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A friendly look at the essentials of Austria in eight questions. No expert knowledge needed, so the whole family can play along.
Taking in the view 0–3 · Knows the mountain paths 4–6 · Austria's new best friend 7–8
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Austria's flag has three stripes, red, white and red, and these colours go back a very long way: they were first recorded on a seal in 1230. The same pattern appears on the red shield with a white band on the chest of the black eagle in Austria's coat of arms.
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Austrians speak their own kind of German, with some words of its own: January, for example, is 'Jänner' in Austria but 'Januar' in Germany. Some foods have their own Austrian names too, such as potatoes and tomatoes, and in 1995 a list of 23 of these food words was officially recognised by the European Union.
Photo: derivative work: Moritz moser ( talk ) Languages_and_ethnic_groups_in_austria2-2, Wikimedia Commons, Attribution.
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'Wiener' means 'from Vienna', and by Austrian law a real Wiener schnitzel must be made of veal; made with pork, it needs another name, such as 'Viennese-style schnitzel'. The breadcrumbs are not pressed into the meat, so as it fries the coating puffs up and lifts away from it, light and airy.
Photo: Kobako, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5.
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Austria has a big lead in Olympic medals for alpine skiing, the sport of racing down snowy slopes. At the 1956 Winter Olympics, the Austrian skier Toni Sailer won all three alpine races, a clean sweep that only Jean-Claude Killy of France has matched, in 1968.
Photo: Scanpix, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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When an alpine marmot spots danger, it gives a series of loud whistles and the whole colony dashes into its burrows. Marmots also sleep through the cold season for up to nine months a year, huddled together, with their hearts slowing to about five beats a minute.
Photo: Photography captured by Giles Laurent, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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The Viennese waltz is the oldest of today's ballroom dances, and it is danced fast, with couples turning almost all the time. Every New Year's Day the Vienna Philharmonic plays a concert full of waltzes that is broadcast on television, and at the very end the audience claps along to the music.
Photo: Sigismund von Dobschütz, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
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Its name, Riesenrad, means 'giant wheel', and it is about 65 metres tall and was designed by British engineers. It was built with 30 cabins, but after it was badly damaged in the Second World War, only 15 were put back.
Photo: Thomas Ledl, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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'Silent Night' was first sung on Christmas Eve 1818 in the church of Oberndorf, near Salzburg, with a guitar, possibly because floods had damaged the church organ. Today it is sung all over the world, and in 2011 UNESCO listed it as part of Austria's cultural heritage.
Photo: Franz Xaver Gruber (1787–1863), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.
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