After almost a week in Vienna, I’ve barely scratched the surface, even as a normal tourist. I realized this yesterday on a walking tour with Hannes, whose knowledge and humor focused on Austrian history. Here’s the very short version of my main take-aways….The modern Austrian republic was created in 1918 with the fall of the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire lead by the Hapsburg dynasty. Twenty years later, Hitler was welcomed to Vienna by a cheering crowd of 200,000 Austrians — none of whom could remember attending the event by 1945. For its role in World War II, Austria had to promise that it wouldn’t join any military alliances. These days, the only war here is between Cafe Sacher and the Demel Bakery over which one of them invented the Sachertorte.