Europe Trip 2025 - Vienna

This was my third or fourth visit to Vienna (pop. 2 million). All were short. This one was the first when I was on my own. Vienna is significant for me, because two of my grandparents were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of which Vienna was the capital. They also met, 20-something years later, somewhere in today's Austria, back then Germany, both working for Austrian "bauers" - farmers. 

As I was reading now about Vienna, I saw this 1966 photo by Herbály István, and the striking monument (Plague Column) in the middle looked familiar:

Yes, I saw it, I took a photo of it:

But, you know what, there is no road there anymore. That street is pedestrianised. I walked there. This is my photo taken from the opposite direction. You can just see the monument in the bottom left corner:

So, what is my impression of Vienna? It's a rich city. You can see that it was a capital of an empire. The buildings are grand, the ornamentations are elaborate. There is a feeling of great wealth:

Vienna World Museum

Francis I, Emperor of Austria, 1824 - in Latin, in gold letters. In the text below, the date is written in old-style Latin: MDCCCCXVI - I was taught to write it like this: MDMXVI - 1916.

Golden eagle on a pole.

Urania, named after the Greek muse of astronomy, originally opened as a public education institute and observatory under the patronage of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

I still don't like the architecture of old Vienna, because I feel uneasy, like in a maze: buildings are tall, streets narrow and curvy, I cannot see the way out, I feel trapped: 

The new developments are much more human friendly (open, green, bike-friendly) from the little I saw: 

The public transport network is great: trains, metro, trams, buses:

I would like to explore the new neighbourhoods of Vienna more. There is ongoing work to make the centre of Vienna better:

There is some ugliness too, mainly graffiti:

A few interesting photos: 

The flag of two Austrian regions (Tyrol and Upper Austria) is the same as flag of Poland: white-red. Btw, the flag of Czech Republic used to be white-red until 1992.

   

Ruins of a Roman military camp Vindobona in the centre of Vienna.

An old tenement house gets 3 new levels on top.