Austria - Two Worlds in One

It is a truism that capital cities are seldom representative of their country. It seems they should be. The word "capital" almost demands that they should contain and sum up the best features of their regions. But they rarely do. Invariably they start out that way but as they grow they become quite different.



Even so, it is surprising to visit Vienna and to experience how different it is from the rest of Austria. Vienna is so beautiful and complete, so admiringly constructed and efficiently run that it is almost impossible to link to Austria’s hinterland of small towns, great mountains and glittering lakes. The most obvious reason for this separateness is Vienna’s elegant Ringstrasse, the broad, semi-circular boulevard that encloses the Old Town.



Developed in the 19th Century, during the 68-year reign of Emperor Franz Joseph, this great tree-lined thoroughfare is packed with attractions from the lush Stadtpark, with its golden statue of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss, to the sprawling Hofburg Palace and the outstanding Opera House. Few cities in the world can claim to be guarded by such a glorious display of grandly imperial planning. But the true merit of the Ringstrasse is the sense of excitement it instills in visitors as they cross over it and enter the Old Town proper. For even the glittering features of the Ringstrasse pale beside the pleasurable enticements of superb Old Town streets as they twist and turn in their medieval way past hundreds of sights great and small, from the huge and sublimely beautiful St. Stephansdom Cathedral to innumerable immaculately presented shops and tantalising cafes, traditional and high-tech. Oh, that all capital cities could be as welcoming and manageable as this one. So full of rewarding museums, luxurious palaces, smart restaurants and outstanding concert halls and still so easy to explore!



Yet to visit Austria and to see only Vienna is a serious mistake. Despite its countless attributes, the city fails to capture any of the fairytale magic of Austria’s other, smaller cities, like Innsbruck, Graz and Salzburg set imposingly amid the high mountains. In these cities there are museums and monuments and splendid restaurants and cosy bars as well, but they are on a much more intimate scale. The streets and houses, shops and churches have delightfully ancient, tranquil feel, and all around are thee brilliant peaks of the Alps.



This is the true Austria. At least it is if a visit also takes in some of the hundreds of neighbouring resorts nestled away in the mountains, from famous places like St. Anton and Kitzbuhel or their quieter counterparts like Mayrhofen and Zell-am-See. These engaging retreats offer the chance to indulge in that rarest of modern commodities, simple luxury, and make it almost impossible to imagine the existence of any big city. Ah, bliss!



And yet all this marvellous rural comfort is actually only a short train ride away from Vienna itself, one of finest, most alluring and charismatic, big cities on earth.



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