Austria:
A tiny country wedged between Germany and Italy, Austria is nevertheless a wonderful place to explore, especially if you love mountains. The Vorarlberg area, in particular, is full of villages with excellent accommodations in picturesque wooden chalets, where you get fabulous food. Even the morning's cream for your coffee comes from the cow eating grass outside the window. There are excellent hiking trails, coffee shops on the tops of mountains, forests, chair lifts that run in summer, and saunas where you can spend time relaxing your muscles. Skiing, of course, is fantastic in Austria. Salzburg is touristy but worth a visit. Vienna is full of gigantic old buildings such as museums and palaces, and small cafes where you can get delicious apple pie with cream ("schlagobbers").
Politically, Austria has been having some problems. In February, 2000, the government formed a coalition which included the far-right "Freedom Party" of Joerg Haider. Haider aroused the ire of the world for saying nice things about Nazis and for proposing a ban on immigration. To the credit of the Austrian people, they went out in the streets protesting against him. In fact, 73 per cent of the people did NOT vote for Haider. Finally, on February 28, 2000, he resigned as the leader of the Freedom Party.
This page last updated February 28, 2000.