Vienna, city of music, opera and sacher torte

Vienna is Europe's oldest imperial capital and its famous inhabitant: Elisabeth of Bavaria (fondly known as Sisi ), who was the Empress of Austria and queen of Hungary, consort of Emperor Francis Joseph I become the country's icon inspiring many film-makers and playwriters.

Her residences at Schonbruun Palace and Hofburg - Imperial palace are "must see" for tourists to Vienna. In the imperial appartments, there are the Sisi museum for Sisi fans and the Treasuries housing the magnificent crown jewels.

Nearby is the reknown Spanish Riding School with the Lippizan breed of horses offering public performances. Tickets have to be booked beforehand.

Across from the Riding school is the Kohlmarkt street where one has enter the Demel cake shop. This is a tourist stop because it is mentioned in the Austrian tourism website as once being a Purveyor to the Court, hence explaining the presence of camera totting Japanese tourists jostling with Spanish tourists for tables at this cafe. The assortment of cakes behind the glass cabinet is an eyeful, but the Sacher Torte isn't the best here. Try the Apple strudel instead.

At noon, well past noon actually, the art nouveau Anker Clock will strike and go on for a few minutes rotating on its axes with figurines of famous folks. It's an anti-climax for the jaded traveller like me, who has seen other far more exciting sights.

Train your eye on the gothic spires of the St Stephen Cathedral and you'll arrive in the centre of Vienna old town. This cathedral dates some 850 years old. It's quite a site to behold especially with the ultra modern glass Haas Building next to it. This square is also at the cross-roads of Graben and the Karntner Strasse, where you'll find Swarowski shops, Sisley boutiques among other shops and cafes.

Head back towards the State Opera, where the important Albertina museum is located just next to the Sacher Hotel ( which made the Sacher torte famous ). The imperial palace park is just around the corner with a greenhouse converted cafe next to it. As a city, Vienna is pleasant because of the many parks : the romantic Volksgarten Park where you'll hear Mozart's concerto admist the many statues and fountains.

Across from the park, is the Museum Quartier, City Hall and Parliament building. Impressive buildings and you'll wish your camera had a wide-angled lens. For museum fans, then the Museum Quartier is worth a visit. Though it is touted as having many restaurants, cafes and shops, in reality there are but a few cafes and i think you're better off eating off the Museum Quartier grounds.

The House of Music is a sensory treat. For 10 euros, you wonder through halls of music and anything to do with sounds. For music fans, this is a city you will fall in love with.

When it comes to food, Vienna takes the thumbs up for the great number of restaurants per inhabitant and at an unbeatable price. Amazingly good eats ( definately the cheapest in the EU 15 countries ) can be found ranging from local cuisine to Japanese food. Our favourite restaurant located next to Belvedere Palace on Rennweg served finger-licking ribs. I loved the three sauces that accompanied the ribs too!

For non-beer drinkers, the apple juice+ mineral water is refreshingly tasty and served in big beer mugs... so you can pretend to be one of 'em beer guzzlers.

The list of cafes listed on the tourist map is exhaustive. We tried Cafe Schwarzeberg located on Kartner Ring below a HERTZ signage! It's an old style cafe where local residents and curious tourists mingled. We ordered Goulash soup and a lunch special. The portions were also tourist size, i.e small. The thing to do here is to just have coffee and that's another mind-boggling selection and a piece of cake.

I tried Haas and Haas teahouse, located just behind St Stephen's Cathedral. The apple strudel was good and it seemed that I wasn't the only one who knew about that. Ironically, having such a strong cafe culture, one would think that coffee is inexpensive. Quite the opposite, Vienna's coffee is one of the most expensively priced by EU15 standards, surpassing those served in Parisian cafes! Cake prices are still somewhat moderate.

In search of the best tasting Sacher Torte ( most cafes claim to make the original cake ), original or not original as taste and texture mattered most, the Gerstner K & K Hofzuckerbacker won our consensus. Their Sacher Torte was moist and soft, unlike some that were rather dry. It was so good that we even hand-carried several boxes of cakes on our journey home.