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Travel Hell / Airlines / Airline News / Comtel / ATQ / BHX / VIE / → All Tags

Is This The Worst Flight Ever? Passengers Forced To Pay $36k To Finish The Journey

We’re sadly used to paying extra for our flights now – baggage, drinks, extra legroom seats, priority boarding… But one thing we never expected to have to shell out for is the actually taking off.

So it’s gobsmacking to hear of Comtel Air, an Austrian-based airline that, in October, launched a twice-weekly service from Birmingham (UK) to Amritsar (India). On Tuesday, a plane which should have taken off on Saturday, stopped in Vienna for a scheduled refueling; only, according to passengers, the pilot refused to take off until they clubbed together to pay £23,000 ($36,000) to get the plane in the air again.

For real.

After a six hour standoff (let’s not forget they were already three days late in their arrival), the passengers agreed to pay £130 each to get the ordeal over. If they didn’t have cash on them, they were escorted to ATMs in the airport before being let back onboard.

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Movie Set Travel / Austria Travel / Sacha Baron Cohen / Fashion Travel / → All Tags

Bruno Takes on the U.S., Remains Proud of His Austrian Roots

Maybe you've heard of this Bruno guy, a proud gay Austrian fashion reporter who's been terrorizing the Midwestern United States for the past year? Sasha Baron Cohen took a whirlwind tour of the U.S. as Bruno by creating more than 30 fake companies to trick unsuspecting interviewees into taking part in his film. All of his hard work pays off tonight when the movie opens nationwide, to the dismay and embarrassment of some of his interview subjects.

If you fell for his Bruno schtick, then needless to say you'd have a pretty grim view of Austria. To counteract this, we've done a little research to compile a mini-guide to Austria's very fashionable capitol; we're sure Bruno would approve.

Where to Stay:
The luxurious teigenberger Hotel Herrenhof, located in old town, is the ideal location for a first visit to Vienna. It is within walking distance to some of the city's top attractions like the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the Kohlmarkt shopping centre and St. Stephen's Cathedral. The hotel features all of the must-have modern amenities including in-room WiFi. Rates for a standard room begin around $260.

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Vienna Field Trip / Embedded Travel Guides / Wine Travel / Wine Bars / → All Tags

Three Wine Bars To Try in Vienna

All this week, Carolyn Banfalvi will be taking us on a eat-and-drink tour of Vienna, Austria. If you have any questions or suggestions for Vienna Travel, let us know and we'll have Carolyn get back to you. Enjoy.

Everyone knows the Viennese have a thing for coffee. But Vienna is also one of Austria’s big wine-making regions. The world’s only capital city which encompasses a significant amount of wine growing areas within its limits, Vienna also offers loads of places to drink wine.

On the weekends, the Viennese head to the vineyards in the wine district on the edge of town to sample wine, have meals at the traditional wine taverns, and hike in the vineyards.

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Vienna Field Trip / Embedded Travel Guides / Cultural Travel / → All Tags

Five Places You Must Visit in Vienna

All this week, Carolyn Banfalvi will be taking us on a eat-and-drink tour of Vienna, Austria. If you have any questions or suggestions for Vienna Travel, let us know and we'll have Carolyn get back to you. Enjoy.

If it were up to me, I’d spend my days checking out the coffee houses, and my nights exploring the wine bars. But Vienna is so full of art museums, grand palaces, well-kept parks, galleries, and theaters, that you have to check out at least the biggies.

You could occupy days just wandering the winding streets of the inner city, where all roads seem to lead to the spectacular Stephansdom--the cathedral which is essentially the city’s focal point. And there’s always that other form of culture for which Vienna is so famous: music.

Here are Five of Vienna's Top Attractions, each of which could easily occupy an entire day, (or more).

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Vienna Field Trip / Embedded Travel Guides / Starbucks Alternatives / Vienna Coffee Houses / → All Tags

Three Not-So-Traditional Coffee Houses To Try in Vienna

All this week, Carolyn Banfalvi will be taking us on a eat-and-drink tour of Vienna, Austria. If you have any questions or suggestions for Vienna Travel, let us know and we'll have Carolyn get back to you. Enjoy.

If there’s anywhere in the world to avoid the coffee chains, it’s Vienna. Think Vienna, and its gilded coffee houses come to mind. These are places where waiters dressed in black and white serve coffee in porcelain cups on silver trays, and the delicate cakes are made as they have been for hundreds of years.

Such iconic Viennese coffee houses have long been places where locals spend significant chunks of their lives, but the city also offers a more modern take on the traditional coffee house, where the younger generations take their coffee and check their email in surroundings ranging from hip Bohemian to sleek revamped versions of landmark cafes.

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Vienna Field Trip / Embedded Travel Guides / Food Travel / Desserts / → All Tags

Where to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth and More in Vienna

All this week, Carolyn Banfalvi will be taking us on a eat-and-drink tour of Vienna, Austria. If you have any questions or suggestions for Vienna Travel, let us know and we'll have Carolyn get back to you. Enjoy.

Vienna might be the world’s only capital city to have a cuisine named after it. Viennese cuisine tends to be a bit more refined that food elsewhere in Austria. It’s also a little more international, with influences from the other countries that once were part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Most notably, the Hungarians contributed goulash (and you will find so many more variations on that dish here, than in more traditional Hungary). Vienna’s most famous dish, Wiener Schnitzel (a huge slab of breaded veal served with a lemon and potatoes), is a riff on Veal Milanese. Vienna’s other signature dish is tafelspitz, a big hunk of beef that has been boiled with vegetables in its own broth, and is usually served with roasted potatoes, minced apples, horseradish, and sour cream. The dish was said to be the favorite of Emperor Franz Josef.

And, of course there are the desserts.

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Religious Travel / Art / NASA / Outer Space / → All Tags

Jesuits' Cosmos: Austrian Artists Install Massive NASA Mural in Vienna Church

Outer space is the perfect metaphor for God and the mysteries of life. It's infinitely vast, it's mysteriously unknowable, and it elicits wonder and contemplation in all who behold it. This might be why Austrian artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf installed a massive NASA photograph of an astronaut floating in space on the ceiling of the historic Jesuit Church in Vienna in an exhibit entitled The Jesuits' Cosmos. The photo, which will be on display through May 25, 2009, is printed on a huge section of semi-transparent net fabric. Employing a change in lighting, the curators can switch the focus between the astronaut and the curvature of the blue planet to a "reverted view" of the Andrea Pozzo ceiling frescoes above them. Either way, the viewer is awed with a sense of spatial illusion. I like this trend of installing thought-provoking pieces of modern art in houses of worship. It's a pleasant reminder that we're all on the same planet, just trying to get along and figure a few things out.

[Photo: Steinbrener-Dempf]

Related Stories:
· Jesuits' Cosmos [Steinbrener-Dempf]
· Vienna Jesuit Church [Official Site]
· Religious Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

Toilets / Cafes / Bathrooms / → All Tags

Viennese Cafe With Easy Bathroom Access

In a city we expect better from, the usually-culturally-rich Vienna, someone's really let us down by creating a cafe with a bunch of toilets lining the walls.

The theory is that if the male customers can sit on the toilet while drinking their coffee--they're not functioning toilets, in case you're freaking out--they'll be more rested and happier and, we presume, more likely to come back and buy their next coffee in the same spot.

The name now translates to "A Quiet Place" and we're thinking it's an appropriate name. Watching other customers sitting on the toilet is not our idea of high culture in Vienna, so we'll be staying away and leaving the cafe nice and quiet.

Related Stories:
· Cafe Loo-ses the Plot [Ananova]
· Phil Café and Store in Vienna [Jaunted]
· Vienna Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ananova]

Euro 2008 / Culture Travel / Opera Travel / Sports Travel / → All Tags

High Culture, Low Culture Travel: Sing and Sock 'Em

They may be rowdy, drunk and disruptive, but football fans are generally welcomed with open arms for the sheer economic force they bring to host cities. But not everyone in Vienna is stoked about the UEFA Football Championship and its assorted mayhem: The Vienna State Opera has canceled a concert scheduled the night of the final, and attendance is down by nearly a third overall since the footballers came to town.

Given how much singing goes on at European football matches--albeit in profane ways too complex to explore here--one would think a love of opera and the Euro Cup need not be mutually exclusive. The European championship continues through June 29, and tickets can still be had through the national organizations in competition. (That includes for matches involving teams from Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain at this writing.)

If you'd rather go highbrow, you can buy tickets by phone to the Vienna State Opera's performances or try for €30 ($46) rush tickets to shows like Verdi's "La Forza Del Destino" and Tchaikovsky's "The Queen of Spades."

Related Stories:
· Soccer 1, Opera 0 [Canadian Press, via Google]
· Culture Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Sports Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: station_nord]

Ferris-Wheels-of-the-World / Ferris Wheels / Attractions / Tourist Attractions / Dubai Travel / → All Tags

Ferris Wheel Travel: Musically Inclined

The Langerado Music Festival starts tomorrow in the Florida Everglades, with all your favorite jam bands--from Beastie Boys to Gov't Mule--making appearances. So what's the Ferris wheel connection? There'll be one on the festival grounds, giving bird's-eye views of the bands.

If you prefer your music a bit more proper, maybe a trip to Haydn's hometown would suit you better. Vienna, Austria's opera capital, also claims one of the world's first Ferris wheels, the Riesenrad. (That's German for "giant wheel.")

The ride, above, towers 200 feet into the air, and even showed up in the film noir classic "The Third Man." If you can't snag a seat on one of the Riesenrad's 15 gondolas, there's a smaller wheel on the outskirts of town at the Böhmischer Prater.

Related Stories:
· Langerado Music Festival [Official Site]
· Vienna Prater, Home of the Riesenrad [Official Site]
· Ferris Wheels coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Wikipedia]

Music Travel / Classical Music / Joseph Haydn / → All Tags

Austria Hearts Haydn, 200 Years On

Where would humble lil' Austria be without its musical history? Probably way off the tourist radar, we think. So it's no surprise that the Austrians are already starting the hype for 2009: Haydn Year.

Haydn Year is timed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer's death. Haydn started out as a choir boy in Vienna's gorgeous Stephansdom and eventually became one of Austria's most prominent classical composers. That makes him worth celebrating, Austrian style.

All manner of events are planned to excite locals and tourists alike. Apart from tons of exhibitions in Vienna and Eisenstadt, there will be (seemingly) endless performances of Haydn's music, especially in the capital. The creepiest one is the performance of "The Creation" at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. It'll take place on March 27, 2009, exactly 201 years after Haydn made the oratorio his last public performance before his death. Even Beethoven was in the audience.

If you want to be in the audience this time round, get planning now. If you're lucky they might even throw in a seance and free chat with Haydn himself.

Related Stories:
· Haydn Year 2009 [Official Site]
· The Constant Sight of the Sound of Music [Jaunted]
· Vienna to Fight Junkies With Opera [Jaunted]

[Photo: josquin2000]

Museums / Engagement Travel / Liechtenstein Museum / → All Tags

Popping The Question In An Austrian Museum

A tip for the guys: proposing to your girlfriend during a romantic holiday in Vienna definitely increases the chance that she'll say yes. One guy proved this recently with the help of the Budget Travel mag: during his stay in Vienna, he took his girlfriend into the Liechtenstein Museum just before closing time, popped the question in the library and then had the staff to bring in champagne and a gift basket.

Which kind of begs the question: the library? The Liechtenstein Museum is full of amazing art, is itself an incredible Baroque building and has magnificent gardens. Perhaps the girlfriend was a bookworm -- she said yes.

Related Stories:
· A Surprise Engagement Made Better [Budget Travel]
· Hotels in Vienna [HotelChatter]
· Liechtenstein Museum [Official Site]

[Photo: guldfisken]