A Day In Vienna

Vienna  is a very old city.  It was a Roman outpost about 2000 years ago and the fortifications of that military fort remained in use until just a ‘‘few” years ago.   In 1857 the Roman walls began to be torn down and the city’s most prestigeous address, the “Ring Road” was built in its place.   It was a 50 year construction project to replace the Roman walls with the Ring Road and the mini-palaces of Vienna’s wealthy.  Many of these 5 story homes are embassies today.   The National Opera House was the first public building completed on the Ring Road and is still one of the largest Opera Houses in the world.   The area inside the ring is the first district of 23 districts.   We learned that the further outside the ring you are … the more apartment you can afford.   Of the two million people in Vienna,  500,000 live in Super Blocks consisting of hundreds of apartment units, mostly built in the Soviet era.   Those earning less than 40,000 Euros can qualify for one of these….

Our tour of Vienna was half on the bus, with our guide, who was a history teacher, providing dialogue like the above … and half free time, walking around in the downtown area.   It was so cold that many joined me in a warmer experience, the Viennese Coffee House.   They really do make coffee two dozen ways and charge plenty for it.   My “Mozart Coffee”  which was coffee with some chocolate was 7 Euros.   They had newspapers on sticks and people doing business and writing … some with modern gear, but some with old style notebooks.    Maybe I watched a famous novel being born?    At another coffee house nearby, it was said that three young nobodies met for coffee,  Hitler, Stalin, & Tito.   They must have put some bad stuff in that coffee?

An interesting comparison that our guide made is that between Austria and Germany.   They both speak German, but Germany looks West to power, while Austria looks East, to Russia to power.   This may be because Russia helped liberate Austria from Germany … and also that Russia can turn off the gas, both natural and petrol.

Another comparison was between Vienna and the Hungarian capital of Budapest.   Vienna is prosperous with unemployment at less than 4%, plenty of money for public works and renovations, while Budapest is out of money, in disrepair, and even turning off some of the street lights.   Part of this is because Austria is now a “neutral” nation … it does not participate in NATO etc.   So there is more money for social programs and infrastructure.   Education is free all the way through University and Unemployment payments of $700 Euros is among the highest in Europe.  Germany is $400E, for example.   The free tuition leads to a large student population … over 100,000 in 15 universities in the city.   Where all the graduates will find jobs … that’s the same question that many of their American counterparts are asking in these turbulent times when the rules seem to have changed.

Another point of interest is that Austria’s neutrality since the end of WWII does not deter it from pursuing its long history of weapons manufacturing.    Being neutral allows Austria to sell to all buyers.   Your local police officer probably carries an Austrian Glock automatic and many countries buy weapons, large and small from Austria.

Here are the rest of the photos from this trip.   Click on any thumbnail to enlarge it … then use arrows or arrow keys … or you can view them all as a slideshow.     Let me know if you have trouble viewing …  Dave Robinson      

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