| AUSTRIAThe world's best music festivals. The | | | | Siegfried and threw their treasure into the river. A |
| world's biggest and most famous music festival is the | | | | huge statue of Hagen commemorates the story. The |
| Salzburg Festival. Other important Austrian | | | | town was destroyed in A.D. 436 by Attila the Hun. In |
| melomaniac delights include the Haydn Festival in | | | | the center of the town's old section is the tall, spired |
| Vienna and the International Chamber Music Festival. | | | | Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, built in the 11th |
| Tickets to the festivals are cheapest if you buy | | | | and 12th centuries. Worms has a huge statue of |
| them in Austria. "Tickets for Events in Austria" is an | | | | Martin Luther; the oldest synagogue in Germany, built |
| information sheet which is available from Austrian | | | | in the 11th century and restored in 1961; and the |
| National Tourist Office, tel. (212)944-6880; website: | | | | oldest and largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. |
| world's best horsemanship. The 400-year-old Spanish | | | | Tombstones date from the 11th century.Hitler's |
| Riding School, located in the Hofburg, trains the noble | | | | favorite hideout. The Kehlsteinhouse (also known as |
| white stallions that descend from the Spanish horses | | | | Eagle's Nest), perched on a rocky crag above the |
| imported to Austria by Emperor Maximilian II in the | | | | town of Berchtesgaden, was Hitler's favorite hideout. |
| 16th century. The horses dance to Viennese music, | | | | No wonder-the view from the |
| guided by expert riders wearing the traditional | | | | hideaway-turned-restaurant is exhilarating. Anyone |
| gold-buttoned brown uniform and gold-braided black | | | | could develop delusions of grandeur here. Alpine |
| hat. Performances are held at the school most | | | | peaks rise above cottony clouds at this level. The |
| Sunday mornings at 10:45 a.m. and occasional | | | | snow at their summits glistens in the sun. Below, a |
| Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. from March to June and | | | | thick carpet of dark green pines stretches toward |
| September to December. It's difficult to get tickets; | | | | the valley. The road to Eagle's Nest is so steep and |
| write six months in advance to the Spanische | | | | dangerous that cars are not allowed to use it; you |
| Reitschule, Hofburg, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; tel. | | | | must take a special bus from the |
| (43)1-533-9031.The most romantic hotel. Less than an | | | | Obersalzberg-Hintereck parking lot. You can dine in |
| hour from Vienna, the Schloss Durnstein, tel. | | | | the restaurant from mid-May through |
| (43)2-711-212, presides over a wide curve of the | | | | mid-October.The world's best passion play. Every 10 |
| Danube River. Located deep in the wine district of | | | | years, the world's most moving passion play is |
| Wachsu, this magnificent castle is surrounded by | | | | performed in the shadows of the Alps in the little |
| distinctive vine-clad hills, age-old ruins and timeless | | | | artisan town of Oberammergau. From May through |
| picturesque villages with one-lane streets. According | | | | September in years ending in zero, local amateur |
| to the legend, it was here that the imprisoned King | | | | actors put aside their daily professions and devote |
| Richard the Lionhearted was reunited with his faithful | | | | themselves entirely to the play. Written in the 17th |
| minstrel, who had sung his way across Europe | | | | century, it enacts Christ's suffering between the Last |
| searching for his master. Also intriguing is the wine | | | | Supper and his death. Villagers have performed the |
| cellar (which can accommodate 8,000 "buckets" of | | | | play every 10 years since the 17th century, when |
| wine), the arch-crossed cobbled courtyard and the 33 | | | | they vowed they would perform the passion if the |
| rooms all with chandeliers fronting the | | | | black plague ceased. It did and they have. The |
| Danube.GERMANYHeidelberg, the most romantic | | | | picturesque Passionsspielhaus (Passion play Theater) |
| town. Heidelberg is the hub of German Romanticism. | | | | can be visited any time of the year. The immense |
| Schumann began his career as a Romantic composer | | | | open-air stage holds 700 actors and the theater's |
| in this pretty town and Goethe fell in love here. | | | | wooden benches hold 5,200 people. You can see the |
| Heidelberg is also the oldest university town in | | | | elaborate costumes used during the passion play |
| Germany and the site of scenes from the movie and | | | | when you visit. Performances begin at 8:30 a.m. and |
| opera The Student Prince. The best place to ramble | | | | finish at 6 p.m., with a two-hour break for lunch. The |
| in Heidelberg is the Haupstrasse, which is lined with | | | | best hotel Oberammergau is the Alois Lang. This |
| coffeehouses and little shops. Have a drink in one of | | | | quiet place has rooms with private bathrooms and |
| the cafes beneath the rathaus. Or meander along | | | | three good dining rooms.The world's best asparagus. |
| Philosopher's Walk, where Goethe and Hegel | | | | Every spring, Germans go stalk-raving mad, gorging |
| wandered. From the path you'll have a bird's-eye | | | | themselves on the country's Weisser Spargel, or |
| view of the city and Heidelberg Castle. Don't leave | | | | white asparagus. The German asparagus, introduced |
| town without visiting the Electoral Palatinate Museum, | | | | 2,000 years ago by the Romans, is plump and ivory |
| where the 500,000-year-old jawbone of Heidelberg | | | | white with delicate purple tips. It is prized among |
| Man is kept.Germany's best fish market. The best | | | | epicures, who come from around the world every |
| fish market in Germany is held on Sunday mornings in | | | | April, May and June to the world's asparagus mecca. |
| Hamburg. This raucous but fun affair is located by | | | | Asparagus is especially big business in Finthen, near |
| the docks in Altona and begins at 5 a.m.Worms: the | | | | Mainz, where all 5,000 inhabitants are engaged in the |
| strangest history. The city of Worms has a strange | | | | cultivation of the white vegetable; in Lampertheim, |
| name and an even stranger history. It was named | | | | between Worms and Mannheim, where every |
| for a legendary giant worm with fangs and webbed | | | | housewife grows the prized vegetable in her back |
| feet that lived in the Rhine and demanded human | | | | yard; in Schrobenhausen, the center of the only area |
| sacrifices. Worms was the fifth-century capital of the | | | | in southern Bavaria where asparagus is grown; and in |
| legendary Nibelungs. The tribe left the area, according | | | | Tettnang and Schwetzingen, known together as the |
| to legend, after the wicked Hagen slew their hero, | | | | asparagus capital of Germany. |