The big Marshall amp was pumping out notes with all the boom and volume of an ocean liner’s hooter and for a few seconds a 60-something-year-old lad from Exmoor was bashing it out on the lead guitar like some happy and demented Jimmy Hendrix. No air-guitar this, but the real thing - loud and raucous. And as a bonus I was playing this guitar in the glamorous and historic heart of Vienna.

Okay, I was alone and in my hotel suite - but when you tell people you’ve been to Vienna you are almost always faced with the auto-pilot reaction: “Did you go to the opera?”

“No, I didn’t,” comes my reply. “But I did play lead guitar at full volume with the help of a great big Marshall amplifier, just like rock stars have. And I did it in the suite I had at a very special new brand of hotels that is rapidly making a name for itself across Europe.”

If all this sounds a little uncultured of me, then note that I was enjoying a short city break to the capital of Austria and I was there at the invitation of the city tourist board which was introducing journalists to a new programme they’ve called ‘Unrating Vienna’. It is all about encouraging visitors to discover a very different city to the one seen in travelogues.

 “Unrating Vienna” inspires visitors to go in search of ‘unique experiences’ to be found in the city rather than following the crowds. The email I received said: “The campaign urges visitors to deliberately get lost, enjoy instead of plan and stumble across some unique hidden gems in the process.”
A very enjoyable experience it was too. I discovered a city that was vibrant, diverse and full of surprises.  
Like the Ruby Hotel I stayed in, for starters. There are three of these remarkable, funky and inexpensive hotels in the city (and more opening up across Europe all the time, including one in London later this year) and I look forward to staying in them again.

Just to explain that guitar... Each suite at the Ruby Lissi Hotel comes with its own big Marshall amplifier and, because every room is sound-proofed to the hilt, you are free to turn up the volume as loud as you like - whether that is as a result of plugging in your smartphone and playing your own music collection or because you have borrowed one of the electric guitars that hang around the walls of the reception area.

I am hopeless at playing a guitar, but I enjoyed twanging the strings in the privacy of my own suite. The Ruby Hotels are for the most part (and certainly the ones in Vienna) built into old buildings which have been renovated and each has its own themed and unique decor. They call it “lean luxury” - but it is modernistic, minimalist in places, and hugely enjoyable. I shall seek out the German-owned brand, especially since the price in the very heart of Vienna starts from just under 80 euros a night, which is amazingly good value.

So, if I did not queue for hours or book months ahead to go to the opera, what else did I do in Vienna? 

Well, lots - is the answer. We filled our three days from morning, noon, until very late at night. We walked and walked though the charming, stately streets and down hillsides cloaked in vineyards. We cycled through vast, green, wood-lined parks and along canal-sides. We even spent a morning aboard an electric powered launch which I somehow managed to skipper down a popular, but peaceful, stretch of the old Danube (as opposed to the newly realigned Danube which is busy and full of terrifyingly large shipping).

We even joined the throngs of Viennese locals who were swimming in the old river and enjoying specially created pleasure beaches. It was a wonderful thing to do in the 39-degree heatwave which had hit town to coincide with our stay.

As the tourist board had told me, Vienna is home to a multitude of outdoor activities – 53 per cent of the city’s surface area is classified as green space. The city’s biggest park, the Prater, has six million square metres of greenery to explore. The Vienna Woods are a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and home to 150 bird species and 2,000 plants. There is also a plethora of gardens to enjoy, including Stadtpark, Vienna’s first public park with the most monuments and sculptures.

I’m a sucker for markets, and Vienna has plenty of them, the most popular being the Naschmarkt. Then there’s the Brunnenmarkt, the second largest street market in Vienna, offering delicacies from around the world. Closer to the city centre, the Karmelitermarkt boasts not only the usual stalls, but a contemporary art scene and various new dining concepts which attract locals and visitors alike.

The thing a greedy person like me particularly likes about markets is the food - and when it comes to food and drink there is lots to like about Vienna. Outside the crowded centre there are literally hundreds of underrated authentic Viennese restaurants. Gasthaus Ubl in the 4th district offers quintessential Viennese charm with delicious local cuisine such as Wiener schnitzel and roast liver, beef shin and blood sausage. I enjoyed the iconic “boiled beef” dish which is a Viennese favourite and much more delicious than it sounds. The food was surprisingly inexpensive and it was real Austrian cuisine. I know that because I met the lady who owns the place and who almost single handedly cooks everything. 

When it comes to drink, Vienna is the only metropolis in the world to cultivate a wine-growing industry within its city limits. There’s a selection of vineyards and wine cellars to explore and sample. Wieninger am Nussberg is one such vineyard where visitors can sample biodynamic wine and Buschenschank delicacies from local producers, with stunning views over the city from Nussberg hill. We spent an entire afternoon up there enjoying a wonderful tasting with old Mr Wieninger who told us his family had ben making wine on the hill overlooking the it’s for 600 years.

We then worked-off the booze by hiking all the way down the hill and back into the outskirts of Vienna where we jumped aboard one of the city’s excellent, efficient metro-lines that sped us back into the centre.

Of course, there are all the famous things you can do and see in what is Europe’s number one short-city-break destination - like all the imperial and contemporary art which you can enjoy in the amazing museum district, or the stunning Schönbrunn Palace, or the State Opera or St Stephen’s Cathedral. There’s even the famous Ferris wheel as seen with Orson Welles in The Third Man, as well as countless Viennese pastries to consume after eating Wiener schnitzel and 100 different types of local sausage.

And there is the opera, however be warned that the queues are long if you don’t book a long way ahead. But, in the end there is just Vienna. Grand old empirical Vienna - one of the loveliest, grandest and most exciting cities on Earth.

Fact File

Martin stayed as a guest of Ruby Hotels Nightly rates at Ruby Lissi, Vienna start from €89 per night for a Nest Room, including breakfast. For more information, please visit www.rubyhotels.com.  Nightly rates at Ruby Marie, Vienna start from €69 per night and at Ruby Sofie, Vienna from €79 per night including breakfast.

LEVEL offer daily flights from London Gatwick to Vienna from €29.99, each way. For more information or to book, visit www.flylevel.com. 

Find out more about staying in Vienna by visiting www.viennainfo.com