Over the past 24 hours, we have been able to visit and see many things around Vienna that are hard to describe in a single theme.  So, I used a random number generator seeded with fresh entropy to put together a number of items.

We snuck out of the hotel, but the military snipers kept a close eye on us as we left due to the tense Syrian peace talks happening on the second floor of our hotel…

Of course, we needed to try the favorite local Bratwurst and beer.  Without question, everyone in the city lines up all day long for this small shack in the city center.  Yep it was good.

We explored some of the older areas of the city.  One of the unique aspects of Vienna are these plaques on the street that mark where Jews were deported and sent to death camps.  Unfortunately, in Austria, if every owner of the building does not agree to the plaque, they cannot be placed on the side of the building, but only in the public street.

This is one of the oldest coffee houses in the world and the oldest coffee house still in business in Austria.

Some things cannot be explained.  This was outside the peace museum that was dedicated to those awarded the Nobel peace prize.

I think everyone knows this word even if you don’t speak German.

The city center is full of unique pubs and night clubs.  Probably more than you would even see in London or NYC.

It was not walking distance, but Vienna has a HUGE central park – larger than Central Park in NYC.  They have one long street for people and no cars that is 4 KM long…and a HUGE ferris wheel that holds 20+ people in a car.  One car even hosts a car for dinner with 1 course for every turn of the wheel.

The Jewish center and large synagogue is very close to the city center, but most of the community lives on the other side of the Danube since it is so expensive to live in this area. The street is always blocked for cars and has police patrols constantly due to attacks.

We walked by the oldest university in Austria (I think).  We took a quick look at the Jesuit Church that is next to the university.  What is unique about this church is it has a painted dome inside that is an illusion.  It looks like a dome, but the roof is actually flat.  Clever.

We spent some time after lunch to check out the Albertina Museum that had a Monet to Picasso exhibit.  We got to see 3 more Claude Monet’s in our list, quite a few Picasso, 1 Munch which was quite cool and quite an exhibit of Chagall which we never had seen before.

The museum is actually part of one of the Hapsburg palaces where some of the kids had lived as they did not like the old school decorations and fluff their parents had built in other palaces.  I think I could hang out here if needed…

Then to end the afternoon, we saw the delegation all leave the hotel.  The Syrian peace talks had ended.  Based on the looks on their faces, it did not look like any progress had been made.  Just lots of pomp and circumstance.