Austria: More than just a Fantastic Filming Location

Salzburg, Austria – actual outdoor filming location for “The Sound of Music” (Credit: The Daily Edge)

For the majority of Americans, our first and sometimes only exposure to Austria is the “The Sound of Music”. Beyond the lyrics “the hills are alive with the sound of music” though is a real country that is every bit as charming and lovely as the real von Trapp family singers.

This past November, I had the opportunity to travel to the charming city of Vienna and meet up with a certain country-hopping sibling of mine. Her last math teaching stint was a 3-year adventure in the always tropical/super clean/super safe city-state of Singapore (if you have an opportunity to travel to southeast Asia, I highly recommend fitting Singapore into your itinerary either right before or right after your Thailand beach/elephant sanctuary vacation 😉 ). Anyhow, this past August she made a transcontinental move to teach in a place with a climate more familiar to us midwesterners, Vienna, Austria.

America is a beautiful country but it cannot even begin to compare to the charm and majesty one finds in Europe. Vienna- home of Mozart, Christkindlmarkt, the Alps, the Governator *, etc. transports one back to a time where buildings were closer to the ground without being grounded in their attention-to-artistic-detail. It’s well worth the visit!

** Arnold was actually born in Thal, about 2 hrs south of Vienna

Here, in no particular order, is an abbreviated list of the reasons you should consider Vienna/Eastern Europe for your next international vacation.

1. It is lovely in the fall, very walkable, and has a relatively easy-to-use transportation system (buses, subway, trams, and trains). The U-Bahn (subway) runs 24 hrs with a decrease in frequency happening around the evening hours. If you don’t want to wait around for public transportation, Uber is just as easy to use here as it is in the USA. No worries if you need to ask for directions, the majority of people here speak English in addition to German.
   
   Below is a view of the Danube River, Europe’s 2nd longest river, transecting residential Vienna.

2. All of the HISTORY!
   
   There are art galleries, museums, and lovely older buildings everywhere. We visited the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (the Vienna Art History Museum, one of the many museums in the MuseumsQuartier section of Vienna), the Schönbrunn Palace grounds (free), and the Military Museum of Vienna (sadly there was not much here about the Polish Winged Hussars and their liberation of Vienna (our chief reason for visiting) but they did have an exhibit about the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the domino that triggered World War I). If we had had more time, I would have loved to visit Belvedere Palace, beautiful grounds that contain 2 Baroque palaces with art collections.

3. Christmas Markets! You may have been to one of these in the states but you haven’t really experienced it until you’ve knocked back a few glühwein (mulled wine) or Kinderpunsch (the nonalcoholic version) in a collectible mug under Austrian or German city lights. These markets, also called Christkindlmarkt, are a must-see if you’re visiting Vienna mid-November to December.

4. Goulash! Yes, that Midwest staple originated in aptly named Hungary but in Europe, you’ll find goulash to be any stewed meat that is seasoned with paprika. And the best compliment to it, in my opinion, is an ice-cold Stiegl Grapefruit Radler or Gösser NaturRadler (lemon). Mmmmmm! Bonus: Finish off dinner by stopping for Sacher-Torte and apple strudel at Café Sacher.

5. Traveling to nearby countries from Vienna (Wien in German) is easy! While we were only in Vienna for a week, we were able to easily book train tickets for both Prague (aka Praha), Czech Republic (4 hrs) and Bratislava, Slovakia (1 hr). Other nearby travel destinations include Salzberg, Austria (2.5 hrs), Munich, Germany (4.5 hrs), and Budapest, Hungary(2.5 hrs).

Long story short, Vienna is amazing and was an excellent introduction to Europe! Feel free to message me if you have any questions about Vienna or traveling around that area of the world. Bon voyage, peeps <3

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

– Author unknown (falsely attributed to St. Augustine)