I finished Vienna: The City of Ideas That Shaped the Modern World last year and it got me really curious about how the city came to influence so much of modern culture. Not long after, I actually went to Vienna, and I had such a wonderful time. Walking through the streets with that history in the back of my mind that made the whole experience feel even richer - these are some of my favorite things from the trip.

🚂 Transit and mobility #

Being able to get around efficiently and sustainably is pretty important to the people of Vienna. This was especially clear in the design of the Wiener Linien, the rapid transit system that traverses the capital. The whole system includes 5 routes which run at 5 minute intervals, or, to be precise, at an average of 4.44 minutes (cool dashboard 🚂 ). The stations themselves have pretty nice wayfinding features, such as this map of the Rathaus station showing the station plan along with its exits for easy navigation:

The screens are digital, which means that information is easy to update. Besides station maps, yet another useful bit of digital information were the horizontal screens above the station doors, showing you which car you’d be entering. The stations themselves are beautifully built, incorporating Vienna’s refined sense of architecture with the functionality of a transit station. One example is the former Karlsplatz station, designed by Otto Wagner just at the turn of the 20th century:

[station pic]

On the streets, the city has built more features making life easier for pedestrians and cyclists. One such small detail is this system helping blind people navigate by showing them the street layout: the number of lanes and which directions they are going in:

The bike infrastructure is also extensive and really well-built. The city has 1600 kilometers of bike lanes and it’s currently building Radhighways, long-distance biking routes. Their goal is for people to make 25% of their trips (i.e. going to work, groceries, meeting people in a cafe) by bike, which I personally think is admirably ambitious. For reference, in the largest US cities, bike trips make up less than 5% of total trips.

🖼️ Museums, art and music #

Finally, to the main event! Vienna is known for its many museums which would probably take a year to visit. In our trip, we were able to check out the famous Belvedere, the former residence of Prince Eugene Savoy and the Schloss Schonbrunn, the residence of members of the Hapsburg empire. The Belvedere is now an art museum featuring many Austrian artists including the great Gustav Klimt. In fact, his most famous painting, ‘The Kiss’, hangs there as a main attraction.

Schonbrunn palace, on the other hand, has 1441 rooms, but you can only visit 40 of them. The palace is massive, even including the world’s oldest operating zoo opened in 1752. The gardens are stunning: there are mazes, the central lawn lined with flowers, a hilltop colonade, a palmhouse and a lot more.

As someone who loves classical music, I had to check out the Vienna State Opera, the city’s main opera house. Outside of the main performing season, the building can only be visited with guided tours where you learn about the architecture of the opera house and a bit about the behind the scenes of organizing opera performances. Many conductors, including Mahler and Karajan gave directed the opera at different points in the 20th century and its history includes a WW2 bombing and a subsequent redesign.

The tour guide told us that, interestingly, the Opera periodically serves a very different purpose: every year it hosts the Vienna Ball, a high society event going back to 1814. During the time of the ball, the stage and the main level seating is transformed into a platform that carries guests from 10pm through 5am the next morning.

And finally, this is the view from the Emperor’s lodge:

📖 Many Libraries #

We also checked out the Austrian National Library, which originally was the imperial court library. Inside, it smells like ancient books and it looks like the library from Beauty and the Beast :)

In the main room above, we could see this cool set of globes by Vincenzo Coronelli showing both Earth and the celestial spheres, measuring at 110 cm. The Library system itself also includes the world’s only museum of globes.

These were only some of the highlights of the trip, but overall Vienna left me thinking about how history and ideas can make a city feel alive. I left a lot of favorite moments and a curiosity to perhaps go back to explore even more.

-Dea 👋