Samantha Brown's Places to Love

-I'm in a city that simply stuns in its beauty, a place that is a rich, physical expression of history and tradition, and, yet, at its heart, one of comfort, friendliness, and ease.

It's a city where wine is enjoyed, and grown, where serious music is seriously playful... ...and what is unknown and mostly unseen, remarkable.

Wow!

It's the capital of not just a country, but, once, an entire empire.

I'm in Vienna, Austria.

[ Upbeat tune plays ] I'm Samantha Brown and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ...pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

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-The very first thing to do in Vienna is head to the Naschmarkt.

Locals know to head there early... -I've ordered you coffee already.

-Oh, perfect!

Perfect!

...because tourists are still enjoying breakfast in their hotels.

-I'm Bianca Gusenbauer-Hoppe and I'm a culinary host and food entertainer in Vienna.

We are a small country, but we have big flavors and we have, really, the best produce that you can taste.

-And tasting is what the Naschmarkt is all about, nasch meaning "nosh."

-Try some wild boar.

-And some of it is even free nosh.

Alright.

Hey, I will.

[laughs] Danke schoen.

Mmm!

-It's a typical sausage you would use also for dinner.

-Oh, okay.

I know this is the oldest market -Correct.

-in Vienna, but how big is it?

It feels like it stretches on forever.

-Let's say three blocks, approximately.

-Three blocks?

-Approximately, yeah.

And then we on the lane for the restaurants and then there's a second lane for the shops.

-Ah.

-So maybe we -- -Bianca takes me to her favorite cheese shop, where they are not, in any way, stingy with their samples, either.

-So, this one is the goat's cheese.

-You can see the colors of goat.

It's the palest.

-Can I try this cheese now?

-Yeah, sure!

-So this is the string cheese?

-Yeah.

-Ahh.

-Ohhh!

-Although it's goat's milk, it's not too goaty and not too sharp and it's really nice.

-It's very nice.

I'm picking up that cheese is very important to Austrians.

-Yes, and it's all handcrafted, mostly, and it's sometimes more expensive than meat.

It's not cheap.

You really must pay for the handcraft -The quality.

-and the quality, but it's worthwhile.

But we will do nice having kind of a very typical ham -Ham.

-from Vienna and, here, we eat a hot lunch and a cold dinner.

-A cold dinner?

-Yeah, and it's very unique because it's really Viennese.

It's even produced in Vienna.

It's a boiled ham.

-Okay.

-It's not smoked.

And then he slices the ham like prosciutto.

-Special knife.

-Yes.

You must be very skilled because you wanna have a thin layer.

-So thin.

-You usually eat it also with a Kaiser roll.

-Uh-huh.

-Yeah.

And it's just with salt, no seasonings or anything.

-So good.

Very subtle.

Not really salty.

Just that subtle ham taste.

-I'm a little bit addicted to that, I must say.

-[Laughing] -It's dangerous to buy.

-The Naschmarkt really shows the multiculturalism that exists here, which goes back to a time when this was an empire's capital and people from all over the world came here, to the great city of Vienna.

There are moments in Vienna where it really hits you, the amount of wealth and power the Hapsburgs had... ...and this is one of the biggest moments.

Oh, wow!

-It doesn't matter how often you're here.

I mean, I've been working here for five years already [ Laughter ] and it's still, every time, a big impression.

-So, right now, we are actually in a "room" of the Hofburg Palace, which is the Hapsburgs' home, correct?

-They lived here and they said this is for the public, you know?

They are allowed to come into the library.

But of course, only people who could read and write.

That was only 15% of the population, 10% to 15% of the population.

-But, still, that is incredible.

-The emperor actually said, "Publico comodo," "for the common public," so.

-And he's inviting them into his own home.

-This is the biggest library in the whole of Austria.

We have more than 12 million objects in the library and this is the baroque collection.

-Mm-hmm.

-We have 200,000 objects we have here in this collection only.

-I'm looking at just stacks and stacks of books and they start with the big books that are like up to my hip, and then it goes all the way up to tiny, tiny, tiny little books.

-I'm so happy you noticed this because, normally, in every library and every bookstore, the books are organized by topic, right?

-Sure.

-But, here, the books are organized by size.

-[Laughs] -Because in the 18th century, they didn't want to carry the big books up, right?

-[Laughing] -It's for practical reasons.

-What is the theme of the books?

Is there a theme of all the books?

-We have serious books, you know, biology books, medicine, but we have also books of the 17th century, serious biology books, about dragons, about the anatomy of dragons, for example.

-You are called the National Library.

Is this still a library, in that sense?

-Yes.

We have the main task is to be an archive.

We have to make sure that everything that we have lives forever.

But the second task is to make it public.

So every member of the National Library, which everybody can be, can order the books online.

Our catalog is online nowadays.

One half hours after you order the books, they're ready to read in the reading room.

-Okay.

How long can you take one of these books out?

-You can only read them in the library, yes?

So you cannot.

-I didn't think you could leave with one of these books.

So, Charles VI said this is a public library.

When did this truly become a public library, open to all the residents here?

-His daughter Maria Theresa, she said every child, from the sixth year, has to go to school, from all the corners of the empire, so that's also the reason, because of his daughter, that we have here German-Croatian books, like German-Hungarian books, German-Slovenian.

-'Cause they were all a part of the empire, at that point.

-Exactly.

-In this extravagant space, are there little like nooks and crannies that no one knows about here?

-Well, we have 200,000 books, but we only see 150,000.

There is a part that is hidden.

-Oh, my goodness.

[ Creaking ] Great sound.

[ Alarm beeping ] Oh, wow.

These little hidden chambers.

-Yes.

They didn't use it to hide the books, actually.

At that time, in the 18th century, no one was allowed to bring a candle or something like that because it's dangerous, so they would sit beside the window.

It was a little bit warmer and it was lighter.

-Of course, just like today, we like to curl up in a nice little nook and read a book.

-They were thinking practical.

That's true, yes.

-Practical is not usually a word used to describe the Hapsburgs' lifestyle and, though their 650-year reign ended in 1918, many family businesses, like Jarosinski & Vaugoin, for cutlery; and A.E.

Koechert, for fine jewelry; both served the Hapsburgs and continue to create one-of-a-kind pieces today.

-This is a set of, for one person, tablespoon, table fork, table knife, bouillon soup, dessert spoon, dessert fork, dessert knife.

Then we have the sandwich fork with three prongs, sandwich knife.

-Jean-Paul Vaugoin is sixth-generation at his family's 172-year-old business.

-...espresso or mocha spoon, grapefruit, egg, ice cream, bouillon soup small, compote, and you could order cocktail spoon.

-Can I ask a question?

Why do you need a sandwich fork?

-Well, when you eat the sandwich with a fork and a knife, then you need a sandwich fork.

-Ah!

And that's not the only thing that makes royalty not like us.

[ Gasping ] -Ohhh.

-Christoph Koechert is also sixth-generation of his family's 205-year-old business.

-And who was this made for?

-This was made for a princess, like from the inner circle of the House of Hapsburg.

-Mm-hmm.

-Do you wanna try it on, huh?

-Really?

-In 1831, we became the official title of the purveyor of the imperial court.

-Of the imperial court.

-Of the imperial court.

Eighteen years later, in 1849, that he would become Kammerjuwelier, and that was really the best you could get.

-Okay.

-That meant that you were the personal jeweler of the emperor.

-What do you feel distinguishes what your company does and what your family has stood for?

-From the beginning, only, it was cutlery.

-Cutlery.

-Always.

Heavy, handforged cutlery.

And that everything's sterling silver, not just plated, and handmade.

So it means that every piece is a unique thing and specially made.

-Right there in the back.

-That's it.

We use computers.

We use also 3-D printing, but, in the end, every piece is touched with fingers of my workers and so, I think, when you use our products, you might feel that there's, you know, the handing is very special.

-[Gasping] Koechert is still in care of some of the crown jewels, having bought a lot of their own pieces back for their family's historical collection.

-This piece, we only keep for the family.

-You loan it out?

-They get it if there's a ball or a wedding.

They come here and take the pieces and wear it.

It's still worn.

-Ah!

So, if I still have ties to the Hapsburg empire, I can come here and borrow my family's jewelry -Yes, if you marry -for a special event.

-a Hapsburg prince -- -Oh, yes?

Are there some available, still?

-[Laughing] -Yeah.

-If I'm going to be introduced to a Hapsburg prince, I might want to bring along a nice gift, something really special.

-We have one piece which is very unique, and can you guess what it is?

Yeah, there's a handle.

-Is it like a personal candle holder?

-It's a chicken leg holder.

You can screw in your fried chicken leg.

-[Laughing] -So.

Of course.

-So, the chicken leg goes in here.

Here's the drumstick.

Here's the meat and this is how I eat, so I don't actually touch.

-That's it.

The problem is you need someone to screw it in for you.

-Yes.

I'm gonna need four of these.

-No problem.

-[Laughing] One man who would've wanted all these treasures to sell on the black market was actually "The Third Man."

Debuting in 1949, this movie, set in postwar Vienna, is still considered one of the greatest films of all time and a museum dedicated to the film creates an experience where history and cinematic history come together.

[ Laughs ] So, Gerhard, how many rooms make up the Third Man Museum?

-Sixteen, already.

-Sixteen.

And some are small rooms, and then they lead to even smaller rooms.

Was that intentional?

-It just came like that because we added this part, this part, this part, little shops before -[Laughs] -and other places.

It's like a labyrinth.

And, on the end, even I got lost sometimes.

My name is Gerhard Strassgschwandtner.

I'm the owner, the creator, and the guy who collected the whole things.

I put the whole show together.

-What I always loved about the movie is it is not a set.

The actors and the police officers are running down the actual rubble of a bombed-out city right after World War II.

-I use it as a door opener into a time frame of history which here is not known much, unfortunately.

-This movie is a cult favorite.

I mean, people love this movie.

-It was, in all the Western countries, in all of them, a huge success, except in Austria.

-And so do you have people from all around the world coming to visit you?

-Sometimes they are from 10 different countries, people in the same large room, and they slowly always talk with each other.

-What was your first piece that you collected?

-[snaps fingers] These three pieces just behind you.

These three posters here, I bought in Queens, New York.

-In Queens?!

-Yes, yes, yes.

This rerelease from the United States, the American premiere, and this one from Argentina.

I had no idea that it will become this huge, giant collection.

In the beginning, the photography really hooked me, these brilliant pictures about this broken city.

It's shot right after the war and it's a period of time which, here, is blended out.

In Austria, we don't talk about things around the Second World War.

And I say to myself always, "If not out of history, what else humanity should learn out of?"

-Postwar Vienna was divided into five occupation zones between the USA, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union.

The city center was policed by all four.

And the black market is what the film depicts so well, right?

The underbelly, the crooks, right?

It also depicts a chase scene still considered one of the best, that took place in Vienna's actual sewer system.

About a 10-minute walk from the Third Man Museum is a Hollywood entrance and tour like no other.

Yes, I'm going down into the sewer.

And you can, too, with The Third Man tours, run by the people who know the sewer best -- the Department of Sanitation.

-Sorry for the spider webs.

-[Laughs nervously] The real tour is about an hour and goes through a few locations used in the film, including... Oh, my goodness!

[gasp] Is that the sewer?

-Yeah, nice.

-Oh, you take me to the nicest places, Gerhard.

-I have nothing else to offer.

I'm sorry.

-[Laughs] The chase scene came right by here and, because I know you're wondering, yes, it's smelly, but not as smelly as I thought.

And then, we ended here, a massive tunnel, home to an underground river.

What an amazing space, and I completely remember this from the film.

How old is the structure?

-This is exactly from 1900 because that little river was open going through the city and they wanted to have space up for markets, for streets, et cetera, and they closed it and it gives this 40x25-foot great tunnel.

-The Third Man Museum and its locations leave you with a... certain feeling.

-Do you trust me?

-[Laughing] No.

-Oh, wow.

-But I've got my little gun in my pocket.

-[Laughs nervously] -I've seen the movie.

[ Beethoven's Fifth Symphony plays ] Vienna is known worldwide as a city of music and, while more famous composers have lived in this capital city than any other, there's one museum that puts them all under one roof.

So, Peter, here in Vienna, I always feel like enjoying music is about sitting down at a concert and appreciating it.

-Exactly, but here at Haus der Musik, you can just playfully interact with music.

Follow me.

-[Laughing] -House of Music blends traditional music making with state-of-the-art technology, like rolling virtual dice to compose your own masterpiece.

Roll the dice.

I have six, so does that...?

Ooh!

-Number on a dice, you get a specific musical sequence.

-I'm the harp and you are a clarinet.

Okay.

I love my little cuff, -[Laughs] -my little cuff on the sleeve.

Oh!

Wow!

And what we're creating right now is our own waltz?

-Yes.

You know, even Mozart and Haydn, they played around with music.

They playfully created some kind of pieces like that.

-That's such a great point because we now interpret classical music as very serious, -Yes.

-right?

They had fun with the music.

-Pew!

-With each roll of the dice, a stanza is created, until... -"Alles Walzer!"

[ Laughter ] -I think it's gonna be a hit!

The five floors provide incredibly diverse and interactive experiences that range from the delightful to the powerful.

In one room, you can relive your first musical experience in the womb.

[Heartbeat] From a forgotten experience to one you thought you might never have -- conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

[ Tapping ] I chose an Austrian fave.

It may ring a bell.

[ Playing "Blue Danube Waltz" ] A computerize baton actually controls the tempo of one of the most celebrated orchestras in the world.

Nice, Samantha.

You got this.

But be prepared.

If you mess up, you will receive a dressing down that will put the blue back in the Danube.

[ Music stops ] -[Speaking German] [ Cheering and applause ] -Tough crowd.

I feel like all the palaces and beautiful ornate architecture of Vienna take all the credit for the city being beautiful, but it's a really natural city as well.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-And we are not actually on a man-made lake at all.

-Nope, nope.

This is called the Old Danube, the Alte Donau, and it's kind of like a still arm of the Danube.

-We are still in Vienna, right?

-Yeah, absolutely, almost in the center of Vienna, even though people wouldn't call it the center, but it somehow is.

It feels like the heart of Vienna, the Danube.

I'm Adia Trischler.

I'm originally from New York City, but, for the last 13 years, I've been lucky enough to call Vienna my home and I'm working here and raising two beautiful sons and I can't imagine going back to the States anytime soon.

This is what I love.

The Viennese love this feeling of being on vacation, even when they're at home.

-Mm-hmm.

-And, every weekend, every day after work or whatever in the summer, you kind of get to have that moment, if you come someplace like this or if you sit in a park or if you sit on the canal or something, it's basically like perpetual vacation.

[ Water lapping ] And all along here like once you get kind of past the houses, these are all like little beaches.

This is where they go to swim or people just sunbathe there and there's playgrounds, but, then, the further out you go, there's just beach after beach after beach.

-And this is what they talk about when you hear that Vienna is one of the most livable cities in the world.

-Everything is about kind of taking your time and enjoying that time.

-Slowing down.

-Yeah, slowing down.

-So I read that there are hiking trails that lead from the city to mountains where there are vineyards where you can drink and, yet, you are still in the city.

Is that true?

It's very true!

But even more unbelievable, when you get there...

I'm starting to think that we are not in Vienna anymore.

It's like Dorothy: "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

[ Laughs ] -No, we're very, very much in Vienna.

This is probably one of the most quintessentially Viennese settings that you could actually be in.

-Oh!

-The countryside and the city itself sort of bleed into one another.

-Mm-hmm.

An absolutely must while in Vienna is visiting the casual wine taverns, or Heurigen.

Now, a simply different version of this Austrian classic is owned by fourth-generation winemaker Fritz Wieninger, whose family has been making wines since the 18th century.

But, for this joyful setting, we have an emperor to thank.

-Dating back about 250 years, Emperor Joseph II gave the rights to the wine producers to sell their own wine directly to the consumer.

Wine producers opened their houses, put a fir bush in front of their door, -Ahhh, okay.

-and people knew, "It's open.

We can have wine."

And we sit down and enjoy some wine and we are only allowed to open from middle of August until end of October because this building, what you see here in the back, is not a restaurant.

Officially, it's a garage for the tractor.

-Okay.

How many people, Fritz, come to you by way of car or hiking?

-More than half come by foot.

They walk up here.

-From the city.

-Yes.

Well, maybe from a parking spot on the footsteps of the hill.

-I was told that we would come here and have wine in a vineyard that is not only a part of Vienna, but a wine that is of Vienna.

-Yes, absolutely.

That's Gemischter Satz, Wiener Gemischter Satz.

That means it is a wine from one vineyard that consists from different grape varieties.

A minimum of three have to be planted in the vineyard, grow together, and have to be harvested all at the same time.

This is the typical wine of the Vienna region.

Most of the vineyards in the world are single varietal, but not in Vienna.

-Cheers!

-Cheers.

[ Clinking ] Prost.

-Prost.

-Prost.

-Prost.

Mmm!

Oh!

It's fresh, but it has a beautiful acidity.

-Yes.

-That's what I love about Austrian wine.

-Absolutely.

Having the luck to do this within the Viennese city limit -Mm-hmm.

-is like a duty that we take really serious and I hope that we can be one of those generations that really protect it and save it for the future.

-If you come here, obviously, you want to see the palaces and, obviously you wanna eat schnitzel, but Vienna is actually really much more than that.

It is one of the greenest cities in the entire world and it is sitting on the Danube and just kind of looking at the sunset.

If you wanna really, really visit the city and experience what the lifestyle is like, all you need to do is take a deep breath, find a place to park by some green, and just spend your day like that.

-If you come to Vienna, you can expect fantastic museums, fantastic culture, many, many centuries of Hapsburgs' glorious rule, reign, but here is one museum that encapsules a very, very short period of time, and this is so important, that this period of time, we remember.

-A traveler to Vienna will find phenomenal food and you will see that it has a big advantage to being such a small country because we don't have mass production.

It's everything very small and a lot of love is put in.

-When a city overwhelms you with its history and traditions, when a museum reminds you that, to appreciate music, we must play with it... [ Piano flourish plays ] ...when people show you that the most important part of their city is the friendliness and ease that happens every day, that is when we share a love of travel and that's why Vienna, Austria, is a place to love.

-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" was made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ...pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

-All the untamed beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, experienced on a journey by rail.

Rocky Mountaineer, proud sponsor of "Places to Love."