Shall we waltz?

One of the entryways to Schonbrunn grounds and palaces.
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Vienna is a great place to visit if you are looking for a typical European flavor of history and culture without the throngs of tourists that flock to Italy. It is a much more languorous pace and there isn't nearly the pressure to try and see everything. It has a wonderful mix of architectural styles that you can follow through time, from Baroque to Gothic to the modern glass and metal structures of which the UNO city is a best example of.

For classic music buffs, Vienna is a must. It is the mother and mistress(a lot of the great artsits weren't actually from here but had their greatest work done while living in Vienna...maybe that should be wife but that doesn't quite sound as romantic) to great composers like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss. However, do not be fooled into going to a tourist aimed opera that 18th century dressed sales men try to push on you as you stroll around the old part of Vienna. Our Austrian friends warned us that the quality of those musicals are very poor indeed. They  suggest to instead try and see something at "legit " places like the Raimundtheater or the Wiener Konzerthaus.

His famous quote "sometimes a cigar, is just a cigar" is one that even a high school kid will recognize.

ummm...well behind is Europes largest palm house.
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Vienna was also home to Sigmund Freud. His famous quote  "sometimes a cigar, is just a cigar" is one that even a high school kid will recognize.

Be sure to try a G-Sprtizer when you are here. It is really young wine mixed with mineral water. Our kind hosts (a couple we met while in the Galapagos), live in one of Vienna's prettiest suburban districts and is a collection of old villages well known for their wine.