Explore Vienna - Austria's Capital City of Music
Mozart,Vienna Boys Choir and the Third Man
Mar 30, 2007
Sightseeing in Vienna is mostly a visit to the past but it's not only the great Imperial past that you encounter; the post-war Vienna portrayed in the film "The Third Man" pops up in the most unexpected places. Turn off into a quiet street at dusk and you may find yourself in the film-noir world of Harry Lime. Vienna is like this - always reminding you of other times, other histories.
Vienna - Shopping on Karnter Strasse
Vienna today, however, is far removed from the black market economy of the post-war years. This is a rich city . Take a walk along Karntner Strasse, a wide pedestrianised boulevard lined with shops and outdoor cafes. The street musicians here are so good you might well wonder if they had to pass some kind of exam. String quartets play the classics; a harpist plays the Harry Lime theme, which should sound kitschy but somehow doesn't, and even the twangy guitar brigade sound okay.
Music is in the air. On any evening you can choose from a staggering choice of concerts and modern musicals, even opera in English for those who want it. And don't forget the Vienna Boys Choir which has been singing for over 500 years at the Hofburg Chapel - with a regular change of participants, of course!
Vienna - History
When people talk of "the inner city" in places like London and New York it means something very different than what it means in Vienna. No slums or tenement buildings here. Vienna's inner city is the grand Imperial city of the Hapsburg emperors, neatly kept in place by the Ringstrasse - a belt of grandiose buildings built by Emperor Franz Joseph I in the latter half of the 19th century. It was an ego trip and perhaps also a nostalgic yearning for the glorious past. The ring around the old city is a wide boulevard four kilometres long, studded with some of the most important buildings in Vienna: the State Opera House, the Museums of Fine Arts and Natural History, Parliament, the National Theatre, the City Hall and the University. A real showcase for the monarch.
Vienna - Sacher Torte
If you are a chocoholic, the famous Sacher Torte is almost a good enough reason alone to visit Vienna. The best place to try it is in the elegant tea-room of the Sacher Hotel, where it was invented.The hotel has its own shop around the corner where you can buy whole cakes to take home - all beautifully wrapped and boxed. The smooth layer of dark chocolate which covers the cake allows you to keep it for 2-3 weeks but, not in the fridge, as the chocolate turns white. Not a problem for most people - it probably wouldn’t last that long!
Vienna - Hire a horse-drawn carriage
Top off your visit with an evening drive in a fiacre, a horse-drawn carriage. This is the most traditional and romantic way of seeing Vienna. As you clip-clop along narrow streets and under ancient arches you might think you glimpsed a sudden play of light on the face of a man standing in a doorway, and was that the faint tremor of a zither playing somewhere nearby? Vienna is like this. A thousand ghosts of the famous and the infamous mingle with people from around the world who come to this evocative, beautiful city.
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