that food tours are great for the first day or 2, as well as using the hop-on/hop-off busses early in the trip to get the lay of the land.

Wherever we go, big city-wise, we take one on our first day. Great way to get the lay of the land.

That’s when I arrive.

I’m getting in the mood by reading The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig. It’s his autobiography and farewell to pre-war Europe.

Right from the start he lets you know Vienna is (was) a special place.

“There is hardly a city in Europe where the drive towards cultural ideals was as passionate as it was in Vienna. Precisely because the monarchy, because Austria itself for centuries had been neither politically ambitious nor particularly successful in its military actions, the native pride had turned more strongly toward a desire for artistic supremacy. The most important and the most valuable provinces, German and Italian, Flemish and Walloon, had long since fallen away from the old Habsburg empire that had once ruled Europe; unsullied in its old glory, the capital had remained, the treasure of the court, the preserver of a thousand-year-old tradition.

The Romans had laid the first stones of this city, as a castrum, a fortress, an advance outpost to protect Latin civilization against the barbarians; and more than a thousand years later the attack of the Ottomans against the West shattered against these walls. Here rode the Nibelungs, here the immortal Pleiades of music shone out over the world, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Johann Strauss, here all the streams of European culture converged. At court, among the nobility, and among the people, the German was related in blood to the Slavic, the Hungarian, the Spanish, the Italian, the French, the Flemish; and it was the particular genius of this city of music that dissolved all the contrasts harmoniously into a new and unique thing, the Austrian, the Viennese.”

"Hitler's Vienna", which was amazing and depressing.

https://www.viator.com/tours/Vienna/Vienna-City-Historical-Walking-Tour/d454-46089P4?dd...

posted about it here:

https://bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?mode=thread&id=558668

- No text -

I took a long exposure shot of it and the wife like it so much that we wall mounted it.

that if you want to pursue more from The Third Man (one of my favorite movies of all time), there is a museum devoted to it and also tours dedicated to the various sites. To me one of the highlights of our trip was just seeing the contrast between the film's war-torn locations and what they look like today, starting with the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) that is in the very first view in Sir Carol Reed's wonderful narration of his masterpiece, right after the famous zither music ends in the opening credits.

Linked below is the one I'd recommend, though unfortunately we didn't take it just due to time constraints, and that my wife is not the cinephile that I am. But I know people who have done, and rave about it. I hope to go back to that fantastic city, and it would be my number one new activity to do on that trip. I'll put in a plug for Get Your Guide, it's never steered me wrong.

https://www.getyourguide.com/vienna-l7/location-tour-of-the-film-der-dritte-mann--t542/...

Speaking of the Stephansdom, it owes its every existence today to a Wehrmacht artillery officer who disobeyed a direct order by the infamous Sepp Dietrich, the commandant of Vienna, to destroy the cathedral ahead of the advance of the Red Army.

- No text -

We really enjoyed that place.

https://www.praterwien.com/en/home

- No text -

- No text -

The owner or manager came by our table at the end and toasted us with Schnapps. He did that at every table, so I don’t think we were special.

- No text -

Enjoy! Vienna is the best.

https://bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?mode=thread&id=581415

Headed there by overnight train. Watched the Third Man in preparation. I’ve seen the “main stuff” there on a previous visit.
Tips/recommendations?
Thanks!