Walkabout: Vienna: The Buck Stopped Here

While other portions of Europe send messages of quaint images ("Look, a field of sunflowers!") or attempted romance ("Look, a gondola full of way too many tourists! Don't lean all at once.") or extreme liberation ("Look, another nude beach! Who would have thought? Perhaps there should be guidelines for this sort of thing. If you remember taking your TV's vacuum tubes to the store to be tested, maybe it's time to put on some trunks."), Vienna sends a very clear message when you tour it. It's two words: Money and Power.

Each palace, residence, castle and church that you see perched on massive parade grounds designed to move troops quickly from one side of Vienna to the other, just in case, let's you know where the power and money in Europe ended up throughout much of history. Where was the Roman Empire run from? Vienna. Where did the treasure end up after World War II? Vienna. Where does the banking industry continue to be a safe haven for funds from less stable European economies? It's Vienna. Even now, the Viennese are proud to let you know that their economy is the strongest in Europe..."much stronger than Germany." (Not that's any kind of a rivalry.) 

There is so much power and wealth concentrated in Vienna that it has the ability to even bend history a bit. A tour guide even confessed to us, "Two of Vienna's great feats was to convince Europe that Beethoven was from Austria and Hitler was not."

Where walks along some of Southern Europe's smaller towns have garnered "Oh, isn't that cute? Let's get a picture of that." reactions from us, most of the things we've seen in Vienna get more of a "Oh my God, how can we possibly fit all of that in one picture type of a reaction. It's big. It's pristine. The graffiti we saw all over Southern Europe is not here in Vienna. Who would dare? There must be huge penalties for that sort of thing here.

The Asian Invasion?

One of the things we've noticed now that we've crossed what I've nicknamed "The Beer Equator" (that being the line that separates really good beer in Northern Europe from just okay kind of watery beer in Southern Europe) is that Asian restaurants are now quite commonplace. Whether it's "Happy Noodles" stands set up next to the rail or Japanese and Chinese restaurants mere steps from a gothic church, the Viennese have clearly embraced Asian food.

Mr. Flintstone, Your Pig's Leg is Ready

While we did succumb to Indian and Asian food served at the Vienna Film Festival's outdoor food pavilions this afternoon, we did go with a traditional Viennese/German dinner last night at Griechenbeisl on a very charming patio. We dove right in with creamed cabbage, potatoes, salad, wiener schnitzel, and spanferkel. You probably already know that Wiener schnitzel is pounded veal served breaded, but you may not know that spanferkel is a pig's leg served with the crispy skin on it. Both were fantastic and even the kids enjoyed dinner, though I have to say we've already learned that dessert in Vienna always wins over dinner. Even for someone like me, who would rather have a plate of oysters on the halfshell than save room for dessert, it has to be admitted here that dessert here is amazing, even more so than France. After dropping the kids back at the hotel, we went to a nearby biergarten to drink local beer (actually, wine in my wife's case) and listen to opera that was being shown on a huge screen on the side of the city hall...pretty much a normal Sunday night for us at home in the suburbs.   

I have to say, if you want to "go big" in Europe (big monuments, big palaces, big churches, big shopping, big cinema screens on buildings, big food, etc.), Vienna is a good place to start. Just keep in mind that if you remain overwhelmed by what you see in Vienna for four hours or longer, you should probably call your doctor.