Vienna

Climbing the 343 steps of the south tower brings the patterned tile roof up close. The north tower has a lift, and a bell of 20 tonnes hangs inside it.

The summer residence holds 1441 rooms and opens only 40 of them. A walk up the garden hill to the Gloriette puts the whole centre in one view.

Two baroque palaces face one another across a garden. The upper building holds the Klimt canvas called The Kiss, and that single room stays crowded.

The palace used in winter is now split among several museums. One of them gathers the dresses and travelling trunks of Empress Elisabeth.

Standing places go on sale 80 minutes before the curtain at 13 euros. Once a place is claimed, a scarf knotted to the rail marks it, a habit kept for generations.

Some 120 stalls form one long row, weighted toward spices and pickles. On Saturday a flea market takes over the far end.

A wheel raised in 1897 still turns on its original spot. It carries 15 wooden cabins and one circle runs about 20 minutes.

The graves of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms stand side by side in section 32. The ground covers 2.4 square kilometres, so reaching it from the main gate on foot passes 20 minutes.

A dome of gilded leaves catches the eye from a distance. Downstairs the Beethoven Frieze by Klimt runs 34 metres along the walls.

The floors were laid uneven on purpose and no two windows repeat a shape. People live in it, so the inside stays shut and only the outside is seen.

The museum of the paintings the Habsburgs gathered, and no collection on earth owns more Bruegel the Elder. The Tower of Babel and The Hunters in the Snow hang in one room. Under the dome one floor up, a cafe serves coffee among the paintings.

The indoor riding hall inside the palace where Lipizzaner horses perform classical dressage. The horses are born dark and turn white as they grow. Instead of a full show, a separate ticket covers the morning training, and it is easier to get.

A gallery occupying a wing of the Habsburg palace, strong in prints and drawings. Light damages the original of Durer's Young Hare, so it comes out briefly once in some years and a copy hangs otherwise. Upstairs, the rooms an archducal family lived in survive.

A white stone block inside the MuseumsQuartier with the world's largest group of works by Egon Schiele. Klimt and furniture from the Vienna workshops hang nearby. In the courtyard outside, people lie back on big plastic loungers.

The hill where the Vienna Woods begin, looking over the centre, the Danube and the vineyards. In 1683 the relief army that broke the Ottoman siege gathered here. Bus 38A climbs from Heiligenstadt station, and walkers descend on foot through the vines.

A wine village on Vienna's northern rim, a heuriger tavern on every lane. A bundle of pine twigs hung over a door means that house is pouring its new wine. Tram 38 terminates here, so no change is needed from the centre.

A baroque library hall built under Charles VI, its shelves filled to the ceiling with 200,000 old volumes. Daniel Gran painted the ceiling fresco. At the centre, an oval space keeps Prince Eugene's books, with four globes standing in it.

Nearly 150 Habsburgs lie beneath the Capuchin Church. The great bronze tomb Maria Theresa shares with her husband is the most ornate. Their hearts went separately to the Augustinian Church and their entrails to St Stephen's.

The twin of the art museum, facing it across the square in matching form. The Venus of Willendorf, a stone age carving 11 centimetres tall, has a dim room to itself. Few meteorite displays on the planet are bigger than its own.

No zoo still running is older than this one, opened inside the palace gardens in 1752. An octagonal pavilion stands at the centre with enclosures fanning out around it. It keeps pandas, and their enclosure draws the thickest crowd.

In the City Park, a gilded Johann Strauss II plays the violin. A marble arch frames it from behind, and people line up to photograph it. The Kursalon across the lawn often holds waltz concerts.

Workers' housing put up by the city in the late 1920s, a single block 1.1 kilometres long. Red walls and big arched gateways run on and on. It sits right outside Heiligenstadt station, and a small exhibition fills an old laundry building.

An art nouveau clock on the bridge linking two buildings over Hoher Markt square. Twelve historical figures pass one per hour, and at noon all of them parade to music. Arrive at that hour and you stand among the crowd looking up from the square.

A hall gilded on walls and ceiling, home of the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert on 1 January. The rectangular room is famed for its sound. Cheap standing tickets go on presale with the seats, so book early; many students listen from the back.