Central Europe Countryside Just a Bus Ride Away

Three centuries, four famous cities and two political ideologies are a lot to tackle in seven days, but if you consider a $1,015 bus tour as a sampler of what Bavaria, Austria and Hungary have to offer for future forays . . . what a deal!

The weeklong itinerary recently introduced by Europabus, the motor coach system of European Railways, starts and ends in Munich and includes one night in Salzburg, two in Vienna, two in Budapest and one in Klagenfurt at the foot of the Austrian Alps. On the seventh day you return to Munich, in need of rest.

What the whirlwind visit to the major cities lacks in depth it makes up for in familiarity with the Central European countryside.

From the comfort of an armchair on wheels with plumbing, hot coffee and cold beer to go, the visitor can windowshop the territory.

Patroled by Swans

You can get a feeling for Munich, West Germany’s third-largest city, the afternoon before the journey begins. For Bavarian splendor, visit Nymphenburg Palace with its almost four miles of canals patroled by a fleet of haughty swans. You’ll see four generations of families--prim, proper and prosperous--promenading through the formal gardens.

If all that stolid serenity isn’t your thing, choose the lighthearted action on the Marienplatz, where you can sit and sample the output of Munich’s seven breweries while watching street artists of every ilk.

All too early Sunday morning the bus is winding through green hills that roll off to onion dome churches and striped maypoles silhouetted against distant Alps.

As the bus approaches the Austrian border, Axel von Hayn, the tour escort, prepares his group for the wallet shock ahead.

“In Austria, taxes are very high,” he says. “There is a value added tax plus a 20% luxury tax. That luxury tax is on almost every item, including toothpaste and soap.”

Straight ahead: “Sound of Music” territory, where a young Julie Andrews sang her way to super stardom. Twenty-five years later, Salzburg is still rerunning the Von Trapp family story on every real-life channel. Only Mozart, another hometown product, gets as much play, from museums to memorabilia to chocolates. And concerts, of course. In a pinch, choose Amadeus--there’s less overkill in sweetness and hype.

On the road again early the next morning, passing tall mountains with their feet in a mist-layered lake and their heads in the clouds, watch for clearings in the miles of dark Alpine forest.

Suddenly, there’s St. Gilgen--peekaboo peaks, onion domes and a water view. Tiroleans and tourists ride a red and yellow cable car to the top of a mountain so they can watch tiny steamers and sailboats on the lake below.

It’s the stuff of which travel posters are made. Just to be sure you get the picture, the bus driver turns on his yodeling tapes.

Flat and Fertile

The closer the bus comes to Vienna the more the scenery resembles a frieze on the wall in some expense-account restaurant. Vineyards climb the hills to monasteries that once served as fortifications, then the terrain becomes flatter, more fertile, and there’s a billboard: “Vienna is happy you visit.”

Vienna, one of three U.N. cities (it shares the honor with New York City and Geneva) must rank among the most expensive cities in the world.

One of the major pluses of this tour is that the package includes rooms at first-class hotels, buffet breakfasts and most dinners. Room and board out of the way, good walking shoes are more important than traveler’s checks in an odyssey through opulence, Viennese style.

Tours of the renowned Vienna State Opera House, as wondrous as the productions it shelters, leave at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Or stroll the 3 1/2-mile length of the horseshoe-shaped Ringstrasse to be awed by the Hapsburg “buildings of splendor.” Pause at the Academy of Fine Arts where Hitler flunked his exams three times, then decided he would give up art for politics.

Visit an authentic Viennese coffeehouse that puts as much emphasis on intellectual reading material as strong coffee and delicate pastry. (Menu prices drop in ratio to the fame of the setting.) Drop by City Park to listen to an orchestra play in the shadow of a statue of Johann Strauss. Go ahead, waltz a little.

Combine art appreciation with a walkabout feast in a visit to the Naschmarkt, an open market surrounded by art nouveau masterpieces by architect Otto Wagner. Enter that ornate Karlsplatz subway station, ride the underground to the Reumannplatz station and join the “in” crowd devouring high-caloric concoctions at the Tichy Ice Cream Parlor.

For more opportunities to mix with Vienna’s young and beautiful, bar hop the lokals in the Stephansplatz area. “It’s called the Bermuda Drerck-- the Bermuda Triangle,” explains university student Sabine Elbs. “Young people go from one lokal to another and drink until they sink in the streets.”

Spend at least half a day at the Schoenbrunn Palace that the Hapsburgs built to out-Jones Versailles. It will take that long to see only 40 of the 1,142 rooms.

On to Budapest, Vienna’s Cinderella stepsister farther down the Danube. Most “social” of the socialist countries, Hungary is eager to build its tourism industry.

Thus far most of Budapest’s tourists have come from Germany and Austria but the favorable exchange rate is drawing budget-minded Americans in fast-growing numbers.

Two Cities in One

Budapest is two cities connected by a series of bridges over the not-so-blue Danube River. Buda, on the west bank, clings to its past like its medieval castles cling to the steep hills.

Castle Hill and Fisherman’s Bastian are stage set territory, flood-lit at night to show the towers and turrets of 15th-Century Hungarian glory. Buda offers enchanted evenings in ethnic restaurants.

Pest, across the bridge and updated several centuries, is the place for wheeler-dealer days. The Inner City is a beehive of tourist bureaus, chic shops, airline offices, fine restaurants and deluxe hotels. Heavy traffic. Hustle.

Americans getting their first look at socialism are as struck by the similarities as the contrasts with life at home. Socialist yuppies hurry from offices near the Parliament building, on their way to one of two Pierre Cardin boutiques or perhaps to wait in line at the recently opened Adidas shop.

Young men in khaki and green uniforms are everywhere, including the line at McDonald’s. Government guides might be wearing denim and gold chains. Cocktail lounges in first-class hotels (joint ventures with American and European chains) feature Gypsy musicians playing jazz.

A Different Austria

After a kaleidoscope of impressions of life in the socialist lane, bus back across the border to take the high road to a different Austria.

Prices are more reasonable in Klagenfurt, the small town overnight stop. Too bad that the bus leaves before the shops open the next morning.

Scenery from the bus window takes on a Grandma Moses look with precision rows of folded umbrella-shaped haystacks, pine trees that look like kiddie cutouts, slopes so steep you speculate that those fat brown cows must have legs four inches shorter on the uphill side.

Austria’s Highest Peak

A sharp turn in the road and there it is: Heiligenblut at the base of Grossglockner, the highest peak in Austria. When you see a silver haired, deeply tanned man in knickers, checkered shirt and jaunty Tirolean hat waving a bouquet of enzian, you know you’re in “Heidi” country.

Then starts the tedious climb, switchback after switchback, to the top of Grossglockner. Long, lo-o-o-o-ng tunnels, two lanes wide, give you a whole new appreciation of “the light at the end of the tunnel.”

What goes up must come down--in this case with a hold your breath and trust the driver series of hairpin turns that eventually lead to Kitzbuhel, jet set winter wonderland.

It takes less than 15 minutes to reaffirm your faith in the driver’s wisdom. “In Kitzbuhel,” he had warned, “prices are as high as the mountains.”

Admire the $100 T-shirts in the shop windows but settle for a triple dip ice cream cone, riches you can afford. By the time it’s digested, you’re back in Munich.

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Europabus, the motor-coach system of the European railways, will operate the Germany-Austria-Hungary itinerary, departing Munich on Sundays--June 25, July 23, Aug. 13, Sept. 3 and 24 and Oct. 8.

The price for the seven-day escorted tour, including double occupancy in a deluxe or first-class hotel room, six buffet breakfasts and four dinners and sightseeing, is $1,015. Special rates are available for hotels in Munich before and after the bus tour.

Package rates are much better bargains than those available to the independent traveler, especially in Vienna, one of the most expensive cities in Europe. It’s possible to window shop Central Europe in armchair comfort on air conditioned, immaculate buses equipped with toilet, coffee pot and refrigerator.

Budapest, while welcoming visitors, can still be intimidating to inexperienced travelers who feel more secure with an escort.

Keep this in mind: The pace is fast and tiring, with too little time in any one place for the visitor to explore a destination in depth. Also, traveling through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and not having the opportunity to capture it on film is frustrating for photographers.

While the tour buses reserve the front seat for photographing, tinted windows elsewhere in the bus are inadequate for photographing, especially with point-and-shoot cameras. Bus stops are in locations with little to photograph. Buses can not stop at scenic points.

Visas are required to enter Hungary.

Currency in Hungary is the forint. Exchange money at the Hungarian border and at official exchange outlets within the country. Black market deals are extremely risky.

Tipping is expected, especially in Vienna and Budapest. VAT notation on menus does not include tip. Add 10% to the bill and give to server, do not leave tip on the table. Tour price covers porterage of luggage but does not include tip for chamber maid.

Warning: Budapest is money-belt territory. Even experienced travelers are easy targets for Gypsy children.

One tour guide’s advice on the safety of drinking water: “Where pipes are new, water is safe. Where pipes are old, order bottled water.”

Information: Europabus at (800) 223-6063.