We have flights to Vienna From:
Aalesund, Athens, Baku, Bergen, Billund, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Kaliningrad, Kaunas, Kiev, Lappeenranta, Minsk, Moscow, Odessa, Oslo, Oulu, Palanga, Riga, Simferopol, St Petersburg, Stavanger, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tampere, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Turku, Umea, Vaasa, Vilnius, Warsaw
Geography
Home to Mozart, the luxuriousness of the Habsburg court and the grand elegance of the formal ball, Vienna is a city where old fashioned sense constantly reacts with the modern times. Found in the northeast of Austria on both sides of the Danube River, Vienna spreads across the Vienna Basin at the end of the Alps and is close to the border with the Czech Republich and Slovakia. The capital of the Republic of Austria, with a population of 1.7 million, it is also its largest city, the centre of politics and one of the nine Austrian states. Founded by the Romans as Vindobona, it has enjoyed the command of the Habsburg court, one of many to make Vienna a centre of power – first came the Holy Roman Empire, then the Austrian Empire and finally the Austro-Hungarian Empire until its fall in 1918. To start your city-break, airBaltic brings your flight to Vienna International Airport located in Schwechat, only 18 kilometers from the centre.
Languages
Grüß Gott! (Hello!) In Vienna, the main language spoken is a version of German aptly called Viennese German, slightly different from other Austrian dialects of the language. English is a widely used second language and the traveler will find no difficulty getting about without knowledge of German.
See and Do
Start off immediately from your hotel with high court and royalty by a visit to the Hofburg with its Schatzkammer, or treasury, containing the imperial jewels, or the Sisi Museum to be dazzled by the silver cabinet and the Imperial apartments. With nearly 100 museums, Vienna has much to offer to any lover of the arts. Start just across from the Habsburg and discover a trove of work by old masters at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Naturhistorisches Museum. Then head off to the Museumsquartier, the once Imperial Stalls and find the Museum of Modern Art and many others. At Heldenplatz during its three month season, attend the fashionable Opera Ball and elegantly dance the evening away as if you were part of the imperial court, to the accompaniment of 9 orchestras. Enjoy a classic work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Johann Strauss at one of Vienna’s many opera houses. Notably among these is the Theater an der Wien or the Volksoper for a traditional Viennese operetta. For a musical, get tickets to a show at the Haus der Musik.
Across Vienna there are a host of beautiful parks including the Riesenrad where vistors can get tickets to ride the ferris wheel featured in Orson Welle’s The Third Man, or the Stadtpark with its statue of Johann Strauss II in dedication to the composer. See the world’s oldest zoo at the Schönbrunn, perhaps the most impressive of Vienna’s palaces and home of the Habsburg summer court. For culinary diversions, be sure to order the Vienna classic Wiener Schnitzel in one of the many traditional Viennese restaurants and follow up with an Apfelstrudel (apple strudel). For a cheap and very traditional treat while exploring the city, grab yourself a Wiener Würstel, also known as a Frankfurter. At the Naschmarkt, Vienna’s largest outdoor market, travelers can explore the many sights, sounds and scents of this bustling merchant way. Still, be careful not to take any antiques out of Austria, as it is against the law to do so. |
