The Kahlenberg is the view that explains Vienna — the whole city, the Danube, the Hungarian plain beyond, all of it from one terrace at the northern edge of the Wienerwald (the Vienna Woods). Take the 38A up from Heiligenstadt and go straight to the railing. Morning is the version to have, before the coaches arrive and while the air is still clear.
Behind the terrace is St. Josef, the small church that carries the hill's other story: in 1683 the relief army that broke the Ottoman siege mustered here, and the Polish king Jan Sobieski's chapel inside marks the morning it began. A few minutes on, the Stefaniewarte, an 1887 brick lookout, adds the woods and the far ridges if you climb it.
Then the good part — the ridge path east through the trees toward the Leopoldsberg, the Wald closing over you and opening at clearings with the river below. The Leopoldsberg gives you the Danube view to set against the Kahlenberg's city one. From there the path drops through the vineyards into Nussdorf, where the tram D runs straight back to town.
