AUSTRIA & GERMANY TOURS

Austria is syn­ony­mous with the very best in clas­si­cal music and famous for its per­form­ing arts scenes through­out the small Alpine coun­try. When trav­el­ing to this beau­ti­ful coun­try, make sure to attend a con­cert, opera or per­for­mance dur­ing your stay in order to inte­grate with its culture.

Salzburg, the city of Mozart

Imagine being five years old and per­form­ing in front of roy­al­ty all over Europe – this was just the begin­ning of a life lived at its fullest by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Getreidegasse 9 is a must-see while in Salzburg. This is where Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, and lived with his fam­i­ly for the next few years. Upon enter­ing the house you feel as if you had been trans­ferred into anoth­er era:  uneven stair­cas­es, low ceil­ings and orig­i­nal fur­ni­ture height­en the sense that you are in the same envi­ron­ment that fos­tered a musi­cal genius. On dis­play are the orig­i­nal instru­ments Mozart used to play in his ear­ly days in Salzburg, but three addi­tion­al exhi­bi­tions: “A Day in the Life of a Child Prodigy,” “Mozart at the Theater“, and “The Mozarts — a Family Introduces Itself” show­case his upbring­ing and ear­ly life.

To com­plete your “Day of Mozart”, leisure­ly walk across the bridge span­ning the Salzach River to vis­it the house where he lived from 1773 to 1780.  Of course the per­fect “Mozart Day” would not be com­plete with­out indulging in the orig­i­nal Mozartkugel cre­at­ed by Fürst patisserie.

Innsbruck, the city of Music

In the Renaissance and Baroque peri­ods, Innsbruck was one of Europe’s most impor­tant cen­ters of music. The Innsbruck Festival, the old­est exist­ing fes­ti­val for ear­ly music, car­ries on this tra­di­tion each August. This fes­ti­val attracts the most illus­tri­ous artists of the ear­ly music scene. In addi­tion to many orig­i­nal instru­ment ensem­bles, opera stars such as Jennifer Larmore and coun­tertenor Derek Lee Ragin also make appearances.

The fes­ti­val is accom­pa­nied by a var­ied sup­port­ing pro­grams. Backstage events pro­vide a glimpse behind the scenes, and at the lunchtime con­certs in the Hofgarten, vis­i­tors can eat and drink while enjoy­ing the music. Festive music fills the city’s squares, just as it did in the days of the Tirolean arch­dukes. And the gold­en age of the Renaissance is brought back to life dur­ing the Castle Fest at Ambras Castle.

Innsbruck’s Old Town: Travel back in time strolling through the 800 year old city cen­ter of Innsbruck. A clas­sic Austrian hybrid of Gothic and Baroque, the Old Town exudes a spe­cial charm and sophis­ti­ca­tion that is unique in the Alps. In the heart of Tirol, only two hours away from Salzburg and Munich, Innsbruck’s Old Town is a small area of stur­dy medieval hous­es, many paint­ed in live­ly pas­tel col­ors and sup­port­ed by slop­ing but­tress­es. As you stroll along the main street of the Old Town Innsbruck, you’ll feel as if you had tak­en a trip back in time to an era of knights and medieval mer­chants. Stop by the Folk Art Museum, the Imperial Palace, and the Imperial Chapel, all of which give great insight into Innsbruck’s past.
Busy street cafes afford great views of Innsbruck’s land­mark, the Golden Roof, and its 2,738 gold-plat­ed cop­per tiles. Constructed for Emperor Maximilian I. in the ear­ly 15th cen­tu­ry, it served as a roy­al box where he could sit in lux­u­ry and enjoy tour­na­ments in the square below. Today Maximilian would see a busy shop­ping street with many exquis­ite bou­tiques, crafts-shops and restaurants.

Vienna, the city of Art and culture

Austria’s cap­i­tal offers a unique blend of impe­r­i­al tra­di­tions and stun­ning mod­ern archi­tec­ture. It is famous for its cul­tur­al events, impe­r­i­al sights, cof­fee hous­es, cozy wine tav­erns, and the char­ac­ter­is­tic Viennese charm.

In 2012, Vienna cel­e­brat­ed the 150th birth­day of Gustav Klimt, whose paint­ing “The Kiss” is Vienna’s best known work of art and one of the most famous pic­tures in the world. Klimt and his con­tem­po­raries Josef Hoffmann, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka shaped fin de siè­cle Vienna like no one else. A num­ber of the city’s most ven­er­a­ble muse­ums will cel­e­brate the occa­sion with spe­cial exhi­bi­tions. It is safe to say that there have nev­er been as many Klimts on view in Vienna as there were in 2012.

Depending on the time of year, round out your Vienna-art expe­ri­ence by attend­ing one of the more than 400 balls dur­ing car­ni­val sea­son, enjoy out­stand­ing clas­si­cal music per­for­mances at the Vienna Festival Weeks, sam­ple the var­i­ous young wines which go on sale at the city’s Heurigen (wine tav­erns) in the fall, or stroll through the many charm­ing Christmas Markets dur­ing the hol­i­day season.

The Imperial Palace and Schönbrunn Palace stand out among all of the city’s grand build­ings as bas­tions of impe­r­i­al pow­er. The Hofburg is home to the Sisi Museum and the Imperial Treasury, which are brim­ming with unusu­al exhibits from the days of the Habsburg Empire. By con­trast, the city today is a hot-spot of mod­ern design: In the last ten years, a live­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned prod­uct design scene has evolved in Vienna. Trace the fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry of design in Vienna right back to its ori­gins at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) or at the Leopold Museum.

The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is a must see expe­ri­ence. The tra­di­tions of this haute école of clas­sic eques­tri­an­ism have been passed down by word of mouth for more than 400 years. Once these intel­li­gent white stal­lions have com­plet­ed their train­ing, they are known as professors.

These world famous hors­es which orig­i­nat­ed from Spain, are schooled in the Winter Riding School of the Hofburg Palace in a hip­po­drome which was once reserved for the impe­r­i­al fam­i­ly.  During their morn­ing exer­cise they prac­tice with their rid­ers the chore­o­graphed steps which will be exe­cut­ed per­fect­ly at the evening gala. These stal­lions were once sta­bled in the court­yard of every roy­al house­hold in cen­tral Europe, val­ued as cer­e­mo­ni­al hors­es for parades, jousts and mil­i­tary cam­paigns.  However only in Vienna has the tra­di­tion of Lipizzaner horse­man­ship endured to this day.  The Lipizzaner, Europe’s old­est domes­ti­cat­ed breed of horse take their name from an impe­r­i­al stud which was locat­ed near Trieste.  The Spanish Riding School is the only insti­tu­tion in the world which has prac­ticed clas­si­cal equi­tation in the tra­di­tion of the haute école since the Renaissance.

Nothing is done pure­ly for show and yet every detail is impres­sive – the baroque rid­ing hall from 1729, the his­toric uni­forms, the com­plete trust between rid­er and Lipizzaner, who com­mu­ni­cate only with body lan­guage.  It is a per­fect, liv­ing work of art, in which the uni­ty of horse and rid­er touch­es every­one who wit­ness­es it.