennese thought were camel feed – as his reward. Whether he started or merely popularised coffee, the ensuing cafés became centres for the artistic, intellectual, and political movements of the 20th century, where famous figures ranging from Sigmund Freud to Marlene Dietrich famously spent time chatting and scheming. Have a coffee (a ‘kleiner schwarzer’, or single espresso is probably a good start), have a schnitzel (Wiener Schnitzel is literally translated Viennese Schnitzel, afterall), and have some fresh Buchteln sweet rolls in the evening.

And of course there is the famous Sacher Torte, the invention of which is essentially a complex story probably stemming from a Jewish recipe hotly fought over by both the Sacher Hotel, and the Demel Pastry Shop.