1936 On the Continent

delightful spot a little way out. If you have your own car you can make the journey without any trouble, otherwise take the motor-bus. One goes to Gumpoldskirchen for the “Heuriger,” and from the Heuriger one cannot always count on returning with the steady hand that is required for driving. Amongst the excursions I include
all
the Heurigers—but you do not yet know what a Heuriger is. It is really no more than new wine, but the shop where this new wine is sold is also called a Heuriger. Many people visit the Heurigers, that is, small inns on the outskirts of the town, at Grinzing, Sievering, Neuwaldegg, Nussdorf and Liebhartsthal. There are Heurigers for strangers and Heurigers for the natives, and these last no native should betray. In order to do the correct thing you must take sausage or something cold with you, as at the Heurigers there is no hot food and the cold food one brings oneself. If you would like to discover a Heurigerinn for yourself, then make a note of this: Heuriger is served anywhere where you see a bundle of green twigs on a pole hanging outside the door. There are Heurigers with and without music, and a very nice comfortable Heuriger is the Schnapperbaum, Grinzing, Himmelstrasse. There you have to sit on hard benches, drink the Viennese nectar and listen to the melodies sung by the Schnapperbaum habitués. In Sievering, where the wine flows so much and so happily, you will find at the Schubertkeller a cheerful and agreeable Heuriger inn with a lovely garden; in Liebharstal you are in the heart of the Vienna suburbs—the wine you get at the Zehnermarie can safely be drunk. In Neuwaldegg the Heuriger is sold at the Resi-Tant, which is quite near the tram terminus and is much patronised by artists, nearly all natives of course. For a particularly attractive Heuriger inn you must go to Nussdorf and walk for about seven minutes from Nussdorferplatz up a small hill. At the top is the Eichelhof. Sit there, take bread and sausage out of your pocket, order a Nussdorfer and look over the town and the Danube. You will soon understand why the Austrian loves his country. There are, of course, Heurigers in Perktoldsdorf, where you can hear the Heuriger singer, Truley, a genuine character; in Mödling, in Heilingenstadt, and in other places in the near and more distant environs of Vienna.
More Excursions
    Of course you must go to Baden. You can get to this charming little town by electric railway, motor-bus or rail. You will probably not drink Heuriger there as the ruling spirit in the town is the casino, into which you as a foreigner can go without further ado. You can play any game of chance—if you like risks—but do not fail to take a return ticket before you go into the casino. Otherwise you may have to return to Vienna on foot or without your watch. There are, however, people who have won.
    The Wiener Wald gives you opportunity for a thousand excursions. I advise you, however, only to go there during the week, as on Sundays you can hardly see the woods for noisy people. Do not miss going to Semmering, where in the winter there is ski-ing, bob-sleighing and tobogganing, and in summer swimming, tennis and golf, and whereagain there is a casino at which you will have the chance of getting rid of all your superfluous money. The tame Viennese mountain, the Rax, you can reach with the help of a cleverly constructed funicular: from the summit height of more than 2,000 metres you can see far over the land of Austrua. You can also attain the summit of the Hochschneeberg, which is over 2,000 metres, by means of a comfortable railway. During the journey you will see many beautiful villages and towns.
    A longer but very worth-while excursion is through the Wachau. There is no risk of being seasick on the Danube, so you may safely undertake the short journey. If you take the train to Melk and then go up by boat, through glorious mountains, and past ancient ruins and monasteries, you will have an unforgettable experience. On the vineclad hills little villages nestle, with their old Baroque churches. You lie in hammock chairs on board while the landscape unfolds before you as the Danube winds through the land. In Dürnstein or at Krems you go on shore and sit in a cool old garden on the river bank. Then it seems to you as if life and the world had stopped; only the Danube flows on. …
General
    Please note that in Vienna the post-boxes, in which you can only post stamped letters, are painted a vivid yellow, the