It's a bit far from Paris, and a bit more expensive, but otherwise it's alright.
German is usually not so hard for speakers of English to pick up since so much English syntax (except for the trailing verbs) is Germanic.
Although I still think this should be required reading for all German students:
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html#x1However a Jewish friend once noted that in his mind, because Vienna never really encouraged the return of its post-Holocaust population, its art and music scenes have suffered as a result. To paraphrase him, "The cabarets are stiffer, the cultural climate less fecund, and the sense of interactive life is thinner."
So I do think there's a certain lack of xenophilia, at least, that might still be hanging over the city.
The rural areas, less so, perhaps.
And the Schoenbrun complex and St. Stefanskirche are still among the wonders of the modern world in my mind.
The church in particular, is such a brooding, intense place...touches of sculptural whimsy (like the architect's self-portrait, peering out of an opening faux panel under the huge stone pulpit) aside. It's probably the only Gothic interior I've ever been in that bespoke the gravitas as well as the levitas of the life of faith.
If you go, you have to post pictures of the Lippizaners...<another thread>...for us!
And visit the Jugendstil museums....
