Austria Information
Austria's Famous Citizen Mozart
Austria Information
Austria is a magical country and the purpose of this article is to give you Austria Information that you might find helpful if you are going there or just want more Austria information. It is a land of majestic mountains, beautiful architecture, a country with a proud classical music heritage and mouth watering cuisine.
Austria Information – Geography
The population is around 10 million, the land size is 84,000 square kilometres. The beautiful Vienna is the capital and is situated in the east of the country on the plains. (the very mountainous half of Austria is to the west) Austria shares borders with Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, CzechRepublic, Hungary, Slovakia & Slovenia
Other main geographical features of Austria are the River Danube (called the Donau by the locals), TirolMountains, Grossglockner mountain (3797m) Austria’s highest peak, Zugspitze mountain (2966m) shared with Germany as the border runs over the peak
Of course the language of Austria is German but there are some regional dialects such as the dialect spoken in the Tirol which to the untrained tongue sounds like German anyway.
Austria has been a European Union Member since 1995. The other important piece of Austria information is that their currency used to be the Schilling but is now the Euro.
Austria Information
Austria Information - Scnapps Tasting
Austria Information – Agriculture
Most of the western part of Austria is heavily forested and mountainous. The Danube Valley to the east is fertile and many crops are grown here maize, barley and stone fruits; grapes for white wine (Heuriger) grown outside Vienna, cattle for dairy products are also big contributors to Austria’s agricultural economy.
A quirky piece of Austria Information is that about schnapps. It is every Austrian farmer’s right to produce a small amount of Schnapps for themselves once a year. Farmers schnapps is called obsteller. This happens during spring and summer when fruit ripens. Schnapps can be made of almost any fruit, especially peaches, pairs, and different berries. Strangely enough the amount of 'farmers' increases substantially when schnapps is to be made!
Austria Information – Things To Do And See
Almost 20 million tourists visit Austria each year, drawn there for skiing, hiking, museums, classical music and of course “The Sound of Music” most of which was filmed in the town of Salzberg.
Here is a summary of what is great in Austria;
Food/Beverage: Wiener Schnitzel, Sauerkraut, Apfel Strudel, Schnaps, Mozart Kugeln, Coffee (Vienna Coffee (with cream, like a cappuccino), Melange (white), Almdudler drink (ginger beer), Beer (Gösser, Kaiser), Wine (white, homemade)
Sports: Football, Handball, Skiing, Mountain Biking, Hiking, all Alpine sports including mountain climbing and abseiling.
Famous Austrians: Dr Sigmund Freud, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Strauss I and II, Habsburg monarchy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Brahms, Gustav Klimt, Adolf Hitler
Things of Note: recycling in Austria is very important and rubbish/garbage in each house is sorted according to type (5 bins in each house), thus it is a very green and clean country, can be fined for throwing rubbish on ground;
Schnaps is actually a digestive to be used after a heavy meal to assist digestion, no sugar can be added to it otherwise it becomes a liqueur, traditional Schnaps are usually clear such as Obstler, Farmers, Pear, Peach, Kirschwasser, Magenbitters, etc, but the ones that taste the best and still to the job are Glätscher Eis, Goldschlag, Apfelkorn, & Apfelsauer, avoid Teufels Fuer (Devil’s Brew), Jägermeister and anything else dark in colour!;
Dirndl is the name given to the traditional dress worn by Austrian women, made up of a skirt, apron and white frilly shirt.
My name is Robee Kann, for six years I was a tour guide throughout Europe. I loved my job and I would love to hear from you. You are most welcome to message me to say hello or request a hub about a European subject. Please look at my other hubs and leave a comment for me.
Want More About Austria
Other Austrian Hubs by Robee Kann
Please check out my other hubs about Austrian People and Places
Mauthausen Concentration Camp or Mauthausen Konzentrationslager
The Complete History Of Vienna Capital Of Austria
Maria Theresa Archduchess Of Austria, Holy Roman Empress
History Of Schloss Schonbrunn Or SchonbrunnPalace
The Austrian Sigmund Freud Founder Of Psychoanalysis