Culture in Vienna: you get what you pay for

Being a Londoner, where entry to all public museums is free, I always find it slightly galling to have to pay for access to publicly-owned art and culture. Universal free access is actually a relatively recent innovation in the UK, brought in by the Labour government in 2001, but it's one of those things that,…

Vienna: the world’s most liveable city?

For the third year in a row, Vienna has topped the list of the 'world's best city to live in', or at least that's what the headlines proclaim. I've always found these rankings slightly puzzling. OK, so Baghdad is at the bottom of the table; that's understandable. However, some of the other placings always seem…

U-Bahn priority-seat symbols

There is something that I love about the Vienna metro system (besides the fact that it is supremely fast and reliable). Take a look at this: What do you notice? OK, first, the graphic design is fantastic. But what else? The 'old' and 'injured' people are represented by male figures. The pregnant individual is (unavoidably)…