Vienna

I didn't get to Vienna until almost 3 this afternoon. I was trying to get stuff dry this morning. The campsite had a dryer and I managed to score a free couple of jetons. All these jetons look exactly the same so I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to forge them and sell them on ebay. I'm not sure of that is legal but I'm also doubtful it is illegal.

I got the train in to Vienna. There were loads of signs for an aboriginal art exhibition on the way in. I thought they might be pretending they're Australia. From the train I also saw what at first I thought was a torture scene behind a tower block. There was a guy apparently tied to a chair and two blokes in leather jackets and slicked back hair standing over him; one with what looked like a knife. It turns out he was getting a hair cut under a tree. I think that's the closest they have to crime in Vienna.

Seeing Vienna today is totally different to how I saw it yesterday. The weather is still ordinary but no rain. I went to the centre and I am totally bamboozled by the buildings. They are all phenomenal. Even the buildings in between the main ones are amazing. It must be a nightmare to get planning permission. You turn a corner and there is another incredible building. You look past the incredible buildings and you can get a peek of more incredible buildings. I spent this afternoon wandering. Admittedly, finding a place with the spurs game on was the true objective. In the process though I managed to drag myself around one of the most amazing places I've been.

I'm not going to go through a description of all the buildings. Mainly because I'd have to google all the names. I'll just say there were palaces and government buildings and cathedrals and churches and all of them were about as impressive as they get.

St Stephens cathedral would be the centrepiece of any city in the world. I'm only really mentioning it because I've slagged off so many God buildings in this blog so far I felt I should give credit where it's due. It is impressive. It's like a giant Faberge egg. For once I looked carefully at a building and was astounded by the detail. There are two main spires but around the outside of the cathedral these spires are repeated in miniature. Then around the outside of the miniature spires they are repeated again. Then those spires are repeated again even smaller. So the smallest ones are a few inches tall. But they still have the gargoyles and things carved into them. It reminded me of those images of fractals you see (google is your friend mum) but in 3d. In Vienna St Stephen's Cathedral is just another building.

Wandering down another residential street I noticed carved gargoylish (I know there is a very specific definition of what a gargoyle is, and I don't think these met the definition) faces above the door ways and all of them were different. All the buildings were like this. Even Starbucks.

I spent the whole afternoon and evening walking around, turning corners to find spectacular buildings. I should stay another day and visit the insides of them but to be honest the insides of most of them don't interest me that much. Not even Starbucks. Vienna has overtaken Venice as the most impressive city starting with v. I can't think of a more visually appealing city of any letter. Mum laid down the gauntlet with Prague, so I'll have to find out.