Along the Danube Canal (Donaukanal), originally uploaded by scottpartee.

As if Vienna didn’t have enough going for it, add in an urban canal with walking and cycling paths on both banks extending for miles in each direction. I just love this town!

Interesting story: My family was invited to a barbeque in the 10th District (Gasometer, actually) and decided to use the canal trail to walk towards the party. The 10th District is considered far from beautiful by most Viennese, but the fact is that there are plenty of nice parts (just like all other districts) and, hey, it’s Vienna—urban candyland—how bad could it be?

We were cruising down the canal and just about the time we would cross into the 10th, a lady police officer was standing by a bench and smoking a cigarette. She didn’t say anything to us, so I kept walking, but to be friendly, I caught her eyes and said “Gruß Gott.”

She gave a firm, unsmiling nod. We managed about one more step before I heard her voice interjecting something into my stupor that I couldn’t quite comprehend. I asked her, in my polite Power Figure German, to repeat.

“You’ll want to cross to the other side of the street to continue in that direction, because there are things going on down there that children shouldn’t see.”

This is Austria and, in my opinion, one shouldn’t really quibble with cops, so I have a firm “oh, thank you!” and followed her instructions.

As we walked through the 10th towards Gasometer, we realized that most Viennese are right, at least in regards to this section of the 10th. Wasteland.