In winter it can get very depressing

Enjoy Bratislava! Deeper into Eastern Europe, the brutalist hand of Communism wreaked greater havoc. Regrettably, part of the Old Town, including most of the old Jewish Quarter, was demolished to make way for this bridge (and restaurant in the UFO section).

Nový Most

However, a modern-day renaissance (including accession to the EU) has seen many foreign companies set up shop here, and the economy is rapidly catching up to the Czech Republic.

Coat of Arms

Here too there is a Christmas Market in the old town square.

Christmas Market

It's a shame we have only a couple of hours to spend here. It's really quite beautiful, with far fewer crowds than Prague, a mere 290 km away. A return visit in the summer would be very nice.

St. Michael's Gate

Inside the gate is a compass, showing direction and distance to various world cities.

Toronto - 6981 km

Vienna Life

Vienna is consistently rated one of the most livable cities in the world. Nothing I've seen in during my brief 36-hour visit (including a long walk in the brisk night and quick trip on the U-Bahn) contradicts this. A friend of mine recently re-located there from Dublin. While I now have one less reason to visit Ireland, I have one more to return to Austria.

Way back, I had considered applying for a job with the IAEA. Headquartered at the United Nations City in Vienna, business trips would be probably be quite different, on the Axis of Evil tour.

At the time, I wasn't prepared to move far from home, especially to another continent, which I had never visited before. Plus the fact that a Masters degree in a sea of PhDs would be hard pressed to win the job. The pay also wouldn't be that great, although the diplomatic passport and exemption from income tax would surely help.

Austrian Parliament

Votivkirche

Riding out of the mist

Hofburg Palace

Sisi Museum

St. Stephen's Cathedral

At night

Viennese Waltz

Christina Aguilera is in town, and bigger than favourite son Mozart.

Amadeus

The Schönbrunn palace is booked for Christmas events, so our evening concert will have to be at the Augsburg palace. On the way there, the roads are packed with cars and buses from all surrounding countries, full of teens, making their way to see Xtina.

Vienna Opera House

The performance included Mozart and Strauss, vocal and orchestral, and was pleasant enough. What made it exceptional was the realization that we were watching it in Vienna.

Before leaving town, I have pick up some Mozartkugeln.

Christmas in December

In Australia, a pseudo-holiday has developed in wintertime: Christmas in July. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, it's almost been another year since Viennese Christmas.

Christmas Tree Decorations

The City Hall is also decorated, as a large-scale Adventskalender.

Christmas Market at the Rathaus

Der Graben is a pedestrian mall, and one of the prime shopping streets in Vienna. Even the Pestsäule, a monument commemorating the end of a plague epidemic, looks festive from a distance.

Der Graben

But is it art?

The Art Gallery of Ontario is closing this weekend, for the completion of and transition to the new gallery space designed by Frank Gehry.

The AGO has the largest collection of Henry Moore works in the world, as a result of the artist's fortuitous experiences in the city of Toronto, during the 1960's. Included are the hand-made plaster original (called a maquette) and also the working model for Nuclear Energy, which is installed at the University of Chicago.

Nuclear Pile

Nuclear Energy