Vienna–Europe’s Feel Good Beauty

Vienna is the city of coffeehouses, waltzes, and pastry. It's where you find theaters, opera houses, and museums of world acclaim. And then there are the cute boys with angelic voices, white stallions performing dressage to perfection, and exquisite vintages at wine taverns.

But quality of life and a person's overall sense of wellbeing in a city depends on other things, too. There is more to it than just the white Lipizzaner horses, imperial nostalgia and a boys' choir. Being and living in a city-even if only for a few days as a visitor-you need pockets of calm.

Yet the Viennese take many of the banal, contributory factors for granted-and to such an extent that they frequently omit to mention them at all: Green space, water, and safety. Vienna is enviably safer than many a village. You would be hard pushed to find anyone-whether male or female, young or old-who would say that they felt scared out in the city alone, even in the middle of the night.

MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER AND GREEN WOODS

There are plenty of other cities which would gladly swap with the city on the Danube river for its water and green space. Tap water in Vienna is of such good quality that the occasional enterprising individual has gone down to City Hall proposing to sell it bottled at a premium.

And no other city in Europe can boast a higher ratio of green space to total area than Vienna. Woods, grassland, parks and gardens, not to mention sports grounds and fields cover about half of Vienna. And then there is the Danube and other stretches of water on top of that.

But the Viennese only recall these things when they are away from home. Because only then do they realize that something pleasant is missing.

THE TASTE OF VIENNA

The Austrian capital has always been an interface between different cultures. And Vienna has always understood to keep and preserve the most incredible and precious parts of them-a fact which can be easily proven by indulging Viennese cuisine. In Vienna sweet dishes are not necessarily reserved for the end of the meal. Here, what would elsewhere pass for a dessert can, in fact, double up as a main course.

 

Favorites include Palatschinken (thin pancakes filled with sweet marmalade or jelly), Kaiserschmarren (shredded doughy pancakes with compote), Marillenknödel or Zwetschkenknödel (quark dumplings filled with apricot or plum jam) and delicious strudel.

Specialty cakes such as the Sacher cake (chocolate cake with apricot jam and chocolate glaze) and Gugelhupf (bundt cake) are legends in their own right.

The best place to enjoy sweet Vienna is a typical Viennese Coffeehouse. For visitors to the city they are an attraction, for locals a second home, and for artists and literati an institution.

Overall, the city boasts in excess of 800 of them. Around 150 are classic coffeehouses, where the waiters are still dressed in black, and the décor is as unpretentious as it was in the ‘good old days': Wooden floors, marble-topped tables, and seating that is simple and plush.

VIENNA, CAN YOU HEAR ME?

"Mom, I'm bored!" is the complaint you get from children the world over-even during vacations. But in Vienna there is no time for yawning. "Action, Action, Action!" is the name of the game whatever your age. And the Austrian capital has plenty of space for all that action. Unlike many other major cities, Vienna boasts huge green areas where children can play to their hearts' content. But that is by no means all.

The Wurstelprater amusement park is brimming with around 250 action-packed attractions from the traditional House of Mirrors where Mom looks as thin as a toothpick and Dad as fat as a barrel; pony rides and mini roller coasters where even the tiniest tots screech with delight.

There is also the dark and forbidding world of dinosaurs and the bouncy castle where you bound into the sky with the wind blowing in your hair. Anyone brave enough to embark will find themselves 117 meters closer to heaven aboard the world's highest chain carousel on the Praterturm, which even made it into the Guinness Book of Records.

The House of Music demonstrates that music is something to be seen and felt as well as heard. A handson journey of discovery through real and virtual rooms on six floors gives visitors-including children as part of special tours-the chance to experience music with all the senses. The grand finale is the chance for young visitors to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. But a word of caution: The Austrian musical elite can be quite critical of baton amateurs!

The lovingly hand-crafted puppets at Schönbrunn Palace's Marionetten Theater never fail to cast a spell over audiences of all ages. Performances include operas, operettas, and musicals that have been especially learn a lot in these informal sessions which have evocative names such as Sisi's secret, Johann Strauss and the Blue Danube Waltz, The la Musica Family, Trash Aria, or simply laugh out loud at Knight Kamenbert.

 

 

STROLLING BACK IN TIME: 27 PALACES AND THE WORLD's BEST ZOO

 A stroll around the old city center can be like a journey back in time to the days of the empire. Vienna boasts 27 palaces and 163 other residences-examples of the city's illustrious history await on virtually every street corner, but the most beautiful ones you will see along the Ringstrasse boulevard, the longest imperial boulevard in the world (it covers 5.3 km in total, while Parisian Avenue ChampsÉlysées is only 1.9 km).

The magnificent boulevard is lined with parks and breathtaking buildings, for example the so calles Hofburg. For more than 600 years the complex was the
official residence of the Habsburg emperors.

Today the impressive buildings contain important museums and important state rooms. But Vienna wouldn't be Vienna if the horse-drawn fiacres didn't park directly in front of the offices of the Austrian President, or the National Library wasn't home to one of the most impressive Baroque rooms anywhere in the world.

Art lovers are also drawn to Vienna's best-known palace. At Schönbrunn the imperial family had 1,441 rooms to choose from, many of which are open to visitors. The Schlosspark contains a number of architectural masterpieces such as the Palm House and the zoo, which was crowned Europe's best in 2010 and celebrates its 260th birthday in 2012.

It is hardly surprising when you consider that the visitors now stand in the old lion cages while the animals themselves roam in their modern enclosures - the essence of the original Baroque design has been skillfully preserved with characteristic Viennese charm.