Often, before taking an Intrepid adventure, I’ll go a few days early and check out some place cool nearby (ie. Almaty Kazakhstan is near Bishkek Kyrgyzstan, Dubai UAE is near Muscat Oman). So, since Vienna is only a couple hours by train from Budapest (starting point of my next tour), how could I not go?

Maybe because London Heathrow was where I transited? Avoid that quagmire of an airport! Nonetheless, I survived the trip, in spite of LHE and my economy seats, and even got to my lil’ hotel conveniently on the Austrian trains. It is just adjacent to the Museums Quartier, here…

Just beyond the Museums Quartier are even more museums on the Maria-Theresien-Platz, the famous Hofburg Palace of the Habsburg Dynasty, and more than a few impressive statues. Just a sampling…

I strolled through several lovely parks, checked out the Rathaus (city hall), observed the Votive Church, had a spicy/smoky at Mama’s, grooved to more statuary & architecture, and watched people being alone in public.

Can you identify some of these sites…?

I went to a charming little cafe for dinner, and they had a great series of photos in the men’s room…

I strolled a bit more, getting a bit lost, and taking more random pix in windows, etc…

The next day, I took awhile jetlagging in the morning before finally heading out to my first destination: the Sigm. Freud Museum! While psychoanalysis, not to mention sex & cocaine, have their detractors, IMHO Sigmund Freud was one of the great thinkers of the Modern Era. The guy was insightful, prolific, and connected. This intimate museum is in the house where he lived and worked for almost half a century before escaping the Nazis and dying in exile. His sisters were all killed in the Holocaust!

I learned that he wrote more pages of letters than books and articles. And, that he loved antiquities and chows. And, families matter! Pamuk would approve of this museum! You too can do some of the reading, nicely displayed to read while standing (with a place to lean in). These pix are of some of those readings, some photos, even some artwork, and the building itself, which now has more of a cafe than a giftshop on the ground floor. Interestingly, while I love Freud (and Jung and Adler), I’m less drawn to the psychoanalysis that came after…?

So, after Freud, I took a circuitous walk, partly along the Danube, to my next destination…

Vienna has a tagging problem, albeit I like the grafitti. Here’s some of the better bits along the river…

I was drawn to what is apparently the oldest standing building in Vienna, St. Rupert’s Church, and had a nice chat with Fritz. Nowadays, it serves as a gallery for an art piece by an Italian sculptor about a priest who lost his head to the Nazi’s! Does that date look like 1439? It is, when the current structure was built.

Next, I went to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the center of town, and a very popular venue. In fact, there was a concert happening right there, with a heavy police presence. Spectacular, but after a trip up one tower, I kept walking on the delightful pedestrian street back towards my hotel…

At some point it got rather cold, and I rather tired. So, via Uber, I hired a Lime Scooter to zip back to the hotel for my jacket, etc., then take it up another compelling street for awhile. And I kept walking…

The building featured prominently in this batch is the Haus des Meeres (English, website), which has many interesting features, including a huge climbing wall, etc. No reservation, no elevator!

Eventually, I found another charming little restaurant for some traditional Austrian schnitzel and meandered back to the hotel after a very long walk. Today looks like rain, so I reserved it as museum day, enough for yesterday. Thank you friend, for coming along…