Our village

One thing I just love: Vienna is full of little private shops, like the US used to have in the old days.  Every neighborhood has its small grocery or market and everyone goes shopping every few days for a bag or two of food.  It seems like you can hardly go a few blocks without seeing both a bakery and a lingerie shop.  What?  Are the Austrians really so hard on their skivies? My best guess is that somewhere there is a very popular step-by-step How–To on starting your own business that begins:  "Say you want to open an underwear store..."

This is a pretty good neighborhood. (The photo is our tram stop) . It's only two blocks to the bakery, bank and grocery, but we have to go 5 or 6 to get the latest in knickers.  Fortunately, public city transport is very civilized.  Once you buy a pass catching a conveyance is not only fairly rapid, but free- just jump on and off, even for only a couple blocks!  Most streets are tiny and friendly - as if built for people instead of cars!  So when you drive– as I just did for the first time– it's not only harrowing but probably the slowest way to get around.