Austria.  The land that gave us the Waltz, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the wonderful Weiner Schnitzel, is one hell of a Country.  Beautiful verdant valleys followed by another and then another until you come across a picturesque village nestled between two hills, vineyards growing on the slopes and maize and wheat growing on the plains, leaves a kladiescope of colours to look at.  Maybe a bit far there, more accurately several hues of green and red tiles on the roofs and then a bit of black for the road.  It was still a pretty sight to see from the car on our way to Vienna.
We had a quick stop in Graz to see what it has to offer.  As the second largest city in Austria you would expect some large buildings, a very touristic square and a central hill that has an old castle on it.  Tick, tick, tick.  It was that and all and I think that you could spend a few days here to look around but we were on a mission to get to Vienna so we only had a quick walk up to the top of the hill for a lunch-with-a-view.
Our little apartment/hotel was a little way from the centre of Vienna but was really close to public transport and it wasn't really that much of an inconvenience.  Plus it was close to a shopping centre so that Audrey and I could indulge in something that we like to do; window shop.  But when you think of Vienna there is really only one thing that comes to mind, and that is composers, famous ones.  A bit like Milan and Florence when is comes to renaissance painters and sculptures, Vienna has had every single composer that you could name, either born there (or in Austria), or went there to write music.  Now I'm not talking about people who like this shit but people like you, me and Shoota; know you, just average joes.  Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.  Not to mention the creater of the Waltz, Johann Strauss.  But where Vienna really shines (according to me) is the Architecture that it has and what the buildings mean and have inside them.  There were 3 Museums in particular that both Audrey and myself really liked; the Museum of Military History, the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art History.  Each one had something that was really unique about it which made them interesting.  Inside the Military History was the actual car, with bullet hole, that Archduke Franz Ferdinand (not the Scottish band ...) and his wife where assasinated in while in Sarajevo.  As far as history goes that leads to affecting others, this needs to be considered near the top of the list.  I mean, it lead to the very first War that included the world which is unbelievable to me.  I was looking at it in awe, Audrey was non-plussed.  In the Natural History was the world's greatest collection of rocks and meteorites.  Out of the over 4,500 known rocks that are on Earth, the Museum of Natural History has over 1,200 on display, all nicely in rows and colour coded.  And I also got to touch my first meteorite, something THAT'S not from Earth.  They also had a superb array of fossils.  Now I'll admit that I'm a big fan of fossils and would love to have some displayed at home, maybe a complete T-Rex would be cool.  And the Art History was just a cool building (NOTE: Audrey and I are getting sick and tired of portraits and thus we don't really give much attention to this form of Art any more)
Vienna was also the base for the Hapsburg Monarchy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  That means that several very, very large Palaces needed to be built to show the world the power that they possess so that's just what the Hapsburg's did.  The main one in the centre of town is called the Hofburg Palace.  Today it is full of public areas and Museum's dedicated to all things Austria and Vienna.  The 'peace-de-resitance' is the Schonbrunn Palace 'out in the countryside', well is was at some time but now is well and truely part of Vienna.  They have enough room in the Palace grounds to contain a zoo on top of everything else that you need to survive as a royal; a 6 acre English style garden, a 2 acre rose one, an area to grow all the fruit and vege you need, even a maze just for kicks.  It is an impressive Palace.  Truth is I haven't seen that many in my time so I would put this one at the top (I still need to see the big ones in England, France and Germany so it may drop down over time).
There is plenty to see and do around Vienna and I recommend everyone visit here at least once. But not during summer, it is so bloody hot it is starting to drive me insane ...