Vienna

Billy Joel’s 1977 single “Vienna” tells us Vienna is a patient city.  It waits for us.  And this summer, I finally got there.

Vienna’s core is upper crust.  Massive buildings shine like new, although many are centuries old.  Government buildings with steeples and bells are indistinguishable from churches; but unlike Prague, buildings and sculptures have not been allowed to turn black and stay that way.  Keeping things bright and almost white appears to be an occupation with job security in Vienna.

More than compensating for the massive stone and concrete structures are gardens of even grander dimensions throughout and surrounding Vienna’s central city.  Parks are intricately designed and carefully manicured.  There are more park benches than walkers in many of these green spaces, and people stroll and read more than they run and play.  Unlike Berlin, we saw no nudity in Vienna’s parks…..I suspect that would be too crude for this more buttoned up city.

Where Prague would have bars and pubs, Vienna has cafes.  The cheap-trinket tourist traps, so common in Prague, are absent from Vienna’s core.  Graffiti — ubiquitous in Hamburg, Berlin and Prague — is non-existent in Vienna’s core and rare in outlying areas. Same is true of litter.  Parks are pristine.

Vienna has wide, uncrowded pedestrian-only streets that provide more carefree passage than in Copenhagen and Prague.  However, venture off these streets and one is likely to have close encounters with bicycles whose riders seem to make a sport of scaring walkers.

Vienna’s cultural heritage is second to none, and I think its locals know that.  Vienna is the home or principal workplace for many famous composers, including Beethoven, Brahms, Hayden and Mozart, as well as philosopher Martin Buber, psychoanalyst  Sigmund Freud, and the art world’s leading non-conformist Gustav Klimt.

The Spanish Riding School of Vienna is located in a central city palace that the royalty of other nations might wish to have as a personal not merely equine residence.  The fancy Lipizzaner stallion is the featured breed here.

In addition to this rich equestrian history for the well-to-do, Vienna has provided the commoner a public transportation system that exceeds all others we experienced during our exploration of ten large cities in eight European countries.  Faster, cleaner, and with better coordination between subways, and surface trains, trams and busses.  While my age allowed me to travel public transportation free of charge in Prague, the system in Vienna is far superior…..approaching the super systems we’ve used in China, South Korea and Japan.

Finally, from the Piano Man……..”But you know that when the truth is told…..That you can get what you want or you can just get old…..You’re gonna kick off before you even…..Get halfway through…..When will you realize, Vienna waits for you…..”

JER