One of the world’s most extravagantly beautiful cities, Vienna is no secret to travelers. In season, major sights such as St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the Hofburg can feel quite crowded, robbing them of some of their majesty. Budapest, too, draws throngs to its most famous sights. But at many of the blockbuster attractions in these cities, it’s not particularly difficult to escape the crowds for a more tranquil experience.
The impressive Gothic Stephansdom draws big crowds, a fact made all too clear as soon as one enters the bustling square in front of it. Inside, throngs explore the main floor of the cathedral, but few know about the Domschatz (cathedral treasury), which opened about a year ago. After you pass through the main doors of the church, turn immediately to the right and take the elevator up. Beyond a room filled with ornate reliquaries and crucifixes is the cathedral’s organ loft, which presents breathtaking views of the entire nave. When we visited in late May, we had the loft and its views entirely to ourselves, an experience well worth the €5 entry fee.
The vast palace between Vienna’s old quarter and the Ring is a justifiably popular attraction. Many visitors don’t realize that it opens at 9 a.m., an hour before most other museums in Vienna. If you arrive at the Imperial Apartments, the Imperial Silver Collection or the Imperial Treasury (my favorite) first thing in the morning, you’re likely to find the exhibits blissfully quiet.
Across the Ring from the Hofburg, this top-tier art museum opens at 10 a.m., and occasionally, lines can form out front. Even so, it’s almost never as crowded as the Louvre or the Uffizi, and the art inside competes with that of any museum in the world. The most civilized way to experience the Kunsthistorisches Museum is to attend a “Gourmet Evening,” held each Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. The exhibits remain open until 9 p.m., when they have far fewer visitors than during the day. The buffet proved to be quite fine, as buffets go, and dining in the grand cupola hall beneath the gilded central dome was a delight.
Although this museum is in the heart of Budapest’s touristy Castle District and ranks as one of the city’s top attractions, I’ve never found it to be crowded. Hungarian painters simply don’t have the same name recognition as their Western European contemporaries. Nevertheless, this museum contains numerous moving, mesmerizing works. I tend to breeze through the medieval section and head straight to the 19th-century paintings on the second floor. The darkly luminous works of Mihály Munkácsy deserve to be much better known. He often depicts everyday scenes with an eerie, unsettling light, and the expressive faces he paints look broodingly introspective or alertly suspicious. “Condemned Cell,” “Making Lint” and “Paris Interior” are unforgettable.
This fanciful (if non-functional) fortification presents everyone’s favorite panoramas of Budapest, encompassing views of the Chain Bridge, Parliament and the Danube. It’s difficult to take a crowd-free shot of the bastion’s turrets and crenellations during the day, but at dusk, most people have retreated to hotels and restaurants, and the bastion — beautifully illuminated against the navy sky — is left quiet. The section for which one usually has to pay an entrance fee is open, and a few couples stroll along the wall, taking in the romance of the scene. If visiting during the day is the only option, have a drink inside the bastion at one of the riverview cafés. We relaxed at a table in the Panoramia Café & Bar just behind the bronze equestrian statue of Szent István. My dry, fruity rosé from Villány tasted all the better paired with live gypsy music and sensational Danube vistas.
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