Vienna – the city of hope

On December 8 and 9, there will be an intergovernmental conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons hosted by the Austrian government in the beautiful and historic capital, Vienna, where the first settlements date back to 500 BC. With my own love for Vienna and great expectations for the conference, I have asked some friends what thoughts and feelings they have about the city and what they hope will come out of the conference.

• Anna (mother of three): Vienna is the best place to dance a decent waltz.
• Kristin (mother of a son and grandmother of five): I have never been there, but when I hear the name, I always think of the wonderful New Year’s concerts performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra broadcast to all of Europe on the first of January every year.
• Karl-Petter (father of one daughter and two sons): Being the home city of Sigmund Freud, you can say that Vienna is the city of dreams, but for me it has also many times served as a gateway to all of Central Europe.
• Lena (mother of two sons): Vienna is for me the home of the tasty chocolate cake called Sachertorte invented by Franz Sacher back in 1832.
• Morten (father of two sons and grandfather of one): For me Vienna is where the Wiener Schnitzel, the Wiener Wurst (frankfurter), and the Viennese waltz come from.
• Oddfrid (mother of three and grandmother of five): As I love horses and nature, I am very impressed by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna where they have teached classical riding for more than 450 years.
• Sampada (mother of a daughter): For me Vienna is the home of many of the greatest classical composers.
• Signe (mother of two girls): Vienna is a historic city with a lot of beautiful buildings from all times.
• Sindre (father of three girls): Vienna is where I dream of a dinner cruise on the Danube River listening to classical music in waltz time.
• Siri (mother of three): In Vienna I once had the chance to visit the Weihnachtsmarkt where we tasted the candied apples and the sweet and warm Glühwein.
• Solveig (mother of a stepdaughter and the owner of two dogs): I have once visited and just loved the Romanesque / Gothic Saint Stephen’s cathedral in the city center.
• Torgunn (mother of two and grandmother of 4): One of the great cultural capitals that I have a dream to visit.

And, we all together have a strong desire that the conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Vienna in December this year shall bring mankind one step further on the road to a safer world free of the tremendously dangerous, and also useless and inhuman, nuclear weapons.