Vienna - A City of Elegance and Class

Dana has a new city crush on Vienna. Early into our visit to Vienna she claimed this was her favorite city thus far and described it as "elegant, romantic and palatial". By the end of our three day visit she was proclaiming it as a city she could see herself living in (don't worry family, we have no plans of moving to Vienna).

While I wasn't as enthusiastic about the charms of the city, it is the most 'livable' city we have visited. It prides itself on performance arts like the opera, ballet and classical concerts. As this culture is important to the city, free city sponsored events are available to the masses. We went twice to the summer film festival held nightly in front of city hall. The atmosphere was top notch with food and beverage stalls provided by local restaurants (of all ethnic varieties, not just viennese fare), along with a huge screen with great acoustics to watch the show. We took in an Alice in Wonderland ballet and a recording of Adele at Royal Albert Hall.

We visited a number of different museums and three palaces from the Hapsburg dynasty that all blend together now. Highlight for me was the Treasury of the Hapsburg family, filled with cool artifacts like royal crowns, huge precious jewels, and famous religious relics (including pieces of the cross Jesus was nailed to). With all these palace visits, I have my Austrian history down pat. If you're dying to know about the Hapsburg dynasty and their 600 year reign, give me a call.

For the food, we sampled the local specialties Weiner Schnitzel, Apfel strudel, and the Sacher torte. I was a little underwhelmed and after three attempts at Apple strudel, I didn't find one that lived up to my expectations. Maybe I should have tried the cheese strudel?