Three Capitals on the Danube: 1/3 Vienna

Here I am in Central Europe... holidays at last! This year, with a friend, I decide to visit the 3 capitals on the Danube... doable in a week because they're very close and well connected. A Dublin-Bratislava flight of about 3 hours, and I arrive at the Slovak airport around 6 pm, which at first glance looks like anything but an airport.... an Eurolines bus heading to Vienna's Sudbahnhof station, where a few metro stops already gets you into the centre (7.70€ + 1€ per bag...) and within about an hour we're in Vienna, where the difference with Bratislava is immediately clear; in 50 km it feels like going from one extreme of the world to the other: a clean, wealthy city, architecturally perfect, lively yet at the same time calm, one of the best cities to live in, in short.

The city has almost 2 million inhabitants, but the attractions are almost all in the old town, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site; practically a gigantic open-air museum! The day is beautiful and it's a pleasure to walk around the city... visiting all the main attractions: the gigantic Hofburg palace, the Parliament, the Rathaus (the town hall), the Burgtheater, Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), Karlskirche, Schloss Belvedere, the Prater (the beautiful park by the Danube) and the Hundertwasserhaus, the ingenious colourful house, the work of the artist Hundertwasser...

truly spectacular! We liked Vienna a lot, it's a very calm city, with that sense of peace you hardly notice in other cities, and it's easily visitable on foot (even though the metro gets you everywhere quickly), and wherever you turn there's always something to see, not only for its famous monuments, but because of the architectural style that marks even a simple building or church... truly one of a kind. ps... don't forget to try the famous Sacher torte... a delight!