Vienna Sightseeing Tip: The Mumok

The Mumok (Museum Moderner Kunst/Museum of Modern Art) is the biggest museum of contemporary art in Central Europe, and Vienna’s greatest. The Mumok is always worth a visit, if only for its architecture. And inside it’s just as impressive, since the curators can draw from an extensive collection and present interesting focal points. There are five levels with works by Pablo Picasso, Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol and Günter Brus, ranging from Pop Art to Photorealism and from Fluxus to New Realism. 230 pieces were given to the museum by the German industrialist and art lover Peter Ludwig and his wife Irene in 1981. The Mumok regularly organizes special exhibitions and is known for its large collection of art related to Viennese Actionism. The Mumok is located in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Wien; Phone: +43-1-525 00. It is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm, Thursdays till 9 pm. This sightseeing tip originates from the website www.redguide.at.

Take a ride on the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel

Dear members of the Carolina International Chorale & String Ensemble,
If you would like to see Vienna from above and enjoy an amazing experience, then go on a ride with the Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel. On Wednesday, June 30, you have the opportunity to take a ride in the evening, please advise Dr. Klausmeyer if you would like to participate.
Here is some information about the famous Ferris Wheel: The Vienna Giant Ferris Wheel (in German: Riesenrad) is located at the entrance of the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt. It is now one of Vienna's most popular tourist attractions, and symbolizes the district as well as the city for many people. The Riesenrad was one of the earliest Ferris wheels, erected in 1897 to celebrate Emperor Franz Josef I's golden Jubilee, and has an overall height of 64.75 meters (212.4 ft). The wheel originally had 30 gondolas, but was severely damaged in the World War II, and when it was rebuilt, only 15 gondolas were replaced. The spokes are steel cables, in tension, and the wheel is driven by a circumferential cable which leaves the wheel and passes through the drive mechanism under the base. A demolition permit for the Riesenrad was issued in 1916, but due a lack to funds with which to carry out the destruction, it survived. For more information, please click here.

Vienna City Tips

Dear travelers,
If you would like to know more about the beautiful city of Vienna, what to see and where to shop, then visit the website www.redguide.at. You will also find more pictures online to get an impression about the Austrian capital which you are going to visit on June 30.

A quick reminder about the luggage policy on your upcoming tour

Dear Members of the CIC 2010 Performance Tour. We sure hope you are looking forward to being in Europe soon. Here is a quick reminder about what to bring and also what not.
Due to limited luggage space on the coach, Incantato's policy allows only one checked suitcase within the dimensions and weight limites imposed by Lufthansa for international flights.
The size of the bag is not to exceed 62 inches and not to exceed 50 pounds (23 kilos).
You are also allowed a small, and we recommend ideally backpack-style carry-on, which should not exceed 45 total inches and a weight of 18 pounds or 8 kilos.
I wish we could make any exceptions for garment bags, but cannot do so with the amount of travellers coming on the CIC tour and sharing one coach. As you also have fellow violinists and viola players traveling whose instruments are fragile and cannot be checked, we kindly ask you to please allow the strings to board ahead of you as just in case the room in the overhead compartment should fill up all the way, additional carry-ons will be checked curbside, but we would not want for that to happen to a string instrument.
Here is the answer we received from our partners at Lufthansa in regards to their carry-on policies and advise how we can all work together to benefit the string players when it comes to bringing their instruments on the plane:

Please advise the travelers to take as little carry-on with them as possible. Since the group occupies about 1/3 of the connecting flights, that should then not be a problem with the over-head bins.The passengers with carry-on string instruments should approach the gate agent and ask to be considered for preboarding and point out the violas and violins.

Cell phone links to help you travel internationally

Cell phones can be tricky if you don't notify your wireless company prior to leaving the country. When you do notify them, the process is pretty painless, but you have to notify them. There are various services to meet your needs, regarding phone calls, messages, texts, pictures, etc. Since there are so many carriers, we are giving you some links to go to based on your provider. Hopefully this will help you stay connected while you are traveling this summer.

For T-Mobile:
WorldClass international service

For Verizon:
http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Roaming/index.html

For Sprint:
http://shop.sprint.com/en/services/worldwide/worldwide.shtml

For AT&T:
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/international-roaming.jsp

Power in Europe

Dear travelers,
Here’s another travel tip from Greg Egan that might be useful to you. If you are bringing digital cameras, laptops, etc. on our trip or anything else that needs power then you might want to read on. Here in the U.S. we run on 110 volts/60 cycles. In Europe they run on 220 volts/50 cycles. In the past, people who traveled to Europe had to bring power converters that were heavy and expensive but would turn foreign voltage/cycles into U.S. voltage/cycles. However, most, if not all power supplies that we now have for cameras and computers are dual voltage. That means they can tell what power is coming in and can use it. So, no more power converters. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there is no international standard for the plug that goes into a socket. Which means that the plug we have (2 or 3 prong here in the U.S.) will not fit in a European socket. In most cases the European socket takes a plug with 2 round prongs. There are adapters that are relatively inexpensive that allow a U.S. plug to plug in to the back of the adapter and the front of the adapter plugs into the European socket.
What you need to do is to look on your power supply (camera, laptop, etc.). On the power supply it will give you the information you need to determine if it is a dual power supply or not. Look for Input 100-240 V (volts) 50-60 Hz (cycles). If it says that or something like it (you need to see 100 or 110 and 220 or 240) then it’s dual voltage.
The adapters for Europe look like the one on the picture. It’s a plug with 4mm round plugs (some are 5mm round plugs but they are for Asia).

Incantato proudly presents: The CIC Concert Marketing Cards

We sure hope you like them as much as we do and thousands have been distributed in Prague, Göttweig and Budapest to spread the word about your upcoming concerts.