Austria

Austria Journal

August 25, 2016

  After traveling in Austria for the past few days, we learned that catholic was the most popular religion in Austria. Around the 1540s, the Habsburgs influences the Roman Catholic church among the Austrians and their campaign proved successful. In 1918, the first catholic leaders, such as Theodor Innitzer and Ignaz Seipel, continued to spread Catholicism through Austria. Around the end of the 20th century, about 74% of Austria’s population were Roman Catholics. Near the end of 2016, Austria Roman Catholic church had about 5 million people going there, which is 60% of Austria’s population. About 12% of the population were not religious in 2001, however, it increased to 20% in 2015.

  Austria is country consisting of many high mountains, in which the highest one is 4 km above sea level. This makes mountain sport especially popular. Also, with their love of winter sports, alpine skiing and ice hockey are widely practiced along with association football and rugby. Some of the best alpine skiers are from Austria, including Toni Sailer, Hermann Maier, and Annemarie Moser-Pröll. Adding on to that, Austria took away all 5 gold medals in the 2011 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Football used to be the most played sport in Austria, but it’s popularity decreased after WWII.

  Apart from alpine skiing, Austria is also famous for its architecture. As we walked around Austria’s capital, Vienna, many gorgeous architectures came to our interest. Not all the buildings were built the same style. According to the travel brochure, a variety of architecture style can be found here, such as the Romanesque Ruprechtskirche and the Baroque Karlskirche. Austria consists some of the best-known examples of Art Nouveau in the world, such as the Secession, Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station, and the Kirche am Steinhof by Otto Wagner. Nowadays, architectural project in Vienna is the combination of modern architectural elements with old buildings, such as the remodeling and revitalisation of the old Gasometer in 2001. It would’ve been great if we had the opportunity to stop by all of these breathtaking buildings, but sadly, due to the tight schedule, we only visited the Gasometer.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Grossglockner

Austria Newspaper

Special Olympics World Winter Games: Ice Skating Hopes to Shine 
Stephanie Gott who was born in Runcorn suffered from an accident as a baby. Therefore, it is difficult for her to move her legs and arms. However, as she turns into 19, she is preparing to present in Great Britain in ice skating at the Special Olympics World Winter Games. The opening ceremony started on the 18th of March and the competition will last until March 25.

Gunman Fires into crowd at concert in Nenzing, Austria

During an open-air concert in Austria, a gunman fired bullets through a small crowd. He killed two people and injured 11 people. The police said this incident was preceded by a loud argument between a woman and the gunman in the parking lot. Then the man took out a gun from his car and went to the concert and started shooting randomly into the crowd of about 150 people. After that, he went back to the parking lot and shot himself. This happened near Nenzing, a town in Voralberg, Austria.

Owner Sues to Keep House Where Hitler Was Born

The house Adolf Hitler was born in is taken by the Australian government to seize ownership. The house is in a town called Braunau, in Austria. The Austrian government took the power to maintain the house in 1972. However, they want to demolish the building.

Austria Postcard

August 26, 2016

Dear Audrey,

Hi! How are doing? Hope you’re doing well in Taiwan. Yesterday, we arrived in Austria. Did you know that Mozart and Beethoven were both Austrian-born composers and songwriters? We didn’t know until we heard Fur Elise in a coffee shop and asked a waitress about the composer of the song. Today, we went to Vienna, the capital city of Austria. We visited St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It is a Christian church with four towers and is 107m tall. We climbed 343 flights of stairs to the tower room, where you can see the whole view of Vienna. You can even see people eating on their porches. Our next destination was Grossglockner, the tallest mountain in Austria with the height of 3,798m. However we didn’t climb to the top because we were so tired.

After climbing many stairs and mountains, it was already dinner, so we went to a famous restaurant and ate Wiener Schnitzel, the most famous dish in Austria. It is a very thin breaded and pan fried cutlet made from veal. It was so good that we ordered another one for each of us. Not only did we eat Wiener Schnitzel, but also knodel. They are boiled dumplings made from bread or potatoes. Before going back to our hotel, we decided to end our nice trip in Austria with a can of Red Bull from the vending machine, an energy drink. Then we noticed that it was originally made from an Austrian company in 1987.

Beethoven

Wiener Schnitzel

Knodel

Miss you,
Kelly and Vivian