This little promo caught my attention:
Forget Vienna and Salzburg, there’s another Austrian city that is proving the perfect weekend destination, with a fabulous food culture, gorgeous green spaces and even a friendly alien.
Unlike its imperial sisters, Graz has long flown under the radar, despite being Austria’s second largest city. It’s hard to understand why. A historic beauty, Graz boasts the remnants of a medieval hilltop castle, prettily situated among the old baroque houses, church spires, and gabled roofs, and surrounded by wooded mountains.
So far, so good. I’ve always wanted to go to Graz, having already visited Vienna (several times), Salzburg, Linz and the gorgeous Innsbruck. Austria is one of my favorite countries on the planet and frankly, if someone were to point a gun at my head and say, “You have to leave the U.S. and live in a furrin country”, Austria would be pretty much at the top of the list.
All the more so when you see pictures like these:
Hubba hubba, book that tick– wait a minute, what?
JHC, what is the matter with these people? I thought the Parisians were crazy, what with the I.M. Pei pyramid and the godawful Pompidou Centre; but Paris is a huge city and you can hide all sorts of awfulness away there.
But Graz is tiny (relatively speaking), so plonking those “friendly alien” (my ass) structures into so small an area is just some architectural vandal stabbing a middle finger right into your eye. That gorgeous bucolic river view assaulted by that horrifying glass worm of a bridge: it’s like finding a festering carbuncle on Scarlett Johannson’s nose.
I still want to go to Graz, of course, but just a little less so now.