The Graetzl Tour
Today I'm taking you on a Graetzl walk to the Karmelitermarkt in Vienna's 2nd district. We Viennese call Graetzl a small area in the residential area. In English one would say “hood”. The Vienna Tourist Board tries to get visitors to our beautiful city interested in places away from the hotspots, and this market is a great alternative to the overcrowded Naschmarkt. Fewer tourists, more locals and therefore more authentic.
How to get there
You can easily walk there from the hotel in about 15 minutes and see beautiful, revitalized houses and balconies full of flowers. It is best to walk along Praterstrasse to the Nepomuk Church, then into Rotensterngasse and then straight ahead. My tip: Alternatively, go via Tandelmarktgasse - there is a house wall that is regularly redesigned. In the Große Pfarrgasse, opposite the Leopoldskirche, we found the construction site quite interesting. Apparently an old building will be preserved and integrated into the new building.
The facts
• Opening hours: stalls: Monday to Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 6 a.m. to a maximum of 6 p.m
• Restaurants and bars: Monday to Saturday, 6 a.m. to a maximum of 11 p.m.; Sunday and public holidays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m
• All stands and bars must be open at least (weekdays): Tuesday to Friday, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m • Size: 6,000 m2
The Karmelitermarkt is one of the oldest still existing markets in Vienna (it has officially existed since 1891) and has 80 market stalls. Of course, the offer includes fruit and vegetables, cheese, fish, meat, sausages, flowers and dairy products. The farmer's market takes place there on Friday and Saturday and you can also buy specialties such as horse and bison meat.
The morning at the market
We started our day on Saturday with a delicious breakfast in the “Gasthaus Schöne Perle” just around the corner of the market. You can also eat really well Viennese food there. Then we went to the market and let ourselves drift. The stallholders are happy to give customers samples of their goods, and in addition to cheese and fresh wood-fired bread, we also took home delicious tomatoes. What's nice: you don't just get "standard" vegetables there. There are goods that don't look particularly pretty, but taste a lot better than the vegetables from the supermarket.
The Viennese sense of humor
A funny episode from one of the fixed market stalls: we bought sausage and an elderly lady who was in front of us bought 5 meat loaf rolls for herself and her friends. The seller had a really good Viennese sense of humor (we call that “Schmäh”) and when the lady said that the meat loaf was cut too thick, he said cheekily: Well, unfortunately you have to go through that now! At the same time, a sweaty cyclist came in and took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator on his own. Apparently he was a regular customer and the seller said "Well, you've really earned that after 2 minutes on the bike!". We had to smile!
The gastronomy
The hip cafes such as "Cafe Mima", "Zimmer 37" and "Kaas am Markt" were very well frequented and offer exciting and tasty food and drinks. In the "Pizza Quartier" there is delicious Italian food and good wines. When the weather is nice, you can sit outside and watch the hustle and bustle of the market. Just lovely. Mingle with the locals and become a part of our city. From the market you can easily walk to the first district or through Leopoldstadt back to the hotel. I am now enjoying a slice of crusty wood-fired bread and wish you a lot of fun at the Karmelitermarkt.
Kind regards
Ingeborg
