DAY 1 :

Arrival at Vienna International Airport Pick up with modern coach and guide
Transfer to the hotel in Vienna

City Tour of Vienna including inside visit of Fuchs Villa

This tour will give you an overall impression of the most significant historical sights of Vienna. Along the Ringstrasse we show you numerous magnificent building, such as the State Opera House, the Museum of Fine Arts and National History Museum, the new cultural district the Museums Quartier, the former Habsburg winter residence, the Hofburg, the Parliament, the City Hall, the Burgtheater and on the way to the Prater you will pass the Kunsthaus.
You will see also the Giants Ferris Wheel, an impressive landmark of Vienna.

The highlight of the tour will be a visit of the Fuchs Villa – Otto Wagner, the famous Art Nouveau architect buit this villa 1888 for his family. Ernst Fuchs (a famous Austria artist) bought this villa and lived and worked there. The Fuchs Villa is since 1988 the private museum and collection of Ernst Fuchs. Since this date the artist has decided to live not longer in the villa. So this building is now a perfect match of beautiful Art Nouveau architecture in combination with the art of Ernst Fuchs.

Dinner in the hotel or in a local restaurant nearby

DAY 2 :

Buffet breakfast in the hotel

Morning guided City walk through the old part of the city – where you cannot go by coach
You will start with the tour at the State Opera House and walk through the “Kärntnerstrasse” (famous shopping street and pedestrian zone) to St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

Then you will continue to walk along Graben and Kohlmarkt (very exquisite shopping area and also pedestrian zone) to the Imperial Palace (Hofburg). Here you will get an guided inside visit of the Imperial Treasury. You will end this tour with an explanation of the Hofburg complex.

Lunch in a traditional Viennese Restaurant

After lunch you will walk back to St.Stephen’s Cathedral where you will have the great opportunity to get additional the the regular guided tour through the Dome also the opportunity to get a guided tour through the attic of the Dome (please note: approx. 130 steps to climb) where you see how the Dome was built.

Evening free at leisure

DAY  3:
Buffet breakfast in the hotel

Fullday excursion to Carnuntum and Schloss Hof.
After breakfast you will go with coach and guide to Carnuntum (approx. 1 hour driving from Vienna).
Carnuntum is the largest roman archealogical site we have in Austria. Carnuntum was in roman times bigger and more important that Vindobona (Vienna).

Here a small description of Carnuntum:
Around 2000 years ago one of the most important metropolises in the Roman Empire was founded.  In the year 6 AD Tiberius, who later became emperor, erected a fortified winter camp in the Carnuntum area.  In the following centuries Carnuntum, as the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia, was often in the limelight of world politics.  In its heyday the city covered about 10 sq. kilometres, had about 50,000 inhabitants and was the base of the Roman Danube fleet.  After its prime, Carnuntum slumbered for more than 1500 years, until the enthusiasm of archaeologists rescued the former metropolis from the mysteries of the past.

Special attractions include numerous reconstructed Roman buildings which allow a glimpse of Roman citizens’ everyday life. The highlights of your tour will be the house of Lucius, a cloth merchant from Carnuntum, as well as the villa urbana, where you can enjoy a brief rest in the shade of its columned hall.

After visiting of the Archeologic Park continue to the Amphietheatre Petronell which is situated on the southern outskirt fo the civilian city. It was built in the first half of the 2nd century AD. Let the magic of this location take hold of you and imagine the atmosphere when up to 12.000 visitors poured throught the massive gates and enthusiastically cheered the public entertainment from the seats in the stands.

Last part of visiting in this area is the Heidentor (the Heathen’s Gate).
This is the best know Roman monument and landmark of the Archeological Park Carnuntum and is situated about 2km from the Open Air Museum.
After your inspiring journey back to the everday life of Carnuntum citizens, you will be impressed by this imposing monument to Imperial might.

Lunch in a local restaurant in the area.

After lunch you will continue to the other side of the Danube to Schloss Hof.

The Palace:
The grounds of Hof Palace extend over more than 50 hectares of land in eastern Lower Austria. The magnificent ensemble with its lordly palace, beautiful Terraced Garden and idyllic Manor Farm was laid out in the late 1720s as an impressive country home and hunting lodge for Prince Eugene of Savoy. The architect, Johann Lucas von Hildebrandt, was able to draw on practically unlimited resources.
The unique beauty of Hof Palace was not lost on Empress Maria Theresa. In 1756 she acquired the complex from Prince Eugene’s heir and presented it as a gift to her husband, Emperor Francis Stephen.
In May 2005 restoration work was far enough along that the ensemble could be opened to visitors. Austria’s largest rural palace complex had finally been restored to its former splendour, original dignity and intended purpose as a venue for magnificent celebrations.

The Garden:
The extraordinary magnificence of Hof Palace is due in no small part to its garden, which descends impressively down to the March River across seven terraces. Few other Baroque gardens in Europe can rival the splendour and elegance of the one laid out at Hof Palace for Prince Eugene of Savoy. It combines the creative power of nature with human skill and imagination to create a work of perfect beauty and harmony.
With the help of historical plans, old paintings and the expertise of well-versed landscape archaeologists, the splendour that had gradually disappeared over the course of time has been for the most part restored.
The restoration of the Baroque Garden was an enormous challenge that was brilliantly met by archaeologists, botanists and gifted gardeners.

Please note that the whole area is closed in winter times – opening is beginning of April.

Drive back to Vienna.
Evening free for leisure.

DAY 4:
Buffetbreakfast in the hotel
This morning we will have a guided tour through the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts) in Vienna numbers among the most important European museum building put up during the 19th century.
The monumental structure, built at the behest of Emperor Fanz Joseph I as a part of his expansion of the city in 1858, was intended to both unite and appropriately represent the artistic treasures that had beed collected by the Habsburgs over the centuries.

Collections of the Museum: Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Picture Gallery, Collection of Sculpture and Decorative Arts, Coin Cabinet and Library.

I would suggest that you do a guided tour through the Picture Gallery (of course this can be changed if other things are more of interest).

The Picture Gallery developed from the art collections of the House Habsburg. Today it is one of the largest and most important of its kind in the world.
The foundataion of the collection were laid and its main emphases set in the 17th century: 16th-century Venetian paintings (Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto), 17th-century Flemish painting (Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Anthony Von Dyck), Early Netherlandish painiting (Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden) and German Renaissance Painting (Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach).

AMong the other highlights in the Picture Gallery are its holdings of pictures by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which are unique worldwide, as well as masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Raphael, Caravaggio, Velazquez and Italien Baroque Painters.

Lunch in a local restaurant

Afternoon and evening free at leisure

DAY 5:
Buffetbreakfast in the hotel

Today we leave Vienna to the south and visit the Styrian capitol of Graz and the surrounding.

Our first stop will be the Austrian Open Air Museum Stübing in Styria.
Founded in 1968, this museum has become one of Europe’s most important central open-air museums, reuniting on 60 hectare nearly 100 original, historically significant farmsteads and agriculture buildings from all parts of Austria.
Closed in winter time – opening end of March!!

Lunch in a local restaurant in the area

After lunch we continue to Graz – the capitol of the province Styria and do a guided citywalk there.

In 2003, Graz joined the ranks of such famous sites as the The Pyramides of Gizeh, The Chinese wall and the Akropolis when its medieval centre was proclaimed World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

Who could resist this city’s charm with its prodigious clock towers, arcaded courtyards, twisty staircases, libraries, churches, squares and renaissance impressions.
Austria’s Queen of Hearts is radiating the charm of 850 years of history.

Evening free at leisure

DAY 6 :
Buffetbreakfast in the hotel

Leave this charming city in the morning after breakfast and go west to Bärnbach.
The most famous building of this charming small village is the Parish Church St.Barbara.
This church is build by the most famous architekt Friedensreich Hunderwasser. It is the only church he has every built.

After visiting the impressive church you continue to Piber.
Piber is the home of the World-Famous Lipizzan Horses.

Piber lies nestled in the idyllic hilly landscape in the western Styria. Here the Piber Federal Stud puts the knowledge and experience in breeding and special techniques for raising and training its Lipizzan Horses. It has gained in over four centuries into breeding horses that possess the unique qualities that have made them world famous at the Vienna’s Spanish Riding School-
You can see the following:
-) Stud farm presentations
-) experience first hand how they work with young horses on the lunge rein, saddled and in a team
-) visit the international dressage tournaments
-) Guided tours give you a glimpse behind the scenes of everyday life at the stud

Lunch in a local restaurant in the area.

After lunch continue back to Vienna.

Evening free at leisure

DAY 7:
Depending on your flight time morning/day free at leisure
Transfer with coach and guide to the Vienna International Airport.

The following services are included in the rates:
-) 7 x overnights in 3-4 hotels incl buffetbreakfast
-) coach as per above programme
-) english or french speaking guide according to above mentioned programme
-) 6 x lunch (3 course menu without beverages and tip)
-) entrance fees: Fuchs Villa, Imperial Treasury, St.Stephen’s Cathedral incl attic, Archeology park of Carnuntum, Schloss Hof, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Open Air Museum Stübing, Stud Farm Piber
-) all fees and taxes

Not included: your commission!