Now where one of the biggest Roman cities stood stretch rather uninspitring vegetable fields interspersed by orderly rows of vineyards producing the famous white wines of the Burgenland.  Even thought the barbarians and the passage of time have done a good job in wiping out the houses and streets enough remains to give an idea of former grandeur.  The ruins of a couple of temples and the ampitheater are quite a sight, even though one of the temples was spoiled by an overzealous reconstruction and looks rather fake among the other, more authenthic ruins.  The regional museum in Bad Deutsch Altenburg shelters a lot of mosaics and objects of daily living recovered by the farmers from their fields, but it is a better idea to walk along the fields from site to site.  On the edge of Petronell stands the Haidentor, or Barbarian Gate, the most lofty example of Roman fortifications in northern Europe with the exception of the Porta Nigra in Trier.  The arch is suspended between two tapered towers, which were much higher once but still are at least 15 meters tall.  Watching the sunset here, in the shadow of the ruin and the nearby rows of ultra modern wind turbines attempting to spin us away from the coming energy crisis, gives a new meaning to pondering the passage of time.

The region abutting Vienna to the west is more known to visitors- perhaps because due its hilly nature it appears more typically " Austrian." et also here the scenery is very much low key when compared to Tirol or the Salzkammergut. Only two peaks seem to be permanently besiedged by tourist busses- the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg, because both offer fantastic views over Vienna and because it was from here that the offensive to rid Europe of the Turkish threat started in 1683 under the leadership of the Polish kong Jan Sobieski, who managed to destroy 100 000 strong force of the besiedgers with a much weaker force of Poles and Germans. Other peaks and valleys are surprisingly little visited except by the locals, but are nevertheless just as scenic.  In the southeastern part of the city, in District #13, also known as Hietzing the former hunting preserve of the Habsburgs now welcomes less illustrious guests as well. Maria Theresa and her offspring liked to escape the endless court intrigues in the nearby Schonbrünn Palace for a leisurely afternoon hunt. Here they could shoot deer and boars, which were often directly released from the cages in front of the nozzles of their guns so as to make the hunt quite effortless.  Emperor Joseph, Maria Theresa's successor, wanted to give his prey a little more chance so he preferred to chase them up and down nearby hills with his hounds instead. Probably because too many fine specimens managed to elude the imperial bullet he ordered the construction of a 20 km long brick wall that would keep his menagerie firmly in check.

This original 3 meter high wall still stands, separating an area more than twice the size of New York's Central Park from the rest of the Wienerwald or Vienna Woods.  It is now a nature preserve, protected forever from the wistful attentions of developers.

The animals are now studied, rather than hunted, but the tradition of the royal menagerie lives on in the form of a few large enclousures near the main entrance where where some deer, moufflons, elk and European bison graze contently.  The only larger building among the 2000 acres of forests and meadows is the so called Hermes Villa, built by Emperor Franz Josef as a retreat for his reclusive wife, Elisabeth, better known as Sissi.  He evidently hoped that by giving her more privacy from the prying eyes of his courtiers they could spend more time together and she would abandon her life of endless travel.  Sissi did not swallow the bait, she spent only a few nights here and soon resumed her vegabond ways until she met her demise at the hands of an Italian anarchist.  As the palace was never really occupied for prolonged periods of time, it has a very institutionalized ambiance, no doubt helped by the presence of a branch of Vienna City Museum, which stages occassional exhibitions here.

Beyond the Hermesvilla nature reigns supreme, sliced up by more than 50 km of hiking paths.  The trek up to the Hubertus Warte, at 542 meters the highest peak in the city, some 300 meters higher than the marshes of the Lobau at its eastern end; is particularly worthwhile for the far reaching views it affords.  In October, if not for the Gothic spires of the inner city shimmering in the distance, one has the illusion of being somewhere in New England.  To the west the views include the ever higher ranges of the Wienerwald, which reach their crescendo in the visible stone fells of the Northern Limestone Alps, the first truly "Alpine" range and a harbringer of the Tyrolean giants. 

The 19th century in Austria, just like anywhere in the western world, saw the great expansion of cities. Vienna was certainly not an exception- between 1815 and 1914 the city grew from 230 000 souls to about two million humans, one just as thirsty for fresh drinking water as the other.  To supply this unquenchable thirst a series of aqueducts was designed and built by the foremost technicians of the age, much like their equivalents in New York. Here too a series of reservoirs was created by damming several rivers and streams in the Eastern Alps and channeling the captured liquid in undergroung pipes, which had to be carried over sudden dips in the terrain (those pesky valleys) by stone viaducts.  Perhaps the most impressive such aqueduct lies on the southermost outskirts of Vienna, in Radoun, which can be easily reached by a 20 minute ride on tram # 60 from Schonbrünn to its terminus. A huge masonry span throws its shadows across the gully that is at least half a mile wide and 100 meters deep. Even though the bricks are little more than a century old, they have aged so gracefully that many mistake it for a Roman ruin. But it is still very much a working pipeline, only its overhead channel was recently covered by wooden planking to protect it from the attentions of would be terrorists and other fellow poisoners.

It is places like these that make the existance of this city technically feasible. And to relax those who live here, myself happily included for the last 6 months, like to go to places described before- precisely because they are not famous, because they are left on the side of most itenereries, they are most peaceful. So if you want to join us in having a breath of fresh air, follow my advice!