Ah Vienna, Imperial Seat of the Habsburg Empire.
One of the first things that struck me when I arrived here was the incredible density. While Vienna has over 1.5 million people, most of them live in a really small geographical area. Viennese residents have fewer square feet of living space per person than even most Europeans.
That being said, the density really gives it something special. It's got a really great public transportation system, and Vienna is regularly ranked in the top three cities in the world for standard of living.
The parts of the city that survived World War II can be really magnificent. There's lots to do here. Besides interesting museums, there's a number of palaces and other things like that around.
The towers you see peaking over there trees here is the Wien Rathaus (Vienna City Hall).
And this is the Heldenplatz (Heroes Plaza). The building you see is part of the Habsburg Imperial Palace. Also, Hitler made a famous speech here in 1938 after the annexation of Austria into the German Reich. 4 years later, the Austrians were so hungry that this plaza had been dug up to plant crops.
This is a statue of a man about to beat another man with a club. Imperial Austria was really into that sort of thing apparently.
And this is a post put up to keep away the plague. I'm not sure how well it worked, but you can see them all over Central Europe.
For some reason, I don't have very many pictures of Vienna, even though I've spent far more time here than anywhere else. Every time I go somewhere cool, I seem to forget my camera. Oh well.
Up next...
Austrian countryside!
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