36 Hours in Vienna

The Wien Museum, focused on the city’s history, reopened on Dec. 6 on Karlsplatz, a sweeping plaza with a Baroque church, with several new wings and a large terrace, nearly doubling its former size. The museum’s straight lines and white concrete set it apart from the opulent marvels erected by the Hapsburgs, the dynasty that ruled Austria for more than 600 years, like the Belvedere and Kunsthistorisches Museum. The new permanent exhibition (free admission) traces Vienna’s history through objects, including the exterior wall of a store that a Jewish businessman was forced to liquidate before he fled Austria, after the country was annexed by Nazi Germany. Regular Viennese people are as much of a focus here as the elites — a Gustav Klimt painting, for example, hangs near an early-1900s folding bed used by servants, a slice of working-class Viennese life.

All of Vienna’s 17 or so Christmas markets are one-stop shops for holiday gifts, comfort food and hot drinks, but each has its own personality. In the high-ceilinged rooms and the garden of a centuries-old Baroque palace, the Palais Freiluft market screams luxury. Inside, vendors sell paintings, hand-poured candles and Austrian honey. Outside, heat lamps offer shelter while you sip a hot cocktail, like a Moscow Mule (€7.80), and nosh on a käsekrainer, a sausage stuffed with cheese (€13.90), or on buckwheat galettes (€13.50), folded crepes stuffed with fillings like mozzarella and bacon. A curling sheet allows up to 10 players (€5 per person for 30 minutes). Most booths take cards, except the chestnut seller.

Austrians take pride in their bread — and rightly so. A loaf of dense, seeded brown bread is to Vienna what a baguette is to Paris. Some bakeries in the city, including chains like Öfferl, Joseph Brot and Felzl, offer full breakfast menus. One of Öfferl’s bakery-bistros, in the Third District, which has a minimalist design palette of concrete and neutral colors, offers breakfast until 6:30 p.m. Here, the bäckerfrühstück, or baker’s breakfast (€17.50), includes rolls, sour-cream butter, marmalade, cheese from the Alps and ham. The vegetarian version (€15.50) swaps out the ham for goat-cheese balls. For the curious, the menu notes the Austrian producer of every piece of cheese, slice of ham and egg.

Glide along the narrow, winding ice-skating paths that unfurl amid the trees of one of the most prominent Christmas markets in Vienna, the Christmas market in front of City Hall. Twinkle lights hanging in the trees and vendors selling mulled wine, gingerbread, and sweet rolls with jam and vanilla sauce (“buchteln”) set a holiday mood. After the Christmas market closes on Dec. 26, several additional rinks will open on Jan. 19 under the name Wiener Eistraum, or Viennese Ice Dream, nearly tripling the total amount of area available for ice skating and taking over the entire plaza in front of City Hall until March 3. (If booked in advance online, entry for adults is €9, and entry for children is €6.30. Ice skate rentals start at €4.90.)

Classical music might seem old-fashioned, but 200 years ago, it was anything but. There were few things the 19th-century Viennese loved to do more in their leisure time than hit the dance floor for a romantic waltz or an energetic galop. The House of Strauss, a museum and music hall in a beautifully restored 19th-century building, deftly uses technology, historical images and audio to share the story of an iconic Viennese family. Johann Strauss and his son, Johann Strauss II, the composer of the “Blue Danube” waltz, are considered by some historians as the world’s first pop stars: They printed portraits of themselves on sheet music, displayed at the museum, and toured the world for concerts and festivals (€23 for adults).

Vienna is no Berlin when it comes to club culture, but there are a few places where it comes close. If you’re looking for a dance-until-dawn, hard-techno experience, Das Werk, on the banks of the Danube Canal, is the place to go (though unlike some exclusive clubs in Berlin, Das Werk’s bouncers do not care how you dress). Here, the party doesn’t start before 11 p.m., when the crowd becomes hypnotized by the D.J. — or by the light show on the walls around her. If you take a break outside, check out the outdoor art gallery: Several years ago, street artists from around the world were invited to decorate the walls of the buildings around Das Werk with large-scale murals. Entry costs €10 to €15.

Vienna’s coffeehouse culture dates back to the 17th century; in 2011, it received a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage designation. Guidebooks send tourists to Café Central, where Sigmund Freud was a customer, and Café Landtmann, a meeting point for politicians. But the Viennese tend to prefer coffee shops that are cheaper, dustier and slightly frayed, with servers who appear as if they would rather be doing anything else. Take, for example, Café Rüdigerhof, established in 1902, where newspapers rest on old-school wooden holders (to prevent creasing), and breakfast is a simple affair. A melange (coffee with steamed milk and foam), with an egg and two rolls with butter and marmalade or honey, will set you back €7.10. Don’t miss a Viennese classic: two peeled, soft-boiled eggs served in a wide-rimmed glass with a spoon. The cafe is cash-only.