Our Neighborhood

We're settling in to our new home in Vienna and getting to know the neighborhood. Although most families with the US Embassy ask for housing outside of the city center so that they can be close to the American School, we asked to be housed downtown. Conor and Ryan opted to attend the United Nations school (Vienna International School) which is closer to downtown, very close to the United Nations complex. Also, as a family we've never lived in a downtown and thought Vienna might just be the perfect place to do so.

When we asked to be in the city center, we never really believed that we would get housing as remarkable as we did. We're about half way between the Votiv Kirche and the Rathaus (city hall) building, each only about a block away. In fact we walk Scout every day in the Rathaus park. Just the other side of the park is the parliament building, the museum quarter and some of the major theaters. Living so near major tourism areas means that we also have amazing access to public transportation. We're right next to an underground station, and have most of the major tram lines within a block or two as well. We do have the Vienna hop-on hop-off sightseeing buses driving by our house, but even that's not enough to put a damper on our enjoyment of this neighborhood!

View of the Rathaus and Rathaus park from our roof

View of the Rathaus from the park

The Rathaus park is used year-round for public events so there is a constantly changing source of entertainment just outside our front door. When we moved in, the summer Concerts in the Park series was in full swing with nightly performances and a huge screen where they would screen famous operas and other musical events. We could hear the music from our roof! That was followed by a circus that came to town for about a month, then a tech show, and they ended the year with the world famous Christmas market. Now the Christmas market has given way to the Vienna Ice Dream which has a huge ice rink and ice skating trails that wander through the park as well as a curling arena and food stalls (with glühwein, hot chocolate and kartoffelpufers on offer!)

Rathaus from the Christmas market

Votiv Kirche

Votiv Kirche

Living here is definitely providing us with the "living in the city" experience we were hoping for. The kids ride the metro to and from school every day, and we all love the public transportation. The underground metro, trams and buses in Vienna are all part of the same system, and we have annual passes for everything, so there's no worry about tickets. A huge percentage of the population uses the transportation system every day, which means there are so many trains we never have to look up schedules. In fact, now when we are going places on the weekends (when there are fewer trains) and we arrive at the station only to find out the next train won't arrive for 10 minutes, we're a little bit outraged!

Greg by the Landtmann, one of the many wonderful cafes in the neighborhood and one with a history. It has been open since 1873, when the Rathaus had just begun construction across the street. Throughout it's history, this location close to the Rathaus and Parliament buildings has made it a natural meeting place for politicians and other officials, and during the cold war the Landtmann was reportedly a neutral zone for the spies living in Vienna.