Grüß Gott

I'd been to Vienna before, but not for years, and it all looked new to me. New and fancy.

Vienna is grand. Not the faded grandeur you might expect from the ex-capital of an enormous empire that no longer exists, but the rich grandeur of a long established and extremely wealthy European capital that thinks very highly of itself. It is grand and twirly and very over the top.

After Warsaw's sparce architectural beauty, Vienna is a bit of a shock to the system. If you walk down a perfectly standard Viennese street and look up, you will generally see this:

Big old highly decorated buildings. With additional twirls.

These additional twirls are very often paired with a couple of expressive little statues for good measure.

For a while I just wandered about, looking up, snapping away at the twirls and sculptures, amazed by the detail in the faces, and the height of the curly bits at the top of buildings.

Then I got dizzy.

Then I decided, if I was going to see anything of Vienna I'd have to stop taking pictures of twirls. And statues.

But that just got me fixed on the ironwork. Sweet Jesus. Why make a straight metal line if you can make it twirly.

Gates can be so dull.

Not in Vienna!

So, after a couple of days of this - being in these flouncy, rich, curly, intricate, twirly, whirly surroundings, I didn't stop noticing, but it stopped being such a big deal. It was the same kind of deal you get with rich Belgian chocolates. The first couple are amazing, you start wondering how you can ensure a daily supply. The next couple are ok, still undoubtedly good quality chocolate, but getting a little cloying and sweet. And after that, you start feeling a bit sick.

This was my favourite statue. Far from any buildings, no flounce, and lots of feeling.