Vienna
Capital of Austria on the Danube. See the Travel note Vienna and Austria (Literary).
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither Here Nor There | Bill Bryson | subject | The grandest city Bryson has ever seen, and one of the least welcoming. |
Sub-places
- Café Central
- Café Hawelka
- Favoriten
- Kunsthistorisches Museum
- Prater
- Ringstrasse
- Sigmund Freud Museum
- Wien Westbahnhof
Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)
Source: Readwise highlight
Vienna is certainly the grandest city I have ever seen.
- Role: subject
- In the book: End of chapter 19. Bryson walks in from the station along Mariahilferstrasse, which he finds seedy, until near the Hofburg he passes “into the charmed circle of the Ringstrasse” and everything turns golden. He stays at the Hotel Wandl behind the Schottenkirche. Along the Ringstrasse, the Parliament, the Opera, the museums and the Hofburg “proclaim an imperial past”: a Martian “would unhesitatingly land at Vienna, thinking it the capital of the planet.”
- Why it matters: Grandeur set against expense, rudeness and, at the end, a sour passage on Austrian anti-Semitism and Kurt Waldheim, whose limousine he sees pass on Karl Luegerstrasse. The chapter’s museum, café and park scenes are pinned as sub-places.