Austria Warnings Or Dangers Tips by globetrott Top 5 Page for this destination

Vienna: The SÜD-Bahnhof/OST-Bahnhof - desaster !

When you come to Vienna by train from Germany or Switzerland you will not be affected by this problem, but all trains going to or arriving from Italy, Hungary or Slovakia dont have a steady train-station, BUT each and every train might start from different stations and this is why I call it the SÜD-Bahnhof / OST-Bahnhof - desaster !
Vienna is building a new MAIN-trainstation now - and it will not be finished before end of 2012 - and they thought it would be a clever idea, to destroy the old Südbahnhof first !
And now we dont have the SÜD-Bahnhof anymore in Vienna but only a small part of it in a distance of several hundred meters from the former SÜD-Bahnhof and getting there takes an extra 10-15 minutes jumping from one side of the road, where you are leaving the bus or tram to the other side that has the only sidewalk taking you to OST-Bahnhof, that actually looks much more like an ugly supermarket that a trainstation.
So the logical way does not have a pavewalk, but you might run with your suitcases between the cartrafic, or you change to the other side first and change then back again to the side where you had left the bus or tram and where the station is, but in quite some distance without a trottoir !
Once that you are there, you have only 3 automatic ticket-machines and some overhead screens with the departuretimes and number of tracks where to find the trains.

All of this hassle and stress certainly needs
some extra 15-20 minutes that you should calculate
when your train is leaving from OST-Bahnhof !
this applies for SOME trains to Budapest, Bratislava etc.
Some of these trains might also leave / arrive at Wien Meidling
some will do that in Wien Westbahnhof !
Always take a 2nd look on the oebb.at - webpage !!!

Website: http://www.oebb.at

Dachlawinen - "averlanches" falling from the roofs

"Dachlawinen" is an expression, that is very hard to understand what it means, unless you once were covered under such an averlanche, when walking next to a high building: These "averlanches" / Dachlawinen are heavy heaps of snow falling down from the roof of a house and they are a steady danger that might occur everywhere in the alps, where heavy snows will fall in winter. That snow might be quite dry or wet and it might freeze or start melting, depending on the winds or temperatures.
in case of freshly fallen snow that is quite dry, it does not matter a lot when some of the snow falls down on the pedestrians, in case of heavy, wet snow it will completely damage cars and it may as well injure people quite seriously, when they are walking under a steep roof, from where all of sudden a heavy part of snow is falling down to the sidewalk...
These things always happen in sunshine and the only chance that you have to escape them is to walk in a larger distance from the buildings.
b.t.w.: some years ago the roof of quite a new skating-stadium collapsed and broke under the weight of the snow that fell within a few days, then it rained a bit, turned into ice and was much heavier than normal and finally the roof broke.
Same thing with flat roofs of supermarkets etc.

Skiing on the Arlberg - roads might be closed

Arlberg is a high mountain between Vorarlberg and Tirol and it is also one of the very best areas to ski in wintertime ! It is the area where celebrities, kings and queens are going to ski each year, BUT it happens quite often that there is such heavy snowfall, that all of the roads will be totally closed for several days without warning !
So, when booking a hotel at the Arlberg : Be aware that even helicopters will have no chance at all to fly you in or out !!
For celebrities this does not matter, for the "working-class" it might be a desaster, when you have to be back on the job in time !!!

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/4ef32/

Dachlawinen - "averlanches" falling from the roofs

Dachlawinen are "averlanches" of snow falling down from the roof of a house and they are a steady danger that might occur everywhere in the alps, where heavy snows will fall in winter. That snow might be quite dry or wet and it might freeze or start melting, depending on the winds or temperatures.
in case of freshly fallen snow that is quite dry, it does not matter a lot when some of the snow falls down on the pedestrians, in case of heavy, wet snow it will completely damage cars and it may as well injure people quite seriously, when they are walking under a steep roof, from where all of sudden a heavy part of snow is falling down to the sidewalk...
These things always happen in sunshine and the only chance that you have to escape them is to walk in a larger distance from the buildings.

Arlberg: The roads might close for several days

When booking a hotel at the Arlberg : Be aware that ever year it might happen that the road is totally closed for several days and even helicopters will have no chance at all to fly you in or out !!
For celebrities this does not matter, for the "working-class" it might be a desaster, when you have to be back on the job in time !!!

Parking your car in Vienna

Parking a car in several districts in the centre of Vienna ( mostly inside the Gürtel and a few more areas like around Stadthalle)you have to pay for the parking during the day.
There will be NO EXTRA signs for the parking-zone except white lines with spaces and at the entrance to the district the word " ZONE " is printed on the street...
.
And you have to buy parking-tickets in a newspaper-shop and put it behind the windscreen..
.
And if you use e.g. 2 parking-tickets of 1/2 hour for 1 hour parking - please make sure you fill out the same arrival-time on both tickets !
This sound un-logical to you ? don't worry : WIEN IST ANDERS ! (means: 'Vienna is different!') - and that is exactly what it means ! - read carefully the backside of the parking-tickets - it is explained there clearly in best GERMAN! - Anyway, folks how about Parking-tickets in your hometown ?Would they make any notes in German in Chicago, Oslo, Rome or Nepal ????(:-)))

Parkingtickets have to be used between
09.00am and 10.00pm
on every weekday Mon-Fri, except when it is a holiday !
Special holidays in Austria :
October 26th is our National Holiday
December 8th is a holiday as well, BUT shops will be open !

Website: http://www.wien.at

Neusiedler See is very dangerous in a storm

Well you might say that any lake is dangerous in a storm, but Lake Neusiedel / Neusiedlersee is a bit different in some ways:
The lake is totally flat on the ground and it is mostly not more than 2 meters deep and there is just a plain surrounding that lake, so the storms occur really very fast. That will lead to the fact that a wind or storm will heap up giant waves, maybe 3-4 meters high that are really dangerous. Every year this happens quite often and so it is necessary to obey the storm-warnings, even when you dont see a reason to obey it at the very moment.

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Neusiedler See is a national park-area and so it is not allowed to take any ships there with noisy engines, but electric boats and pedalboats are to be found everywhere and they can berented by the hour at the Seebad. When hiring one of the boats you have to leave an identytycard or something similar with the office at the hotel.
Pedalboats with a max of 4 seats are
7,- per 30 min and 9,- p.hour
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For bikers there is a ferry from Rust to Podersdorf, in the main season it is going daily at least twice.
From july 1st till september 23rd daily
the ferry is leaving Podersdorf at 10.00a.m.
plus monday till friday also at 04.00 p.m.
from Rust the ferry is leaving daily at 11.00a.m.
and Monday till Friday also at 05.00p.m.
click here for more details of the schedule

Website: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1ffe4/4ef90/

dont expect the latest fashion !

Dont expect to get the lastest fashion for those special prices ! In most of the shops you can read it clearly already in the window : all of these goods are from previous seasons, and / or some of the items may have some minor errors or mis-constructions etc.
On the other hand you will find a really big choice of goods, an almost empty shop during ordinary weekdays and you will get all the help and attention when choosing your merchandise.