Trip to Austria

It's been nearly three weeks since my last post. The reason is my wife and I have been on vacation in Austria. Austria is the low key and Alpine part of the German-speaking world, most definitely not to be confused with Australia, as we were told some Americans are embarrasingly wont to do. Locals told us some have been known to ask, "When will we see some kangaroos," when a more appropriate question might be, "When will we hear some yodeling?"


At any rate, I'll pass along some ruminations gathered along the way as we toured fabulous palaces, churches and public buildings from Austria's glory days as seat of the Holy Roman and then Austro-Hungarian empires, heard magnificent concerts from its musical virtuosos such as Haydn and Mozart, went on the "Sound of Music" Tour around Salzburg and to Hitler's mountain "Eagle's Nest" just across the border, sailed the Danube, ate schnitzel, strudel and other wunderbar desserts and hiked to mountaintop glaciers and ice caves. Some things they do better than we do and we ought to emulate them. In other things we have the better way.


The first remarkable item is their outstanding public transportation system. We never needed to rent a car, and hired taxis only twice, to get us from the train station to our hotel in Salzburg and to take us to the Vienna airport at 4:00 A.M. on our way out. For 5.70 Euros, about $8, you can buy a daily ticket allowing you to hop on any bus, subway, tram or train in Vienna for 24 hours. For $40 you can ride the train from one end of the country to the other. For sure, their country is a lot smaller than ours, but it's still economical and efficient. You even get private compartments for about six people on the inter-city trains.


Practically everyone speaks some English. We learned it was taught in school beginning at age 10. We noticed the people in the hospitality industry all spoke English and were well trained. Unlike here, where working at a small hotel desk or serving at a restaurant is often considered a rather lowly or temporary job for people who are looking for something better, they actually train and prepare for such positions at college and treat the position as a real profession.


They are very green. Big wind turbines are common in the farmlands, generating electricity. The rail system is almost all electric. They recycle. Most cars are about two-thirds the size of the cars here. Despite the many centuries of civilization there is still a lot of wooded land left. They keep their logging and fishing sustainable. Cities are densely populated, so there is less suburban sprawl around them. This leaves more land available for agriculture.

Things are usually designed in a people friendly way. There are pedestrian only areas of cities. They foster the cafe culture ambiance Europe is famous for. Consequently very little urban territory has to be given over to parking lots. In Vienna, traffic congestion is remarkably low for a city of 1.2 million. They're mostly on the subway or busses, and many ride bicycles. More common things have an aesthetic component to them, rather than being merely functional.

People were very happy about the change in American political leadership. From conversations on trains and the two days I wore my "Obama '08" shirt, people frequently brought up Obama and said he was not only good for America but for the world. Time and again they likened him to John Kennedy. It was positive to see the country's image improving.

There were some negatives, too. Amazingly, a very high percentage of Austrians still smoke. It's not allowed on the transit system, but can be annoying in the cafe or restaurant. They don't apparently have anything like our concern for providing access for the handicapped. Thus, long flights of stairs are still the norm for getting into many buildings. The elevators they do have are usually too small and too slow. Graffiti has arrived, though I never saw any on churches, monuments, or private residences. Finally, and this can be either good or bad, a lot of places accept payment only in cash. If you go to countries off the main tourist beat be prepared to encounter this.