Image by Diana Pereira

Quite unusual that the incinerator of the city can be a nice thing to look at, but in fact the incinerator building and tower are one of the city landmarks. When you first look at it you will probably think you are looking at an art gallery or a museum due to its colorful appearance but it is an operating incinerator and heating plant.

The building has a very funny outlook something like in between a building and a living sculpture with golden balls on every corner! It has some small windows encircled by bright colors. Irregularly you can see also some openings (kind of balconies) from where trees grow out of the building and the huge chimney tower which culminates with an enormous shiny golden ball. The explanation is that the architect and artist who designed the external facade was the famous painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The building reflects his concerns for life and his attempts for a waste-free society as well as for architecture in harmony with the nature.

It is located near the Danube channel (Donaukanal) and quite near the city centre. Just out of the Metro station Spittelau lines U4 and U6. You can also walk along the channel and do all way around the building, following one of the many bridges of this area. If you have interest in architecture you will also see the Zaha Hadid building about 100 meters away.

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Fernwärme | Art & culture, Relaxing | Free
Spittelauer Lände 45 | Danube Canal Area
24 hours daily (inside by appointment)

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Image by Sabrina Grohsebner

When I was little my family and I used to come here regularly in winter time, that way I improved my ice skating skills and learned to appreciate being in the inner city from time to time. Now that I visited this place some days ago I discovered that Wiener Eislaufverein not only is a precious memory to me but also represents a nice possibility to do urban Ice-skating for everybody.

Wiener Eislaufverein is more of a calm type of Ice skating places. Admitted, you won’t find any Disco on Ice there, neither colorful flashlights nor hip music, Vienna’s got some great places like this (check the Wiener Eistraum article!)

Instead, Winer Eislaufverein offers you the possibility to spend a relaxed and sunny winter afternoon, maybe together with your friends, kids and family, maybe also having a break and enjoying one or two Punsch while watching people sliding by elegantly and light.

As the spot’s situated in a very nice area Wiener Eislaufverein provides you with a quite nice view on some classic Viennese buildings such as Vienna’s concert house which actually is located right next it. Also Vienna’s Stadtpark is near to this place, so if you’re hands, feet and nose aren’t frozen after Ice skating yet, maybe you’d like to enjoy a walk through the park to round up your visit.

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Wiener Eislaufverein | Relaxing | Entrance from € 6.00
Lothringerstraße 22 | Inner districts | +4317136353
Oct 22 – Mar 4 Mon, Sat – Sun 09:00 – 20:00, Tue – Fri 09:00 – 21:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

Want to leave the hustle and the bustle of the city? Then why not go to heaven?! Just a short car or underground/bus ride from downtown will take you to forests, vinyards and green meadows on the slopes of the hills, the city lying below your feet.

If you come by public transport, after switching from underground station Heiligenstadt to the bus, you should stop at the impressive Karl Marx Hof, which was built in the 20′s. The longest connected building of the world is a “Gemeindebau”, some kind of government housing – a very typical and special thing in Vienna.

Once you have arrived at the top of the hill, you will notice the octagon-shaped building. That’s the cafe “Am Himmel”. Either you take a rest and a hot or cold drink before a walk – or you reward yourself with a piece of cake after some exercise.

The cafe itself is a very nice place with its huge windows from top to bottom and they do good cakes and warm dishes. In winter its great to warm yourself up in the cafe, as it can be icy and windy up there.

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Am Himmel | Bars, Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Restaurants (intern.) | Melange € 2.80
Höhenstrasse/Himmelstrasse, 1190 | Outer districts | +4314065938
Thu – Fri 12:00 – 22:00, Sat – Sun 11:00 – 22:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

This little green oasis in the second district indeed offers a weird mixture. As you pass the old walls surrounding the pretty baroque park, you’ll soon notice one of the two so called “Flaktürme” – huge towering bunkers.

These towers were military defense towers in the 40′s and as they can’t be destroyed, they are still some bleak (but important) reminders of the second world war. Nowadays the park is used by joggers, couples, families and dog owners in need for a walk.

Everybody who wants to relax, do some exercise or get some fresh air, will be happy here. And this is already possible since 1775!! The garden is baroque, so there are plenty of cut bushes, trees and hedges which come along with carefully decorated flowerbeds. That’s the reason why there were times when it was neither for men or animals allowed to step on the lawn. But as you will notice: the need for green space and relaxation is stronger, so in summer time you see picnickers, hammocks strung up between the trees and football players.

There is even more to be found in the park: the boarding school of the famous Wiener Sängerknaben, the Porzellanmanufaktur, the art gallery Augarten Contemporary and also a nice cafe called Augarten Atelier. Check the Belvedere website for more info. 

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Augarten | Art & culture, Relaxing | Free
Obere Augartenstrasse | Danube Canal Area
06:30 – 17:30 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

When I first came along this square, I really was surprised. Somehow I did not expect such a cosy and neat little square in a big city like Vienna.

Servitenplatz resembles the centre of a small Austrian village. So what do you need for such a square? An old church, some benches, huge trees which give shade, a café, a pub, nice stores in the surrounding streets and local people who enjoy it- both old and young. This is what you get here! And that’s why I like this spot.

There is the Servite church from 1677, there is a coffeeshop without a name (where you get homemade ice in summer!), there is a pub besides a hairdresser, and there are these nice simple benches where you can watch couples, the old folk chatting or children playing football.

In winter time it’s quiet here, but in summer it’s pretty much the center of that quarter. I think every time of the year it’s worth a visit. The sad history of the Servitengasse, leading to the square, is quite touching. Decades ago it used to be a street where many Jews were living (half of the population of the ninth district in 1938 were Jews, like Sigmund Freud who lived pretty much around the corner), but with the Nazi regime they had to leave their flats and homes. A little memorial with all symbolic keys shows the names of the displaced persons. Some sad history for a neat little square.

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Servitenplatz | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Shopping | Free
Servitengasse | Inner districts
24 hours daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

The Mozart lovers, who know the true story, the very neighbors in the third district and the gloomy city tourists may know about this spot. But even some of my Viennese friends have never seen or heard about this attraction.

Vienna is known as a place for morbid melancholy, so what else should be more than suitable as to visit a very small and hidden Biedermeier cemetery which was a burial site for about 90 years until 1874.

St. Marx Cemetery is the place where once poor Mozart was thrown into a mass grave as there was no money for to pay a proper funeral. But you are not here to visit the vanished mass graves of former times but this neat and peaceful park-like place, with small paths, trees and shrubbery.

The cemetery has amazing weather-beaten tombstones, sculptures fallen to bits and pieces, epigrams worn off by the ravages of time.

If you can read German you will realize that on such a bourgeois cemetery it was a very important thing to show the profession of the deceased on the tombstone – a brewer, a landlord, a cigarette shop owner, etc..

This is a beautiful, quiet spot for a stroll (though the setting with a highway overpass very close is a bit weird), especially in snowy winter times. In autumn all trees turn gold and red, and in April and May the lilacs blossom.

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St. Marx Cemetery | Art & culture, Relaxing
Leberstrasse 6 | Inner districts | +43140008042
Nov – Apr 07:00 till dawn, May – Sep 07:00 – 18:00, Apr & Oct 07:00 – 17:00,Jun – Aug 07:00 – 19:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

Want to leave the city and go for a walk, combined with a little thrill? Lainzer Tiergarten, a huge forest, part of the Wiener Wald, on the outskirts of Vienna might be the right thing.

Here you can walk for hours and – depending on which gate you take to enter the park – on weekdays sometimes you won’t meet any human beings, but: wild pigs! Chances are big when you go for a longer walk in this forest that you will see a few of the around 800 wild pigs living here. Boars are social animals, but only when thinking about their own group… We human beings should keep a respectful distance, especially when there are young boars and their caring “mothers”.

But even if you don’t encounter any game, the forest is worth visiting at any time of the year. And if you are fond of empress “Sissi”, then you should visit the beautiful Hermes Villa. Even the empress Elisabeth of Austria preferred quite often the countryside to downtown Vienna and had a little villa out here.

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Lainzer Tiergarten | Relaxing | Free
Ober Sankt Veit | Outer districts
Dec – Jan 09:00 – 17:00 daily, Feb – Nov from 09:00 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Linda Nepicks

A place to chat, for people from different countries. A colourful street market with fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese. A long alley with plenty of stalls with cheap clothes, shoes and fabrics. A stuffed alley with loads of groceries, turkish restaurants, shops, bakeries etc. An alley ending in a big market square, used both by bohemian society and local residents. A market with a shop for the best jam in the world (apart from home-made one) called Staud’s. A market square with cafe’s, restaurants and bars or just benches to sit and relax.

Check it out, I think it’s a very different part from Vienna, which most tourists will not see (who just know the Naschmarkt). And worth to see! Not to forget that fruits and veggies are way cheaper than on any other market in Vienna…

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Brunnenmarkt Yppenplatz | Bars, Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Shopping, Snacks, Restaurants
Yppenplatz | Inner districts
Mon – Sat til 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Wolfgang Körbitz

High above Vienna and somewhere in the forest you can find a little magical restaurant.

I like this place rather due to the atmosphere. Besides the extraordinary location this little hut has its own style. The whole house is designed in a kind of retro modern look. Each room has its own design and the waitresses are dressed in a kind of fantasy dirndl which imitates the traditional clothing from Austria.

In the garden there is also a bar! You can sit outside all year round, also in the Winter as blankets, hot wine and little heaters are provided to keep you warm! From time to time a little market takes place in the garden around the house where you can buy different home-made products like jam, cakes or even mustard.

One of the dishes they serve is “Flammkuchen” which is prepared in a nice old wooden stove. “Flammkuchen” is similar to pizza but comes originally from Alsace.

This place is good to visit when you are on the Kahlenberg (a 10 min walk from the bus stop) or when you have a short hike through the Wienderwald.

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Hütte am weg | Coffee & tea, Relaxing, Restaurants (Austrian)
Josefsdorf 47 | Outer districts | +4313203975
Mon – Sat. 10:00 – 22:00, Sun 10:00 – 19:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna

Image by Julia Heiligenbrunner

This is a very popular event amongst locals. More than 350 spotlights and live DJs make sure one really gets the open air disco feeling. During the week DJs are satisfying music wishes from five o’clock on and on weekends they even start at 2pm.

Honestly? To me that kind of activity is only breathtaking because I am going to land on my chest as soon as I step on the ice. I’m very much into sports but this one is just not made for me. Okay, I’ve got to admit the view itself truly is breathtaking.

As ice skating in front of Vienna’s city hall is oh so very special, my friends finally succeeded in convincing me to put on some slides – for the first time in 12 safe-from-harm-years. I’m suspicious of their motive, could be they only did so knowing it’s going to be a hilarious show for them. So if you witness a young woman lying face-down on the ice – that’s probably glorious me! You will only get to see that terrific happening in the area where beginners can skate for free. I guess I’ll be easy to spot among the kids who are no older than eight winters…

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Wiener Eistraum | Music, Relaxing, Festivals & events | Starts from € 4.50
Rathauspark | Inner districts | +4314090040
09:00 – 17:00 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Vienna