The train ride was time to wonder about Vienna and if tourism driven by history and culture will continue or evolve? Will travelers continue to care enough about centuries of Viennese history and museums to keep coming?
Who knew Klimt’s “The Kiss” is square? And multi-media with 3D gold leaf?
Vienna makes it easy to get around. Public transportation is fast, cheap and easy and main commute routes include bike lanes on the sidewalks.
Mozart and Strauss are everywhere but it seems mostly for tourists and an older generation. As we left a performance of Vivaldi/Bach/Mozart in a church we found many young people socializing and drinking in the park in front of the church enjoying a DJ playing very loud pop music.
A street musician in a horse mask played French accordion music- (La Vie en Rose). Fun!
Check out this Mercedes wide-screen tv used at the outdoor concert (seen from behind – each division the size of a house door). Makes our tv at home seem pretty small.
So many palaces and museums…though we toured Schonbrunn and many others…we also managed rewards like apfelstrudel mit schlag.
Vienna changed some the walk/wait signs to couples rather than a single person, including gay couples. The conservative Austrian party has gone crazy that public funds are being used this way. (Thanks, Hope for the Washington Post article about this). San Francisco’s WAY behind on this….
Finally a shout-out to T-Mobile. They include up to 6-weeks of roaming each year in 110 countries without doing anything. 5 minutes after arriving in each country I get a text that says I now have unlimited data and texting and calls from $.20 / minute. The data is slow but fast enough for navigating with Google Maps and checking weather and ratings of restaurants. Along with the WiFi in the hotels/apartments we are able to feel as connected as we want to friends and the world.
Ahoi (AH-hoy) in Czech means hello and goodbye