Travel Tips
Travellers driving through Austria should know two things : although all border crossings between EU member countries are open, you will still be spot-checked for the Vignette (Autobahn Car toll sticker) by the every vigliant Gendarmes who like night time road blocks and visiting rest stop and gas stations. Secondly, be warned that although you paid a few schilling for the Vignette, I know of at least one toll on the A2 towards Salzburg that asks for a whopping 160 Sch.
Brendan Vargas (Sept 98)
There is free internet access in the Museum Quarters on Museumstrasse. It's open from 9 am Monday to Friday.
Eva Poon
If you want to work the ski season in Austria, the official season starts on December 15th. Before then, most hotels are closed and anything that may be open won't be able to give you work until then - unless you're very lucky.
I suggest turning up to the village at this time or a few days earlier to suss things out. The Austrians will be begging you to work for them when the people they had hired the previous year don't turn up for the season. This goes also for those not so fortunate as to own an EU passport, although it would be tetter to go for the smaller hotels and restaurants who don't get audited so much.
Mel (July 98)
Austria now has a toll on the motorways - in the form of a sticker that you put on the windscreen. The cost is 70 Schillings for one week, 150 for 2 months, or 550 for a year. They are bought at borders, petrol station plus some tabaks. Heavy fines if you don't have one and they are checked at borders (so if you leave Austria via motorway and don't have one they won't return your passport till you pay the fine).
David Watkins & Claire Ramsay (Jan 98)
The huge Bruegel show running at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna through April 14 is best visited from mid-afternoon on. That's when all the morning school groups filled with kids acting like a Bruegel painting, are gone. Also, the rentable audio guides are the best I've run into. Not only do they cover almost every painting, but since none of the documentation is in English - except for a hard-bound book weighing several kilos - they are a necessity for learning about the paintings.
Ryan Ver Berkmoes - Lonely Planet Author (Mar 98)
Mozart's house is located on Dormgurstrasse near St Stephens Cathedral. It is up a few floors and is a worthwhile look in. Costs students 10AS and Adults 25AS. It has audio carousels that play a number of Mozart's works. Also a brief history of Mozart's life. An aesthetic walk through seventeenth century Vienna.
Pip Grant Smith & Nick Welch (1997)
Some mention should be made of Hainburg (in lower Austria), a gorgeous little walled town on the road to Bratislava, with a number of things to see. All traffic through the old part of town must pass through two medieval gates (Wienertor on the western end and Ungartor on the eastern one); there are also several churches, a synagogue, a number of objects related to Haydn, and a ruined castle towering above the town. Maps are available a the tourist information office in the Stadtgemeinde in the Hauptplatz (tel) 02165 621 11 23.
Michael L. Wyzan (Aug 98)
Linz, the capital of upper Austria right next to the Danube, offers free daily concerts throughout summer. Cheap rates on the weekends make the stay even better. The best event throughout the year is the so called Bruckner Festival in September. 200,000 people watch and listen to the 'Cloud of Sounds' for free.
Computer freaks should see the Ars Electronica Centre - the world's unique museum of the future. It's closed Mondays and Tuesdays and the entrance fee is AS40 for students and AS80 for adults. This includes half an hour free use of the net.
Erich Gutsjahr (Jun 98)
Sigmund Freud Museum. Since last year the library of psychoanalysis has closed to the general public while the apartments of Freud's Aunt Minna have been made accessible as a cafΘ. Buying a ticket at the Jewish Museum entitles one to a discounted ticket at the Sigmund Freud Museum.
The Lainzer Tiergarten is now open between mid-February and mid-November. Days on which the park is open now include Monday and Tuesday. The park's new attractions include a daily feeding of wild pigs and deers at 2:00pm.
Good books on Vienna's architecture in English may also be found at Wolfrum, just opposite the Albertina. The Buchermarkt at the U-Bahn stations on Babenbergerstrasse and Spittelau also has excellent exhibition catalogues and books on art and architecture at greatly reduced prices as does the chain of book stores called Hintermayr. For art literature, Locker and Christian Nebehay in Annagasse have an interesting selection of books. Nebehay only stocks art literature published until 1870.
The Donauinselfest has become something of a tradition in Transdanubia (meaning districts on the other side of the Danube) in the last fourteen years and is always held towards the end of June. The three day festival attracts international bands who perform on different open air stages constructed along the Danube between Floridsdurfer Brucke, Brigittenauer Brucke and Reichsbrucke. It is free. It is advisable not to take a car and to use public transport instead.
Monica Lausch - Australia (Dec 97)
