Salzburg Things to Do

Romantic Salzburg in in its glorious Austrian alpine setting is a city that lives well on its stomach. It’s crammed with top-quality restaurants that can be prohibitively pricey, but there are myriad ways of eating well and inexpensively in the city.

Imagine my surprise: I got on a train in Bratislava,Slovakia, bound for Vienna, Austria — the land of mountains and snow, high lakes and skiing skiing skiing! But out the window all I saw was flat land. As far as the eye could see, it was flat. And covered in wind turbines generating electricity. What was going on?

Since 1979, Ars Electronica has been cultivating and celebrating art, technology, and science with its evolving, four-faceted approach based in Austria‘s town of Linz. Founders Hannes Leopoldseder, Hubert Bognermayr, Herbert W. Franke, and Ulrich Rützel began their efforts with a biannual event in collaboration with the International Bruckner Festival. Over time, the umbrella of their ingenuity has broadened to encompass an annual event of international significance, as well as an international competition, a Museum of the Future, and a Laboratory for Future Innovation.

Austria is well known for its architectural innovations and peculiar tourist destinations. The following stand out as particularly interesting and memorably strange.

Rather like Buda and Pest, the towns of Klosterneuburg and Korneuburg have been separated by the Danube since the river changed course in the Middle Ages. The former is a very attractive town with a number of sites that are worth making the short trip north from Vienna.

One of the most modern and technologically advanced virtual stargazing spots in Europe is located in Austria. The Sternenturm planetarium in Judenburg is a striking combination of old and new. Reputedly the highest planetarium in the world, the Sternenturm is amazingly located in the belfry of the centuries-old city castle tower, a structure that has long been one Judenburg’s most recognizable landmarks.