Austria - Vienna

Austria was another place near the top of my wish list, although I'll admit it was more the Alps I was looking forward to. Still, it was really nice to spend a couple of days in the capital. Now let's see if I can do this update without mentioning the name of that certain childhood composer that is the only thing most people know about Vienna before arriving...

The imperial architecture is fantastic

I didn't find that many actual 'sights' to see in the city, but just walking around and soaking in the elaborate architecture was fascinating.

This really is quite a breathtaking sight

The Museum Quarter, a large modern arts centre prominently located in the historic centre was a great place to hang around in, with lots of different exhibitions and these great (and very popular) sofa-bed type things for lying in the sun.

Counting down the days to Euro 2008...

On my second day, the weather took a turn for the worse and so I spent it back in the Museum Quarter, and also at the Freud museum, located in his former apartment, which is well worth a visit.

One of the flak towers

Being a bit of a history geek, I was quite excited to discover a WW2 flak tower, just like the ones in Berlin. Bristling with anti-aircraft guns, containing air raid shelters and massively well protected, the towers proved impossible to demolish following the war and still remain, covered in advertising and in the case of the one above, the tallest artificial climbing wall I've ever seen. They really do stick out like sore thumbs, but I find they do add character to the city, looking just so out of place, almost as if they've fallen from space.

It's not THAT bad, really

I had a great time in the hostel, meeting a group of Scots who appeared to have had the same experience in Bratislava as me. We went out at night, only to find that there were no bars of clubs open anywhere nearby, except for a solitary Irish pub, so we had to resort to that. Not exactly the Austrian experience, but it's ok as I had to get up early for my next train. As you can probably tell I was quite impressed with Vienna overall, and see, I didn't even mention Mozart! Oh....bugger.