Results tagged “Austria” from Intelligent Travel Blog

If you work in magazines, you quickly learn to keep things a few months ahead in your mind. So while the rest of the world is happily enjoying fall, we're already knee-deep mentally into winter as we're working on our upcoming issue. That said, as much as we're looking forward, it's also wonderful to look back. So now that our November/December issue is on newsstands, we asked Traveler editor Keith Bellows to select his favorite images from the past year and created a gallery of them online. You can see the slideshow, with his commentary, here.

Photo: From "Secrets of the Lakes," a story on Austria's Lake District, in the April 2009 issue of National Geographic Traveler. By Cotton Coulson/Sisse Brimberg.

If you ever find yourself traveling near Ottensheim, Austria, (located in Upper Austria just seven miles from Linz on the Danube River) in need of a place to rest your head, the Das Park Hotel offers an affordable night's rest so long as you don't mind sleeping in a former sewer pipe. The hotel, which is only open from May to October, has put cement pipes to unanticipated use with each pipe featuring a made-up double bed and enough room for backpack storage, but bathrooms and restaurants are not on site (it's suggested that you use a nearby gas station should you need to go). The doors of the rooms come affixed with code locks and guests can choose how much they would like to pay for the room each night. The Das Park Hotel is located on Rodlpark, the site of the annual Ottensheim Open Air music festival each summer in June. [Via Passportchop] 

Photo: Dietmar Tollerian

I'm a fan of both Tina Fey and travel, and as such, I find myself using her oft-used remark from 30 Rock, "I Want to Go to There," more and more lately. Most often uttered when Fey's character, Liz Lemon, is in a dreamlike, gut-response mode, "IWTGTT" is the feeling I get when I see or read something that makes me want to leave my desk immediately and jump on the next plane. So I figured that alone should make for a good feature for the blog. (Also, the line was a sentence her young daughter strung together, Fey fessed up at the SAG awards, making it that much more awesome.)

So what's my IWTGTT moment of the day? The Heuriger Hirt in Vienna, alluringly presented by the good folks at Spotted By Locals. Heurigen are essentially Austrian biergartens, only they serve wine instead of beer, along with locally-sourced cheeses and other savory snacks under the open sky. The word heuriger translatets to "new wine," which means that the spots typically serve whatever is the most recent blend. Because they're seasonal joints commonly located on the edge of vineyards, a bunch of pine twigs known as a Buschenschank is hung outside the door, alerting the passing traveler that the establishment is open and the wine is flowing. The Virtual Vienna site describes a delectable afternoon at a Heurigen:

A typical visit to a Heurigen goes something like this: it is late afternoon on a summer's day; evening is approaching, but it is still light out; you and your party find agreeable benches and a table, and are served white wine and mineral water, both in carafes, by a waitress (frequently wearing a country dress, like a Dirndl). Anyone serving as a "designated driver" can opt for a delicious "Kracherl," a sweet carbonated fruit-flavored beverage. Neither beer nor coffee is ever served at a Heurigen - if that is what you desire, you are in the wrong place! With your first few rounds of wine, you might begin the evening's consumption of food with some bread and butter or, more customarily, some pretzel-sticks (Soletti) and savory Liptauer cheese-spread. Later, as your appetite grows, you make a trip to the compact but wide-ranging buffet, with many varieties of meats, salads, vegetables, and other delights. The flow of white wine ceases around midnight, at which point you catch the last streetcar or hail a taxi, which returns you to your permanent or temporary abode.

Spotted's suggestion of the Heuiger Hirt comes with an added bonus beyond wine and homemade snacks - it also offers a fantastic view of the Vienna skyline and nearby Kahlenbergerdorf. I want to go to there.

Photo: Via Spotted by Locals, by Doris Neubauern

When friend of IT and Nerd's Eye View blogger Pam Mandel saw Traveler's feature story on Austria's Lake Country in our current issue, it brought back fond memories of when she used to live in the area. So we asked her to dish on some of her favorite spots in the region.

When I lived in Austria, the Salzkammergut was sort of like the cool neighbor's backyard. We'd go over to their house to play -- it was a short and very scenic drive to the Salzkammergut from where we lived, in the Ennstal, a bucolic farming region smack dab in the middle of Austria. Guests who showed up to visit us were promptly bundled into the car, regardless of time of year, and taken to the locations listed in the April issue of National Geographic Traveler -- and then some. Depending on the season, we'd see the sights on skis or on foot, and where we sat to eat was seasonally dependent too -- in summer, it was balcony or garden seating, in winter, as close as possible to the fireplace, if there was one. The Salzkammergut is a great place to travel, so picturesque as to be cliche, loaded with outdoor activities that fit your style, and filled with great places to eat. Here are a few of my favorite things:
 
Bad Aussee Kurbad: This huge indoor swimming pool is the place to wait out inclement weather. Pay extra for the sauna privileges, though if you're of a modest disposition, be sure to ask if it's men, women, or mixed on that day.

Gasthof Zauner in Hallstatt: If you have the good fortune to be in Hallstatt around lunchtime on a September day after the tourists are gone, get a balcony seat, order the fish, and take in the scenery at this excellent historic restaurant and inn. It's also nice in winter - the cozy dining room may be empty and the waiter will let you taste new things that the chef is cooking up. Hey, it happened to me. It could happen to you.