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VIENNA

Beat the heat in Vienna with these five watersports

Vienna may not be the first place that springs to mind when you think of watersports (the lack of sea might have something to do with that), but actually there are plenty of places in the city to enjoy water-based activities.

Published: 21 July 2023 17:45 CEST
People doing stand-up paddleboarding on the Old Danube, a subsidiary of the Danube river, in Vienna.
People doing stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) on the Old Danube, a subsidiary of the Danube river, in Vienna. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

Stand-up paddleboarding, or SUP, has seen a huge surge in popularity in the last few years, not least because it’s incredibly easy to pick up, relaxing and suited to most ages and levels of fitness. It’s essentially surfing’s chilled-out sibling.

There are plenty of places in the city to rent a board and give it a go, too – the SUP Centre in Vienna is a good starting point, you can SUP for €14 an hour there.

The price includes a short induction on land before you head out onto the water, or you can book onto an hour’s course if you’d like more tips on the trickier bits, like turning without falling off.

And if you’d rather sit down than stand up, they’ve also got sit-on-top kayaks for hire.

READ ALSO: Eight lakes that are definitely worth visiting in Austria this summer

Sailing

Forget exploring the streets of Vienna on foot or in an open-top bus, grab a sailing boat and get to know the city from another angle via its waterways.

Try the Boats2Sail yacht club at the New Danube Watersport Centre in the heart of Vienna where you can rent a small sailing boat that’s suitable for newbies and pros alike. 

But if you’re not sure how to get going, then they also offer courses in sailing and windsurfing, to help you, quite literally, get up to speed. 

Canoe polo

If straightforward canoeing sounds a bit too sedate, how about canoe polo?

This twist on water polo is relatively easy to learn and safer than you might think as you’ll be decked out in protective gear, plus there are pretty strict rules to follow.

The Union Kanu Klub offer three free taster sessions in Vienna (and across Austria) to give you the chance to see what you think before signing up.

READ ALSO: How to enjoy summer like a true Austrian

Kitesurfing

If you don’t mind heading a little further afield – about an hour’s drive from Vienna – then Austria’s largest kitesurfing school, Kitesurfing.at, is the perfect place to learn the basics of kitesurfing.

Kitesurfing’s harder to get started with than windsurfing (if you’ve ever tried that), not least because you’re attached to both the kite and the board.

But once you’ve learnt the basics, it’s arguably easier to get good at.

Kitesurfing.at’s school on the Neusiedler See in Podersdorf, Burgenland has a number of short taster, beginner and refresher courses to get you up and out on the water.

READ ALSO: The six most spectacular train trips in Austria

Wakeboarding 

For more zipping through the water action, there’s wakeboarding. For this, you’ll want to head to Vienna’s only cable park at Wakeboard Lift.

They offer a variety of courses, from complete beginners to advanced options that get you jumping and doing tricks, with all the gear you need included.

And if you prefer to take it easy, you can watch all the action from the on-site terrace restaurant.

More experienced surfers, or those who just fancy jumping straight in, can simply buy a lift pass (board rental included) and get on with it.

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VIENNA

Vienna Festival director Milo Rau hits back at anti-Semitism accusations

One of the latest events in Europe to be hit with accusations of anti-Semitism, the Vienna Festival kicks off Friday, with its new director, Milo Rau, urging that places of culture be kept free of the "antagonism" of the Israel-Hamas war while still tackling difficult issues.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:48 CEST
Vienna Festival director Milo Rau hits back at anti-Semitism accusations

As the conflict in Gaza sharply polarises opinion, “we must be inflexible” in defending the free exchange of ideas and opinions, the acclaimed Swiss director told AFP in an interview this week.

“I’m not going to take a step aside… If we let the antagonism of the war and of our society seep into our cultural and academic institutions, we will have completely lost,” said the 47-year-old, who will inaugurate the Wiener Festwochen, a festival of theatre, concerts, opera, film and lectures that runs until June 23rd in the Austrian capital and that has taken on a more political turn under his tenure.

The Swiss director has made his name as a provocateur, whether travelling to Moscow to stage a re-enactment of the trial of Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot, using children to play out the story of notorious Belgian paedophile Marc Dutroux, or trying to recruit Islamic State jihadists as actors.

Completely ridiculous 

The Vienna Festival has angered Austria’s conservative-led government — which is close to Israel — by inviting Greek former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and French Nobel Prize winner for literature Annie Ernaux, both considered too critical of Israel.

A speech ahead of the festival on Judenplatz (Jews’ Square) by Israeli-German philosopher Omri Boehm — who has called for replacing Israel with a bi-national state for Arabs and Jews —  also made noise.

“Who will be left to invite?  Every day, there are around ten articles accusing us of being anti-Semitic, saying that our flag looks like the Palestinian flag, completely ridiculous things,” Rau said, as he worked from a giant bed which has been especially designed by art students and installed at the festival office.

Hamas’ bloody October 7th assault on southern Israel and the devastating Israeli response have stoked existing rancour over the Middle East conflict between two diametrically opposed camps in Europe.

In this climate, “listening to the other side is already treachery,” lamented the artistic director.

“Wars begin in this impossibility of listening, and I find it sad that we Europeans are repeating war at our level,” he said.

As head of also the NTGent theatre in the Belgian city of Ghent, he adds his time currently “is divided between a pro-Palestinian country and a pro-Israeli country,” or between “colonial guilt” in Belgium and “genocide guilt” in Austria, Adolf Hitler’s birthplace.

Institutional revolution

The “Free Republic of Vienna” will be proclaimed on Friday as this year’s Vienna Festival celebrates. according to Rau, “a second modernism, democratic, open to the world” in the city of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and artist and symbolist master Gustav Klimt.

Some 50,000 people are expected to attend the opening ceremony on the square in front of Vienna’s majestic neo-Gothic town hall.

With Rau describing it as an “institutional revolution” and unlike any other festival in Europe, the republic has its own anthem, its own flag and a council made up of Viennese citizens, as well as honorary members, including Varoufakis and Ernaux, who will participate virtually in the debates.

The republic will also have show trials — with real lawyers, judges and politicians participating — on three weekends.

Though there won’t be any verdicts, Rau himself will be in the dock to embody “the elitist art system”, followed by the republic of Austria and finally by the anti-immigrant far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which leads polls in the Alpine EU member ahead of September national elections.

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