An Alternative Guide to Vienna

During the summer months in Vienna, there is an abundance of unusual, authentic Viennese activities you can absorb yourself in. The Danube, a thick vein of a river that runs through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, acts as a refuge from the stifling heat that hits Vienna in the summer and is a frequently visited spot for locals, who sip cans of beer and submerge themselves in the cooling waters. The Danube Island is a favourite spot and has a family beach and a climbing park.

If the exhibitionist inside you feels like emerging, then look no further for Vienna is not a city for prudes. One bank of the river is dedicated to the nudists, who strip off during the summer months for a nice, even tan. If swimming isn’t your forte, then take a bike ride along the river bank – you can even go all the way to Bratislava and beyond if feeling spritely.

This is a vibrant, developing and multicultural area of Vienna with a loud and colourful market at the weekends. The Yppenplatz piazza is frequented by locals, who hang out and sip espressos in the summertime. Try out Wetter, a restaurant that was formerly a laundrette, and still maintains an industrial design concept, serving Ligurian food, from Italy.

Go for a ramble in the hills among Vienna’s vineyards around Kahlenberg and end up at one of the cosy Heurigers, where you can indulge in a traditional Austrian dish and sample the speciality Viennese wine, Gemischter Satz. Head up to Bellevue-Höhe, where you can stand at the spot that was supposedly the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud’s favourite haunt for philosophising – it is rumoured to be the place where he devised his infamous theory of the unconscious mind. Have a ponder yourself while gazing over the modest city skyline below.