Honeymoon Tours Travel

SHOPPING & ENTERTAINMENT

Shopping in Austria can be expensive, but it is a good place to buy certain high-quality traditional goods, such as Loden coats, porcelain, and glass.

Famous for its coffee shops, Christmas markets, world-class opera, and orchestras, Vienna is the center of entertainment in Austria, although some important music festivals are held across the country. Outside the city, such rural pleasures as skiing and hiking are available in the west of the country, in the Tyrol, Salzburger Land, and Salzkammergut regions.

OPENING HOURS

Stores usually open at 8:30 or gam and close at 6 or 7pm. smaller ones may close for an hour at lunch. Most shops stay opens all clay on Saturday, especially in larger towns. In rural areas, however, they may close around noon on Saturday. Shops are still closed on Sundays and public holidays, but you can buy items such as groceries, flower, hooks, camera film, and newspapers at major train stations.

FOOD AND DRINK

Austria is justly famous for its cakes and pastries, and in Vienna and large towns a good (.'o/0-CCondilorei (cake shop and cafe) will mail cakes hack home for you. Buy a prettily packaged Sachet ut/e, the world-famous Viennese chocolate cake. In November and December try the buttery Advent Slolleu, stuffed with fruit and nuts and (lusted with icing sugar, available from the Meinl am Graben delicatessen or any good baker. Specialist chocolate shops, such as Altmann & KUhne, are also worth a visit, both for the unusual packaging and the chocolates themselves.

LUXURY GOODS

Desirable Austrian goods include clothes made of Loden, a felt-like woollen fabric, custom-made sheets, and high-quality clown pillows and duvets. Petit point embroidery, which adorns handbags, powder compacts, and similar articles, is a Viennese specialty. A wide range is available at Petit Point and Maria Stransky.

Trachten (Austrian costume) shops are fun, selling a wide selection of hats, children's selection dresses, jackets, and blouses. Glassware — including superb chandeliers and Augarten porcelain come in highly original designs, but are very expensive. Ostovics is a good glass and porcelain shop for such items. The Schloss Augarten porcelain factory is open to visitors.

BOOKING TICKETS

You can buy tickets direct from the appropriate box office or reserve them by phone. Agencies are reliable; try the Reisebbro Mondial. Vienna's four state theaters, the Burgtheater, Akademietheater, Opera House, and Volksoper have a central booking office, the Bundestheaterkassen. In most cases tickets go on sale one month before the performance. Written applications for tickets must reach the Ostcrreichische Ifundestheater Verband (address as Bundestheaterkassen) at least three weeks in advance for opera tickets, and 10 days ahead for the theaters. Standing-room tickets (over 500 at the Opera House) are sold at the evening box office one hour before the start of the performance.

THEATER

Viennese theater enjoys a high reputation and the Burg Theater is the most prestigious venue. Classic and modern plays; tro performed here and at the associated Akademietheater.

The Volkstheater offers more modern plays as well are the occasional classic and some operetta performances, The Raimund Theater and the Ronacher are part of the rare at Vereinigte Buhnen Wien. The cities own theaters. Both specialize in lavish musicals. The Wiener Festwochen held in May and June. Features theater, including musical theater, at various venues. Vienna has a wide range of fringe heater from one-man shows to Kaharett satircal shows not cabarets but fairly fluent German is needed to appreciate them.

MUSIC FESTIVALS

Seasonal events in Vienna include the Vienna Festival in May and June, and Wien Modern, is festival of post-1945 and contemporary classical music, with an emphasis on the avant-garde.

Inaugurated in 1920, the Salzburg Festival of opera, drama, and music claims to be the largest of its kind in the world. It is held annually in late July and August, attracting the world's finest conductors, soloists, and opera and theater companies. The spectacular venues include the Felsenre its chule, the riding school of the prince- archbishops of Salzburg. There is always a strong emphasis on Mozart, the city's most famous son but the festival has also won acclaim for its contemporary music and innovative productions of classic and modern drama.

Another smaller festival is the Haydn Festspiele, held at the magnificent Schloss Esterhazy in Eisenstadt . The festival itself is in September, but Haydn concerts are given in the palace throughout the sunmer.