Travel soultions: Vienna

Stalls at the east end food market

For a European capital, Vienna is tiny, and it’s easy to cover most of it on foot. However, it is also a city rich in history, culture and architectural treasures, which means there’s a lot to get through. A friend gives me a whistlestop tour of the other highlights from the back of her vintage Mercedes (you can still pick up design classics incredibly cheaply in Vienna). Driving at speed round the inner ring road (a trip you can also do on a standard €1.50 tram ticket), glistering splendour whizzes by. I try to snap the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the Natural History Museum, the Art History Museum, the famous Belvedere Palace, Gothic Rathaus and the neoclassical parliament.

On Saturday mornings everyone heads for the famous Naschmarkt. At the western, flea market end, weatherbeaten Eastern Europeans trade everything from junk found in skips to antique furniture. There are rusty street signs, old postcards, vintage handbags, army helmets, and lederhosen (I’m tempted). At the eastern end is the crowded food market where there are an improbable number of stalls selling different types of feta cheese, cured meats and pumpkin seed oil. Even this early, punters are enjoying fruity seasonal drink stürm – a sweet and slightly fizzy semi-fermented grape juice that’s really quite pleasant.

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Alongside the markets are some beautiful examples of art nouveau ornamentation, in particular the gold-encrusted Otto Wagner Haus and the delicate golden dome of the Secession building itself, which houses Gustav Klimt’s ‘Beethoven Friese’. All instantly recognisable as ‘Viennese’. By contrast, the new Museum squartier of which the city is so proud is deflatingly mundane.

Button up at the west end flea market

After my brisk tour I’ve still not made it to the iconic Volksprater ferris wheel (made famous by ‘The Third Man’), round any of the grand palace gardens, inside the many museums, to a concert or out to the forests and vineyards that surround the city. Thirty-six hours has been enough to get a reasonable snapshot, but this speed-sightseeing has been at odds with the laidback pace of the city itself. I’m left with the optimistic sense that there’s more to return for – but with a little more time to spend enjoying it.

Getting there British Airways, British Midland and Austrian Airlines all fly direct from Heathrow. Prices typically from £280 return. Air Berlin flies direct from Stansted.

Where to stay Falkensteiner Hotel Am Schottenfeld. Modern hotel (with gym, spa and buffet breakfast) in the hip 7th district. Schottenfeldgasse 74, A-1070 Vienna (0043 1 526 51 81/www.falkensteiner.com). Doubles from €121.

Jessica Cargill Thompson visited Vienna courtesy of the International Lomographic Society. ‘Trading Places’, a 14-metre-long interactive Lomo wall of images of Waterloo is up outside the Royal Festival Hall. Press the images and hear a story about the area. For stockists of Lomo’s cult cameras, including its new LCA+ on which these photos were taken, see www.lomography.com.

Jessica Cargill Thompson