Tourism in Vienna, Op-ed

By Dr. Hadi Eltonsi – Former Ambassador and Medical Doctor

If you have dreamt of choosing a city as a symbol of luxury to visit, did you expect Vienna to be the first candidate among hundreds of cities because it has won for nine consecutive years until now the first place as the best city in terms of quality of life?

And if you are surprised by that, do you realize that that city that started as a Roman border camp - then evolved to be the center of the Holy Roman Empire, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the collapse of the empire in the aftermath of the First World War - is now the heir to that civilization with its cultural, architectural and musical richness And its palaces, museums and gardens, built-in classic, Baroque, Gothic and Art Deco styles, until it was chosen as the headquarters of many international organizations?

Why exactly, would you be happy to spend your vacation in Vienna?

First, if you are a fan of visiting the palaces, you will find in the center of Vienna the Hofburg Imperial Palace built since the thirteenth century, and it has among others a Museum of Royal Treasury and another of Empress Sissy famous for her beauty. You can also visit Schonbrunn Summer Palace, whose gardens exceed the area of ​​the Principality of Monaco, and it contains several theaters and a zoo, in addition to the Belvedere Palace, which consists of two parts connected by a garden and contains valuable paintings and artistic holdings.

Second: If you are a fan of visiting museums, you will find more than a hundred specialized in everything from paintings, jewelry, folklore, applied arts and sciences to the Chocolate Museum, but the most famous is the Museum of Art History that includes paintings collected by the Austrian Empire throughout its glorious history for seven centuries. And in front of it is the Natural History Museum, which contains the specimens, archeology, and rocks discovered indicating the evolution of life on Earth. The last two museums are located in the city center, in front of the Hofburg Palace.

Third: If you like to visit the gardens, they are scattered throughout Vienna, the most important of which is near the city center, the People's Park and the City Garden, in addition to the Schönbrunn Palace Park, which takes about an hour to go around with a distinctive horse cart. It contains French and English style trees and plants for gardens.

Fourth: If you like classical music, you are at its center in Europe with its most famous composers Strauss the father, son, and Mozart, and in its oldest theaters in Vienna Opera, which annually showcases fifty operas and twenty ballets, and in the Hall of, the World's Best, Music Association in sound equipment, which at the end of the year broadcasts new year concert presented on dozens of TV channels, where celebrities from all over the world attended, in addition to elegant waltz parties that start in February of each year, and other concert halls in the gardens, palaces, and theaters.

Fifth: If you are a fan of architecture, you will find Vienna a rich exhibition full of Baroque, Classical and Gothic styles and Art Deco called youth style, especially the circular street called Ring, meaning the ring, surrounding the city center, that UNESCO considers a cultural heritage because every building is a rich architectural masterpiece, as well as the most luxurious hotels. And you will find great architectural styles for Gothic churches such as the Dom or St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Baroque, the most famous of which are the Karl’s Church and St. Peter's Church, other than the other beautiful churches such as St. Francis of Assisi.

Sixth: If you like to visit amusement parks, playgrounds, and sports, one of the largest amusement parks in Europe is the Prater area, which includes games for adventure and natural reservoir areas for sports and a modern football stadium. The main street of the area is five kilometers in length, surrounded by chestnut trees. Vienna also offers in its various neighborhoods popular swimming pools, sanatoriums, and hospital places other than the surrounding forests packed with oak and beech trees, where roaming is practiced, and half of the Vienna area is green.

Seventh: If you want to get to know the distinctive food habits, you can go to the elegant cafes where inhabitants of the neighborhood and the tourists congregate, wherewith drinks, main dishes and desserts, you can read newspapers and hang out, and maybe hear piano music. Among the distinctive desserts are the Sacher cake and the apple pie. In the evening, the Austrians sometimes meet in traditional restaurants for light dishes and chatting and they call it heurige which usually has closed and other halls open to the garden for summer and spring. This is in addition to the usual and elegant restaurants spread throughout the neighborhoods to satisfy different tastes and to the nasch Markt, which displays food from around the world, and next to it, the flea market for selling used antiques

Eighth: As for the shopping enthusiasts, they will find Vienna a center for high-quality goods such as textiles and jewelry near the Imperial Palace Hofburg in the city center on the streets of pedestrian Kurtner, Graben and the Golden Quarter, where the stores contain the finest brands, in addition to the famous Mariahilfer Street, as well as the Parndorf Outlet which is about 45 km from Vienna and has more than 170 global stores that sell their products at discounts that sometimes reach 70%.

Viennese joyful nights await for you to realize the dream.

To read more articles by Eltonsi, press here