Vienna – First Impressions

48°12′30″N 16°22′21″E

Vienna is a lot to take in, so on the first day we chose to walk the RingStrassa from the confluence of the Danube River and the Wein River up to the Austrian Parliament just to get the lay of the land. 21,518 steps later, my phone was telling me that I was walking more than usual today, and it felt like it!

On that walk and over the next few days, I collected the following first impressions of Vienna.

The water in Vienna is one of the highlights of visiting the city. Google tells me that the water supply from the city is drawn from the mountain springs. It tastes better than any water I have tasted, it washes clothes well and it is gentle on the skin. All this is necessary because the air is so dry that you need a lot of water.

For the first few hours I thought that Vienna was the graffiti capital of the world. The place seemed covered in it. The banner picture for this post is a view of the confluence of the rivers mentioned above and all the walls are completely covered. Some of it was interesting such as the picture beside here. Most of it was rubbish. It was only later when we concluded that, in the area around the rivers, there seemed to be a free for all for graffiti while in the rest of the city there was very little to be seen.

Vienna is the cleanest place I have ever seen. So much so that when I walked past a banana skin on the step of an obscure building, I felt it was worthy of a photograph. It was the first litter I had seen in five days.

Food

The first day in Vienna seems to promise a lot foodwise – anyone who invented Strudel and Schnitzel has to be on to something. So that was the first meal, in what seemed like an authentic Viennese restaurant. It was good on day one. However, searching out a greater variety of authentic local food runs up against pizzas, hamburgers, chips and more Strudel and Schnitzel. So, the longer term does not live up to the promise. We even settled for sauerkraut and Wurst, but only once.

Oddities and the rest

Vienna is full of Maria Theresa (long term empress) and Sisi (wife of emperor, but cult idol and very much her own woman). For example, Maria Theresa finds herself very much in view below.

There is hardly a musician who does not have a statue in Vienna. Johann Strauss gets a gold one. It even has a webcam but the picture did not update to capture us for posterity.

Beethoven has a whole square, and two sculptures to boot and a museum. Stadt Park has about 20 statues of musicians, several of whom I have never noticed before. There are even Hollywood Boulevard style stars in various locations all celebrating famous classical musicians. Everywhere you go there are people carrying musical instruments and others trying to sell you tickets to concert

The Viennese seem quite willing to express their political views, often on the steps of parliament but like the first picture below, just in what seemed like some random spot in the middle of town.