Rathaus Vienna Austria

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

One of the perks of hosteling (or I suppose even couch surfing) is that you get good travel tips right away. While I spent my days in the museums, I had no idea where to go for nightlife in Vienna. Austria is well known for its music, and my bunkmates told me that there was a lovely music festival going on at the Rathaus.

Vienna’s Rathaus is a fabulous building of Gothic design built between 1872 and 1883. It was designed by Friedrich von Schmidt and serves as the meeting places for the city council and the mayor’s office of Vienna, among other things.

I took the “U line” to get to the neighborhood and walked over to the Rathaus Park. It was pretty cool. Projected onto a huge screen was a concert with an orchestra. Afterwards an opera was performed for the crowd. Chairs and a few bleachers in the back were placed outdoors in front of the Rathaus. The night air was perfect. I could see the moon, which always energizes and soothes me. In the park area between the Rathaus and the Burg Theatre (an equally impressive building with a lot of sculptures on exhibit), there were food booths representing the world’s cuisines.


Unfortunately for me, I had had an accident on my bicycle in Florence right before hopping onto a night train for Vienna. Here it is more than two weeks later, and I still have bruises. Anyway, I was too tired to hang out at the Rathaus after midnight, but my bunkmates told me that after the concert, there were colored lights turned on all over the Rathaus building.

Unfortunately, the next night it poured rain. Although it cleared up by evening, I decided to use the Internet and catch up on work before heading out to my next destination in the mountains of Austria. Had I stayed in Vienna longer, I would have definitely returned to the Rathaus for my eveing adventures.