VIENNA Heart Of Europe

Magnificent palaces, breathtaking cathedrals, operas, the house of Sigmund Freud and appelstrudels…a brief stopover at the Austrian capital bowls over Devika Rajan…

To be honest, the choice of Vienna as a travel destination was just happenstance. Our trip was to Greece, and we were flying Austrian Airways; the stop en route at Vienna was thus inevitable. Why not see another European capital, was our thought. Knowledge of Vienna, therefore, before we embarked, was a snatch here, a snatch there - haphazard - and in some ways, minimal. Vienna was till then…well, capital of Austria; located on the Danube; along with Salzburg was the setting for the Sound of Music, the place had lots to do with Strauss (there are two of them, senior and junior - father and son - it was the son who composed the Blue Danube) and Mozart; and didn't the First World War start with a prince from the Austrian royal house being assassinated? We were innocents abroad, this time. And we set out, armed with our Lonely Planet guide, and decided to enjoy whatever this trip brought forth. We didn't have to try very hard.

Alighting at Vienna (locally called Wien) we found her airport, large and bustling like any other European airport. We took a taxi to the city, the only time that we permitted ourselves this indulgence, because taxis are expensive, and the underground (u-bahn) is quite convenient to use. Our destination was Mariahilferstrasse (strasse is street), where we had lodgings booked in a 'pension'. Mariahilferstrasse is centrally located, and the Ringstrasse Boulevard is within walking distance, which was the reason for our having chosen to stay there. We had been told that a pension was better than a hotel room, primarily because it was inexpensive, and provided the same facilities (more about that later). Our cab driver - a very matter-of-fact

30s-something lady - even heaved our heavy luggage into the car boot, and briefly grunted in acknowledgement when we helped with it. She took out a city map, located the street, then showed it to us to have our confirmation, before we set out. I wondered why she needed to look into a map for such a well-known location, but realised it could be due to our less than perfect enunciation of Austrian place names. The traffic moved slowly - orderly but crowded streets - it took us a little more than an hour to reach our destination. As we did a quick transit of the city, it was like being transported to another world, and another century - regal old style buildings, statues and fountains, a city of nineteenth century architecture. Something like Paris. But much more imperial. As we sped along, I noticed with amusement a signboard to Budapest, and realised what a small country I was in! I was in the capital city of Vienna, and here there were signboards to a neighbouring country capital - just 215 kms away. (Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia is just 64 kilometres from Vienna - this is the world record for the shortest distance between two country capitals!) In fact, there is a region - Mitteleuropa (Middle Europe) not delineated in any political map, which comprise the old Habsburg cities (Vienna, Prague, Krakov…). Vienna is 240 kilometres from Prague, and from there Krakov is another 240 kilometres.

At the pension, we met the landlady, a soft-spoken and terribly formal person to whom I took a dislike, as she was wont to treat us like errant students of a boarding school. Our room was compact and neat; unfortunately, what was said to be a bath attached, was just a 'bath-space' separated from the rest of the room by a shower curtain; common toilets were located outside and had to be shared with the other boarders. Everything though was spick and span. It is worth staying in a pension, if economy is the main consideration, as it comes much cheaper. But I was particular about an 'attached' toilet. We went on a little promenade to explore our surroundings. It took us about an hour to check out a few places in the vicinity and choose a hotel, which combined our need for economy with a little more comfort. We checked out of the pension, and wheeled our luggage through the streets, to check into the Hotel Savoy, located close-by. We had four days in Vienna; we planned to spend three of them wandering around and exploring her streets, museums and palaces, and one day at Salzburg. (Innsbruck, Salzburg and Graz are some of the places in Austria that one could visit from Vienna).

Fact File

Language: German (we easily managed with English). Take along your Lonely Planet Guide. It's worth it. Look up the language section too When to visit: Preferably, July to October. The winter months are suitable for those who go for the winter sports (skiing) Climate: Maximum temperature in July is 25 degrees Celsius; in October 14 degrees Celsius Minimum temperatures could be lower by 10 degrees Currency: Euro

Nightlife

The Heurigen or the wine houses are worth a visit . They get more relaxed as the evening progresses. The Innere Stadt area has a great many pubs, and some discos.

Vienna, as the principal city of Austria, has had a chequered history. Austria prospered, with occasional breaks, under the Holy Roman emperors and the Babenbergs. After them, the Habsburgs ruled over the country till 1914, when the killing of the Emperor Franz Josef's nephew sparked off First World War. After this war there was political and social unrest in Austria, and Hitler (a son of Austria, actually) and the Nazis brought on war once again. Austria is now a full-fledged member of the European Union (EU), and maintains a low profile in political affairs. With the iron curtain no longer in existence and the first post-communist members being admitted into the EU, Austria has become the centre of a new Europe. Officially called the Centrope, a new region in the heart of Europe, comprising Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, has further developed since 2003. This offers a dynamic alternative to the saturated markets of Western Europe. The Centrope is a part of the larger European Economic Market. These countries cooperate not only in economic matters, but also in political, scientific and cultural affairs. Within Austria there has been some unrest with the ultra-right (read pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic utterances of the Freedom Party politician, Joerg Haider in recent times). Right now Austria has a coalition government of the Austrian People's Party and the Freedom Party.

We started our sightseeing by walking the Ringstrasse. The Ringstrasse is four kilometres long and is built on the site of the ramparts guarding the inner city, which were removed in the 1850s; the rest of the city grew around this inner core. Most of the city's imposing buildings are on the periphery of the Ringstrasse - the Opera House, the Hofburg (the old imperial palace), the Rathaus (City Hall), the Greek style houses of parliament, the Burgtheatre (city theatre) and the Musikverein (home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra). In the centre of the city is the Cathedral of St Stephan's (the Stephansdom), built in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the finest of Austria's Gothic churches. The spire of the cathedral rises high upwards, and is the chief landmark of the city. The cathedral is a magnificent structure. The images and statues here are very ornamental. I sat in one of the pews and looked around me, absorbing the grandeur of the place. The stream of visitors ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ at all the ornamentation around us continued non-stop. 'Grand' is indeed the word to describe this facet of Vienna, what with her palaces (don't miss the Schonbrunn Palace), her museums (the Kunsthistorisches Museum is an example) and the statues, at various locations, of the kings and queens of the past. There is a great fascination for the Empress Elizabeth (affectionately referred to as Sisi) wife of Franz Josef. Her elaborate beauty regimen and her individualistic style of living have been recorded for all time in the exhibits of the Hofburg Palace.

Another facet of Vienna is her exposition of the sciences and the arts like painting (exhibitions of avant-garde artists abound), music - Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert are some of those whose names are associated with Vienna. A visit to an opera is a must to get the feel of Vienna's throbbing musical pulse. We attended a concert of the Musikverein, with an Austrian couple - George and Anita Gruber, for whom we had been given introductions through a common friend in India. It was a splendid evening that we had with them. Polite, in the truest sense of the word, they did everything to make our evening memorable. First was dinner. They confessed that they were initially apprehensive about whether they would be able to take us to a place that could cater to Indian taste buds, but were relieved when we said that we wanted to eat Austrian and asked for their suggestions. I remember we had a tasty pumpkin soup followed by a dish of tender venison, to the accompaniment of wine.

Dinner done, it was the opera next, where the orchestra were all dressed in period costumes. They played a combination of several short pieces. I have a feeling that they were not all 'hard-core' opera pieces. I have very little knowledge of western classical music. Yet I was able to enjoy the evening - the whole hushed atmosphere, the total absorption of the audience and the formal and grandly dressed up look which each of them conveyed. My sari (the only time I wore one in Austria) did full justice to the evening. After the show we were taken for dessert (I had a gugelhupf, light and fluffy, made of eggs, milk and flour) and coffee at the Hotel Imperial (a very classy place, we were informed, where 'Indira Gandhi and Hitler had both used the bed in the main suite, of course in their respective times, ha, ha!') The Viennese character, we found to be welcoming and polite (except, of course, for our one encounter with the landlady of the pension).

The other place that we visited, which for me, personally, was akin to a pilgrimage, was the house of Sigmund Freud - I still remember the address - No 19, Bergasse…the house has today been converted into a museum. Photographs, books and everyday articles used by the great man are all preserved there. And through all this emerges the picture of one of the greatest thinkers of his time, persecuted by the Nazis for being a Jew. It was on my visit here, that the full import of being hunted down hit me. I purchased a book of Freud's and it gave me the same kind of thrill, as I had felt when purchasing copies of the Odyssey and the Iliad from Crete in Greece!

Coming to Viennese cuisine, a traditional meal starts with a tafelspitz (boiled beef - this is the national dish). Other well-known Viennese items are the Wiener Schnitzel (a piece of veal cutlet wrapped in a coating of bread crumbs), Hungarian goulash, dumplings from Bavaria and Turkish coffee. Remember, being the centre of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Viennese cuisine comprises dishes from other parts of Europe. The pastries and cakes of Vienna are also famous - the appelstrudel is one of her better known pastries. We did find vegetarian food in Vienna. Indian food is also available but it tends to be less spicy than what we are used to.

The coffee houses in Vienna were a delight, and more so for us who had underestimated the effect of the weather. The guide books said that the temperatures would be around 14 degrees Celsius in October. But it went down to seven degrees during our stay there, and there were occasional drizzles. We were a little unprepared for this, and had not carried sufficiently thick woollens. So every once in a while, when we exited a museum or a palace, we would duck into a coffee house for something to warm us up. Apart from coffee, various types of tea were popular. Yogi tea, spice tea, 'ayurvedisches' tea - they called it by various names - I tried out these infusions in which cinnamon and other spices were added. The coffee houses offer a selection of snacks as well, and seemed popular with the local people; here we saw a great many persons sitting by themselves, but not looking lonely at all. Interest in India - as represented by Osho, yoga, meditation and Indian philosophy abounds. And this is not some kind of ignorant interest. We found at a café that the owner, who also doubled as waitress, had an impressive collection of books on India. She spent some time talking to us, enquiring about the various cultural aspects of India.

There are some people of Indian origin in Austria. We found that many of the newspaper delivery boys were Indian. When the two of us on one occasion, were discussing which direction to take, while searching for a coffee house, one of them stopped and addressed us in Hindi, asking us if we needed any help.

The Heuriger or wine taverns are an institution in Vienna. Vienna produces white wine - the Riesling and white burgundy. It also produces a red wine - the Bleuer Zweigelt.

Vienna has around 700 hectares of vineyards within the city limits, which is something no other city in the world can boast of.

Shopping in Vienna can be done in the Mariahilferstrasse, which is a trendy shopping area.; the Karntner Strasse and Am Graben are the locations for the traditional shops for jewellery and fashion accessories. On Saturdays, the flea market opens, and is a collector's paradise. Next to the flea market is the Naschmarkt. All visitors to Vienna outside the EU are entitled to a refund on the Austrian VAT for purchases exceeding 75 euros.

Vienna is an important centre for international business, and one of the most sought after conference venues in the world. It is also home to a number of international organisations, the UNIDO, the IAEA, the OPEC, and the WFTGA (World Federation for Tourist Guides Association). The older small-to-medium size companies are located in the First and Sixth districts. Newer industries spread out even to outlying areas. There are hardly any Austrian multinationals.

Our four days in the city passed really quickly. We spent an unplanned fifth day in the airport, as the airline had given away our seats to extra passengers who checked in before us. (Apparently this is a practice they use in order to ensure that no seat goes wasted). This caused us some hassles, for which they compensated us well, monetarily, and also by providing alternate accommodation near the airport, for a night. The next day, we were flown to Zurich, and from there to New Delhi by executive class, without any further charge. And my last memory of the place as I bid auf wiedersehen is of settling back in my seat contentedly sipping champagne, and watching the mountains recede into the clouds.