Sign in with Facebook"Delights on the Danube" Vienna by nicolaitan
Vienna Travel Guide: 7,174 reviews and 17,491 photos
PAGE ORGANIZATION
1 - tips 1-9 -- museums.
2 - tips 10-22 -- palaces.
3 - tips 23-28 -- churches
4 - tips 29-34 -- Jewish interest.
5 - tips 35-40 -- walking thru wien.
Memories of Vienna will forever be marred by the theft of my beloved Proserpina's pocketbook at the Nordsee Restaurant on Kartnerstrasse. Our planned concert visit became several hours in a drab industrial green room with dented file cabinets and uniformed personnel located behind the sign imaged above. Lost were the concert tickets, euros and dollars, credit cards and driver's license, three pair of glasses - reading, distance, sun - two with designer frames, a Frey Wille bracelet, and a camera containing all of our personal pictures from our trip. The worst loss was the violation of our property and person in a city said to be among Europe's safest.
At the police station, we learned that crime against tourists has skyrocketed in Vienna over the last two or three years. While there, a report came of the theft of a room safe en block from a nearby hotel room containing the visitor's passports among other valuables. The safe was not cracked, just removed completely. From wall posters, we learned that up to 20% of Austrian women are believed to be the victims of marital abuse. Depressing.
We found Vienna an impressing city to visit, filled with modern conveniences and attractions but blanketed as well with reminders of a great historical and cultural heritage. Excellent museums, palaces, gardens, architectural triumphs, remnants of ancient inhabitants, statuary, and grand cafes intermix with trendy shoppes, excellent restaurants, accessible musical venues, modern museums and sculpture, and upscale hotels to make Vienna a very attractive if not altogether safe destination for the exploring visitor. The extensive pedestrianized streets of the old city are a perambulator's delight - lined by beautiful old buildings, populated by the young and old, filled with stores both mundane and exotic, and with the unexpected around every turn - worth every moment. With a metropolitan area of over 2.3 million, Austria's largest city dominates the politics, economy, and culture of the country and is the EU's 10th largest city. The center city is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Roman control of Vienna ( Vindobona ) from the 1st - 5th C displaced earlier Celtic rulers and remnants of their city can be seen in modern day excavations. After the fall, Vienna remained a small town until the margraves of Babenburg took control in the late 10th C. They would be displaced by the famed Habsburgs in the late 13th C after the battle of the Field of Mars although their control was not solidifed for more than another 150 years because of inheritance disputes and political unrest. Despite political upheaval, wars with Hungary, and religious controversy, Vienna grew under early Habsburg rule with increasing socio-economic domination and the annexation of Hungary and Bohemia. In the mid 16thC, Vienna became the capitol of the Holy Roman Empire.
Twice the city would come under siege by the Ottoman Turks, in 1529 and 1683, but survive both attacks, the second time after the Polish king Jan Sobieski and his army drove the Turks away ( in tribute, the vodka in my freezer is Sobieski ). The city would also survive 100,000 deaths to the plague in 1679.
Interrupted only by the Napoleonic conquests and domination ( 1805-15 ), Vienna achieved its greatest heights beginning in 1740 with the ascent of Maria Theresa and then her son Joseph II who reformed and modernized the city, encouraging the musical and art scenes. Emperor Franz Joseph ( 1848-1916 ) reformed the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and led Vienna to its greatest achievements in the arts and sciences, and married the modern day icon Sissi as well. Much our our modern day Viennese tourist delights date to the era of the latter day Habsburg rulers, whose names will appear frequently on this page. All would end with WWII and the fall of the Axis.
After a decade plus of economic and political failure, the Austrian people and government willingly became a part of Germany in 1938 and an enthusiastic partner to the crimes of the National Socialists and their Fuhrer. After WWII, the city was under joint control of the Allies and Soviet Union for ten years, then becoming independent by guaranteeing its perpetural neutrality. The city has regained its international politicial credibility by being home to many United Nations divisions and offices, OPEC, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Prospering financially has enabled the development of the touristic attractions and museums visited today.
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Comments (18)
This is still the elegant city with great monuments-made out of the old wall, however. Glad to read you got here and saw all the sites. Too bad about the theft. I just got pickpocketed twice in Barcelona, but made it through with loss of 200 Euro. It turns out this city is in top 2 in globe for that now, and it is packed with unemployed youth. UGH
We followed some of your excellent recommendations on our recent trip to Vienna.
Glad to find another connoisseur of P. Bruegel.
Another great pg Lew with the usual loads of info to inspire and inform!...looked after a patient last nite who is Austrian and reminded me of my long lasting ideas to head to Vienna for snowy winter views and recommends going for the Christmas markets...so think I will aim for that this year.
Lew Sorry about the theft. All EU is unsafe if you dont take the necassary measuraments. In Mai 201 30 days long I travelled with my family in Hungary, Austria, Czekei and Munich hanging my handy-bag infront of me never taking off.
Lew, This is a real masterpiece that you've created. Such a model for the rest of us. Loved your tips:Holocaust Museum, St. Peter's, the Jewish Museum, all the architecture, the HOTEL, restaurants. Theft is a downer, but the rest is elegant & magnificent.
As fabulous as I think Vegas is, there is nothing better than seeing the real thing. Vienna is spectacular. The Imperial Apartments are unreal and fanscinating. Excellent page Lew!
Hi Lew, Vienna was a pleasant surprize. One of the few trips I had not done a lot of research on. Good Vienna page. Sorry about the theft. One of our group was likewise picked. Karl
What a rich and informative guide you have created! Pity for the bad experience with the local thieves.
the "Hunters In The Snow" is one of my favorites too! great page as expected although I have feeling it's smaller that its actual size because I was reading the tips through out a long period the last months! :)
Me again, coming back to see the excellent new tips that you have added to this page since March 6th. I found the ones on Jewish Vienna especially moving -- the Monument Against War and Fascism by Alfred Hrdlicka and the Judenplatz complex.