“I don’t like birds!” Siân was looking at me with a ‘there-I-said-it’ expression of annoyance. “Ever since I was young and saw that Hitchcock movie, birds give me the creeps,” she continued. Siân’s husband tried to laugh things off with a ‘That was fiction, dear’, but even he could not thaw the atmosphere. I was […]
Vienna’s Best Christmas Markets
When it comes to Christmas markets, there’s only German Mitteleuropa that avoids both the saccharine over-the-topness or the shopping pointlessness of their cheap imitations. And the undisputed queen of Adventmärkte is good old stolid Vienna. It’s only in December that the city truly comes to life, for this is when its palaces and baroque churches, […]
Up close and personal: The Karlskirche in Vienna
Vienna is a city I know well. I’ve been there five times and I lived in the sixth district for six months in 2002. It is a fun but misunderstood city: many think it’s all Classics and Kuchen; a strong image – the result of successful PR. After all, Austrians have convinced the world that […]