II. Etwas Geschichte Wiens

I must apologize for not having posted before now. I have arrived in Wien, and spent three nights here already. It is a remarkable city, one with far more culture than any city of this size—less than two million people—deserves to have. You see, Vienna was once the capital of a far larger empire, ruled by the Habsburg dynasty.

Over centuries, the Habsburgs—known for, among other things, their habit of marrying cousins and their oversized jaws—acquired, by political finagling and expedient marriages, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, northern Italy, half the Balkans and much of the Ukraine. The imperial capital of this agglomeration of different peoples and lands was Vienna, and it shows. All over the city is monumental architecture, dating from the middle ages, to the apogee of the empire, to today. There are all sorts of influences from all over the vast Habsburg domains, making it a very eclectic-looking city.

Well, that's all for today. I'll write more later. Give me time: I want to spend my time in Vienna experiencing the city, not just writing about it for you.