The Halloween Weekend in Vienna
Halloween Nights in Vienna
You have undoubtedly been to Berlin, Paris and London on numerous occasions. Fully understandable, they are always worth a visit. Vienna, on the other hand, is not quite getting the attention it deserves. We at Parnassos.dk aim to change that a bit.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire, with Vienna as its capital, was for centuries one of the most powerful in Europe, with an abundance of cultural and intellectual treasures, among the city’s children you will find Erwin Schrödinger, Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, not to mention the classical music’s biggest stars, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Haydn, Mahler… the list is long.
Their music we listen to today were composed on the streets of Vienna.
Parnassos.dk ApS (Ltd.) is a member of ‘Rejsegarantifonden’ the Danish equivalent to ABTA. It guarantees your money – while we guarantee your experiences.
An Evening like no Other in Stadtpalais Liechtenstein
We are extremely honored that one of the richest families in Europe, the Liechtenstein family, has given us access to one of their palaces, Stadtpalais Liechtenstein, in Vienna.
The palace has just been refurbished for the sum of 120 million Euro.
And that’s not all. We have been granted access to their private museum where our guides for the night are the family’s own curators. After the museum visit we will enjoy a quartet-concert in the palace’s large Ball-salon. Dinner to follow and a show in the sign of Extravaganza.
The evening, which is ‘a party to end all parties’, is the starting shot of our extended weekend in Vienna, beginning Friday 27th October at 7 pm.
By the way, the evening can be purchased separately to the rest of the ‘Halloween tour’ in Vienna.
You can find more details on that particular event here.
Beethoven - and Wiener Staatsoper
With that in mind, Friday evening will most likely be Friday night for most of us. We will therefore sit in front of our breakfast tables Saturday morning, with plenty of coffee, before we begin the adventures the new day will bring.
10.30 am a bus awaits us. Gerti Schmidt, the director of the Austrian Official Tourist organization, is our guide and will lead us through Vienna’s past and present. Her knowledge is frankly unsurpassable and our 40 guests in Vienna October 2022 were mightily impressed by her. And so will you.
Her network is second to none as well. When I knock on the various doors in Vienna and mention her name they (almost) always let me in.
The guided tour is not yet fully established, but it will end at the city’s outskirts where a number of wine yards surround the north Eastern part of Vienna. For those who fancy, we will have a walk – downhill – of about an hour, bringing us to a farm or two, where we will taste their harvest. We will stop in front of Beethoven’s last residence in Heiligenstadt, now a fine museum. Naturally, a Beethoven specialist will guide us through the life and works of one of mankind’s true geniuses.
Very close by you will find the most idyllic ’Heuriger’ restaurant where we will have our late lunch.
The bus brings us back to the hotel, with enough time for recharging before we will be at it again.
What is yet to be decided: Should Saturday night be a visit to Wiener Staatsoper or the Musikverein concert hall? Both are temples within the classical music’s world. Perhaps we will let the program decide for us, which will be announced around late April 2023.
An der schönen blauen Donau
Sunday morning, the 29th October 2023, yet another bus awaits us at the hotel. If you take a one-hour tour on the Danube river beginning from the pier near the Vienna city center, you will have the pleasure of seeing the capital’s office buildings and industrial quarters.
Our bus will therefore take us away from all things commercial and straight back to the 19th century’s romantic period, which the Germans so excelled.
A boat will take us from Krems am Donau to Melk am Donau. On the boat we will have our lunch and enjoy the surrounding forests dressed in green, yellow and red.
After a walk around the truly charming town of Melk we will head straight to the highlight of the day, the town’s imposing Abbey, the Melk Stift.
Vesper in the Abbey of Melk
During our recent stay in Vienna 2022, we had dinner in Melk Stift’s city restaurant, owned by the Abbey of Melk.
It’s one of the most famous abbeys in the world, helped along by the author Umberto Eco, who used the monastery’s library as inspiration to his wonderful novel, ‘The Name of the Rose’.
We will spend our evening within the walls of the friary. We are organizing a private concert for our guests – one of them couldd be you – in October 2023 in their beautiful music hall, where an orchestra will play on period instruments, lute, harpsichord, viola d’Amore, instruments not used in modern orchestras. Forgotten sounds, so to speak. It will bring us straight back to Umberto’s world.
After the concert a dinner will be served at their equally elegant restaurant with dishes approved by monks. And naturally, we will have the awe-inspiring library to ourselves. After we have read all the books a bus will bring us back to Vienna where we undoubtedly will find time for a nightcap.
Belvedère Palace to Ourselves
We have arrived at Monday 30th October 23. The day before Halloween.
I have visited the imposing Belvedère palace and museum in Vienna twice. True, it’s simply spectacular with Picasso and Monet en masse on the walls together with, unsurprisingly, the largest collection of paintings by the world famous Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt.
But there is a snag – you know how it is – you bump into a Japanese guide with a Japanese flag, the Spanish guide speaks too loudly and so on. Large crowds devalue the artistic experience.
Consequently, we have decided to rent the whole building Monday 30th October in the evening. After champagne and canapés, the museum’s art specialists will split us up in small groups and bring us to the inner sanctum of the museum.
Palais Coburg
The evening commences 7 pm at Palais Coburg. The palace is the host for the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers – when they are held. The palace offers Vienna’s finest restaurant, with a 2* Michelin awarded and run by the chef, Silvio Nickol.
Those will be our premises for the trip’s climax and coda. It’s 31st October, it’s Halloween and our dinner will be served in the palace’s casemates.
After the four course dinner and wine pairing, there will be entertainment. The management won’t tell what it is, but I fully expect that skeletons coming out of the closet.
The Casemates of Palais Coburg
The apogee of Tuesday, in some ways the trip itself, will be realized in the evening. Actually, if you look at the program for Vienna overall, most of the events are taken place after dark. That goes well with the overall Halloween theme.
What Tuesday daytime is concerned we will, as we did last time, let it be up to each guest how to use it. Perhaps you just want to wander around town and soak up the atmosphere on your own. You could also have a look at a number of the city’s many cultural offerings. The summer 2022 saw the opening of its museum number 100, the Heidi Horten museum. You chose the museum and Parnassos.dk will reimburse your ticket.
Hotel Regina
We stayed 4 nights at the über cool 5* hotel Ferdinand in October 2022.
October 2023 we will stay 5 nights at the centrally located 4* hotel Regina, immediately next to the city’s Votiv kirche.
The hotel gives us the sensation of entering the 19th century, with this century’s commodities, of course. The not quite as expensive price allows us one more night compared to 2022 and it keeps us within the budget of last year as well, so no inflation from our side.
And our Purpose is?
We want to create exclusive experiences – without excluding anyone.
Granted, our tours are not among the cheapest, but they are still accessible to most of those who walk in the footsteps of Hans Christian Andersen, the Danish poet who once said, ‘to travel is to live’.
The ‘trick’ is to be a large group. We’re talking 50+ people. Being many has its own dynamic. And a larger budget allows us to offer truly unique adventures, that surely will be beyond most of us if we acted on our own.
Our purpose is to tear us away from our day to day lives, to ensure that when you are back home again, you will ask yourself, ‘did I really experience what I think I experienced’?
What Exactly do you get for your 13,000 dkk?
Please Note:
The amount covers the stay and events during our days in Vienna. It does not include the flight as this give our guests much more flexibility.
