Austrian Hotels With Personality Provide Accomodations Proper For Royalties And Celebrities

Have you ever had that feeling when you were on a tour on a budget, but you just had to treat yourself to a wonderful place to stay? I have. Good thing, credit cards are accepted in most hotels in Austria. Here are two great pensions exhibiting Austrian culture:

If you’re young and hip and you’re looking for a nice inn with x-factor, or sometimes music personalities, then you might want to try to look at Hotel Fürstenhof where between 300-400 band groups lodge every year. The mementos of music artists lining the walls of the century-old building convey that. Fürstenhof is family-run, so that it offers the travelers friendly, discreet, and personalized service. Oh, did I tell you that the hotel is walking distance to the shopping part Mariahilfer Strasse?

Now, if you are the kind of person who doesn’t really become troubled about your bank balance after you’ve treated yourself to luxury, then Vienna’s Hotel Ambassador is fine for you. Another century-old place, this five-star hotel is in a very central spot. Marble, Lobmeyr chandeliers (designer for the Habsburgs) and antiques accentuate this hotel of sophistication. For added cultural touch, the hotel’s walls are lined with the original scores of Hungarian composer Franz Lehár, who often lived there. Special rooms are also dedicated to other known vacationers such as Princess Helena of Greece and Mark Twain. All of these are easily a hop, skip and immediate to Kärntner Strasse, Neuer Markt, the Staatsoper, and Stephansplatz.

Cruising Through The Familiar Fragrance Of Cafes Of Vienna

Just as beer is very much a part of the British culture and tea is traditionally Chinese, coffee is richly involved in Viennese food and drink culture. Legends trace the Viennese passion for coffee from the Turkish invaders in the late 1600s. In reality however, the Viennese café culture was commenced by Armenian Johannes Diodato, a spy for the Austrians who was given the initial coffee trade monopoly as a bonus for his services. One cafe bar started springing, one after another, and before they knew it, the rest was coffee history!

If you’re a coffee addict like me, then a café break of Vienna is in order. Among the hundreds of coffee houses in the area, here are best of my options:

In the late 19th century, celebrated writers and poets were frequenters to classic Viennese cafés like Café Central. renowned writer Peter Altenberg even had his mail forwarded in this café.

With its trademark of pink and brown exteriors, Aida Café with its line of 26 espresso bars has a cult following. To this day, Aida continues to uphold its traditional coffee, refusing to add flavored coffee to its beverage menu. And a cluster composed of women employees and crew exclusively runs Aida and that fact is very complimenting to feminists around the globe.

Kaffee Alt WienTis, a known kaffeehaus, is the endeavor of love of couple Leopold and Josephine Hawelka, who opened Kaffee Alt Wien a day after their wedding. This history may appeal to romantics, although I must tell you that this kaffeehaus, now rather smoky and gloomy, has emerged into a night café.

Austria : A Shelter Of Rich Cultural Tradition

Vienne (French), Bécs (Hungarian), Dunaj (Slovene), Wenen (Dutch) or Wien (German) --many names, one alive hub -- Vienna, the cultural capital of Europe.

I’ve just toured all around Vienna to find its six cultural treasure places. I urge you not just to visit, but also to experience them all in one day!

The Burgtheater or the Imperial Court Theatre - also popular as the Castle Theatre, is Austria’s main theatre and is one of those that set the trend for German-language theatres in the world.

The Musikverein - in English, The Music Club is popular for its acoustics and is considered to be one of the three most finest concert halls in the world. Musikverein is also the hub of the talented Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Raimund Theater - named after Austrian playwright Ferdinand Raimund, this theatre mainly shows German folk dramas and plays.

The Theater an der Wien - the “Wien” in its name not only stands for Vienna; “an der Wien” stands for “on the banks of the Wien River”, which once was found by the theatre site. This 200-year old theatre started operas like Beethoven Fidelio’s. Beethoven, when composing his opera, actually lived stayed in rooms inside the theatre.

The Theater in der Josefstad - also called as Die Josefstadt, is the oldest still performing theatre in Vienna.

The Volksoper Wien or the Vienna People’s Opera - home to almost) 300 performances of twenty-five productions each theater season, Volksoper is the largest venue for operas, operettas, and musicals in Vienna.

Serenade By The Cold Harmony Of Vienna

Touring around Vienna, or most likely taking the bus or train around, you wouldn’t be able to deny that it is an important area of music in Europe. Due to the sponsorship of the Habsburgs in the 18th and 19th centuries, classical music proliferated. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Johann Strauss II were partnered with this alive city. And, with the Imperial Opera House, the Musikverein and the Theatre an der Wien, those with elegant taste in classical music will surely feel at home.

When I mainly became familiar of the term Schrammelmusik, I said, “What is that?!” That was my outburst for my outset ignorance. I didn’t know that in Vienna, the term is the most popular form of modern Austrian folk music. Schrammelmusik, named after brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel, came forth as a mélange of different influences: rural Austrian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Moravian, and Bavarian immigrants of Vienna. It is a cheery variety of music played with an accordion and a double-necked guitar. Finest entertainment!

For the young ones wishing to voice out the frustrations of their youth (oh dear, I am getting carried away), there is Alpunk. Short for Alpine punk, alpunk is the punk rock known in the Alpine regions of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Very vibrant, but also very cultural, the music is a fusion of chaotic punk and accordion-based folk music, for which the Alpine region is well-known for.

Touring The Rides Of Vienna Prater In A Day Of Recreation And Pleasure

Affluent, fascinating, musical, fashionable -- Vienna is all that. Then came Vienna Prater, and suddenly, there was more, 250 attractions more.

For starters, I just had to experience the Riesenrad, or the gigantic Ferris wheel, which provides a breathtaking view of Vienna, almost 200 feet up! Amazingly, this gigantic Ferris wheel is more than a hundred years old.

Soon was a whirlwind of rides not meant for the anxious: the Turbo Boost, Bungee Jump, Ejection Seat and, Space Shot. If those rides don’t pump adrenaline to get a move on through your blood stream, then I don’t know what will.

Somehow, the adventurer in me wouldn’t halt. Next on my itinerary were the flying carpet, crazy house and maze, and the not-so-scary ghost houses, all of which dragged me to the history of the theme park. Project horse-drawn carriages, barrel organs, Heurigen singers and the Waltz King Johann Strauss walking about -- that was possibly a picture of the Prater a century ago.

Winding down in the afternoon, I was stunned to find that the Prater has its own green shelter with spacious meadows, shady trees and quiet paths. I detected that this used to be the premier hunting ground. Thus, the Vienna Prater is not barely an amusement place.

To cap the day, I indulged in an Austrian musical and culinary show that takes travelers to a journey through Austria, pampered by gastronomic delights, local to Austria, and serenaded with Austrian melodies and waltzes.

What a fine itinerary!

Valued Beverages Rediscovered In A Drinking Spree In Austria

A clever man once said that you never really know a country until you’ve sampled the best drinks it offers. Well, whether this is true or not, it’s a good excuse as any to get to know Austria’s beverage culture more absolutely. I should not do all of it in a day, but after a week of traveling in Austria, I think I’ve come up with quite a good list of drinks to try before you fly out of the country.

1.Viennese Coffee. Did you know that on average, one Austrian adult consumes 55 gallons of coffee in a year?
2.Austrian Beer. Each beer has its own bragging rights. Research shows that the common Austrian consumes 30 gallons annually.
3.Milk. Now, don’t laugh; milk in Salzburg culture is very weighty. In fact, the recognized dairy company “Woerle,” rooted from Salzburg. Milk is even celebrated in the “Salzburger Milchnacht” or the Salzburg Night of Milk.
4.Wine. The most outstanding of which would be the Grüner Veltliner, the nice white wine, which hopefully, you can get at a friendly neighborhood heuriger.
5.Schnapps. This fruit brandy in Austria is made normally of apricots, rowanberries, gentian routs, or a mix of herbs. There are roughly 20,000 schnapps producers in Austria.

Vienna's Tradition Lives Up Amidst Modernization Through The Prosperity Of Well-Kept Museum

Do you prefer the mysteries of history and the gaps in time and space when exploring museums? Aha! You might just be a culture vulture -- reminiscent of me. And, culture vultures flock in culturally rich cities reminiscent of Vienna. The place will astonish you.

Starting off with Stephansdom, or St. Stephen’s Cathedral -- the 450-feet soaring attraction is the hub of Viennese sightseeing. It necessitated more than 400 years to put together this cathedral from 1147 to 1556. From there, soak up some Viennese character by taking a fiacker, (horse-drawn carriage), a vestige of the Habsburg era.

For a piece of history and science, go on to the Burgring, where two large museums stand face to face, while the Naturhistorisches Museum houses relics on zoology, botany, geology and natural history. The twin building Kunsthistorisches Museum houses galleries that display patterned arts from the 1600s to the 1900s, and archaeological artifacts. This is a outstanding place to look at European art.

Then, go for several areas from these museums, based on your areas of interest. The Museum of Austrian Baroque Art, Armory Museum, Museum of Gold and Silversmiths, Fashion Museum, Museum of Ethnography, Austrian Folklore and Resistance Fighters against the Nazis, and the Museum of Roman Ruins are all splendid selections. To end with, take time to visit the Hofburg Imperial Palace, and see what life was like for Austria’s Imperial Family.

A Fine Gastronomic Concurrence With Goulash

Austrian buffet is a blend of Hungarian, Slav, Czech, Jewish, German, and Italian influences. National ingredients are composed of wurst, schnitzel, ravioli, and goulash.

Although goulash is more known to the outside world as a Hungarian national ingredient, Austrians claim that there is a difference between the Austrian and Hungarian version: theirs is gulasch, while the Hungarians refer to it as gulyás. Others will say that Austrian gulasch is still a Hungarian influenced stew, what with its extraordinary concentration of paprika spice.

In any case, goulash is the Austrian abundant dish for all seasons. You can take your choice ingredient from rindsgulasch (beef), kalbsgulasch (veal), schweins (pork), fiaker (beef with frankfurter, egg and pickle), bier (beer), fisolen (green beans), Erd pfelgulasch (potato), szegediner gulasch (with cabbage), and Gulaschsuppe (goulash soup); but, if you are ever in Vienna, you can even cook a hundred different gulasch recipes from the Gulasch Museum, with its menu of over 100 gulasches, all in enticing and appetizing full color.

Goulash is a abundant dish that can be eaten with dumplings, potatoes, noodles, rice, bread, or rolls on the side. I personally consider that rolls are the best because when broken up, they can soak in the goulash flavoring To wash it all off, Austrians generally serve this national meal with beer.

The Tasty Wines Of Magnificent Austria

What is a great dining experience without a bottle of wine? In Austria, this is a very valid |topic as the country produces some of Europe's supreme wines. Austrian wine is popular for its sweet taste, but upon arriving in Austria, I uncovered that Austrians actually prefer dry wines, and their dry wines do not really last very well. Hence, it is no more than the Austrian sweet wines that get to our liquor shops back in our area.

If you ever decide to visit Austria and sample its palatable wines, I would recommend Schilcher, Steiermark dry ros. If you are much like me and you like your wine sweet, then crave for Burgenland's Beerenausleses and Eisweins.

The pleasant way to enjoy Austrian wine in Vienna is to spend an evening, preferably in summer, in a Heurige. Imagine a club with outdoor seating and picnic tables in an enclosed courtyard. Then imagine yourself sitting under a grape arbor, with the stars up above, perceptible through the grape leaves. Well, you have just imagined a Heurige scene and was that fine or what?

If you want to go on a bit of a wine visit, then fine wine, not far from the big city, can be easily found. Just at the suburbs of Vienna is the Wachau valley of Danube, where I discovered the great wine of Nieder sterreich.