The Ringstrasse, a circular set of
roads that surrounds the old city, has a collection of buildings built in
all the major European styles (baroque, classical Greek, burgher, nouveau,
etc. ) that would be the envy of any city in the world. Of course, the
Ringstrasse encloses dozens more of impressive buildings. The Hofburg palace,
seat of the Habsburgs who ruled from Vienna for over a thousand years, is
probably the worst building of the lot. Outside the old city, the Schonnbrun
has an amazing view and a less than impressive take on Versailles.
Other great things about Vienna are the outdoor cafes and street food (I went in late summer). Viennese Schintzel (breaded veal) is a treat, as are the assorted variety of sausages and pastries. Beer and wine are better in Styria, but the good thing is that you do get Styrian stuff in Vienna. I went to the film festival in Rathausplatz where Strauss' "Die Fledermaus" was playing. If only all operas were like this (as good and as inexpensive), I would go to more of them ...
Mariazel is a small Catholic pilgrimage site about 200kms from Vienna,
in the Alps. I took a train from Vienna to St. Poltzen and another train
to Mariazel. The train journey went from rolling cornfields to vineyards,
stopping at cute little villages and rumbling
through tunnels and along Alpine streams and lakes before depositing me in
St. Sebastin station. I promptly rented a bicycle, rode up to Mariazel
and then bicycled downhill for quite a while, catching the St. Polten
train about 20kms from St. Sebastin. The scenery was amazing, the cows
were content, the air was crisp and in short, this was the best part of
my trip. Forget Vienna, forget Graz, just go into the mountains!
Since I still had the bicycle with me when I landed in St. Polten, I
decided to bicycle to a town called Pottenbrun about 10kms away. It has
a moated castle that I very much wanted to see. The castle part was
quite a stretch. My guess is that someone built a big house in a ditch
and hired a canny real estate agent to sell it.
Still, the description brought me
there ... The cycling to Pottenbrun was great too. It had been quite a
while since I cycled on roads with cow dung on them -- made me homesick.
St. Polten is a prosperous town that, like most Austrian towns, has a nice city center and suburbs that would compete with any trailer park for dinghiness. I must have either blended in thoroughly or the guy who gave me a pamphlet exhorting me to vote for a mayoral candidate must have been stupid ... I even got a free geback (bread) from some kids, along with an announcement for a musical event two weeks later.
You can climb about 350 feet to the top of Schlossberg, the hill that held the garrison. There is a memorial there to the engineers who made it all possible. The staircase that leads up to it is straight out of a fairy tale. The famous clock tower was being repaired while I was there but the bell tower was pretty impressive.
Styrian wines and beer are great. Try especially Gosser beer, available through out Austria. Schnitzel, ghoulash and bratwurst are mouth-wateringly good.
Children, during the holidays, ride free even on long-distance trains. The reason was made obvious from the comments of a young Austrian couple I met. The wife was a school teacher. She was happy that she'd gotten a job that year. "There are not enough children," she said, with a longing emphasis on the children. Children get lots of free rides in that country.
The most hilarious incident occured when I was bicycling in the mountains and asked for directions to the Bahnhof, the railway station. "Go up a hill, come down the hill, turn left, go for a while and the station is to your right," the guy told me in German. I got that part mostly because he used his hands as well as his words to drive the point home. "Three kilometers?", I asked with my fingers. "Nein," he said vigorously, and said something kilometers in German. I asked him "one kilometer", "two kilometers" using my fingers all the time. He discussed the situation for about 20 seconds with his friend and finally came up with "half kilometer"! No wonder he wasn't using his fingers.
Few officials will speak in English to you. But stare at them long enough and they will come back with the English translation of whatever it is that they just said. Other than the govt folks, most Austrians will help you along with a mixture of German and English.
Another memorable encounter was with a Greek fellow who, having finished his Ph.D, was about to join the Greek army (they have compulsory drafts there). He was naturally worried about the periodic rumblings with Turkey over Cyprus and the Aegean islands.
The Benetton ads in Graz were cool too. Guess folks here are too uptight
for them to run similar campaigns ... note the Twister poster nearby.