It's a working visit for Indian officials, but there's fun to be had in Austria's capital too.
Vienna has earned quite a few Indian bureaucrats their frequent-flier miles. Sure enough, there will be that final toast raised high when the nuclear deal saga reaches its conclusion. But it is time you followed the trail of shuffling diplomats.
For starters, the city, capital of Austria, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. That is, once you get past the façades of organisations such as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and, of course, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Don’t be dismayed — there’s more colour to Vienna than the grey of suits.
On your first stop in the city you should sample its coffee culture. It is a favourite local pastime, so it is not hard to find a Kaffeehaus to plonk down and get settled with that newspaper, or to chat up the Viennese. The traditional outlets still hold fort, in spite of incursions by Starbucks and Italian-inspired espresso outlets.
The dose of architecture will include the Rathaus (City Hall), Austrian Parliament, Hofburg Palace, Natural History Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum (fine arts) and State Opera House. But do veer off the beaten trail and head into those cobbled streets where can’t get in. There are bicycles available for hire on the cheap and it is said the city is so compact, any point is only half-an-hour’s pedalling away.
An evening of culture would involve sampling the opera. The most famous opera halls are the duo of the Staatsoper and the Volksoper, the latter devoted to the typical Viennese operetta.
More From This Section
Other venues such as the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Wiener Konzerthaus, host classical performances. Yet others offer programmes exclusively tailored for tourists.
The city’s obsession with death is fascinating. The Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) is a popular site for evening strolls and there is Schrammelmusik (music with lyrics pertaining to death). There is also the Bestattungsmuseum, devoted to coffins and mortuary science.
An Economist Intelligence Unit survey ranked Vienna one of the top places in the world to live, by quality of life. But it has a higher suicide rate when compared with the rest of Europe. Now, one wonders why?