One of the most romantic ways to celebrate the start of 2010 is to attend the exclusive New Year’s Day concert in Vienna. Since 1939 the Vienna philharmonic orchestra has performed a number of Strauss waltzes and other works by Austrian composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert in the stunning Musikverein. This year the conductor will be Georges Pretre, and although he may introduce new flair and interpretation to the music, the traditional finale of the Blue Danube Waltz and Radetzky March will remain untouched.

The Vienna concert tickets are notoriously hard to get hold of, so it is essential to plan ahead. You can register between 2nd – 23rd January on the Vienna philharmonic website, and this will put you in the ballot for tickets for the following year. It is still worth visiting if you are not able to get tickets for this year though. You may be lucky enough to hear a rehearsal concert in the last few days of December, and if not, the city of Vienna provides some of the most beautiful sights in Europe to enjoy. It is always delightful to pop into one of the many coffee houses and sample a delicate, local cake, or you can take a horse and carriage ride through the cobbled streets.