Club Melange: Penzing Neighbourhoods

Penzing in the West of Vienna is a less-explored, green, sleepy part of town. It is home to the biggest football club in Austria, Rapid Wien, but also a pioneering mental health hospital from one of Eugene's heroes, Otto Wagner. This area will in future play host to the MDW university of performing arts. Penzing also contains part of the Vienna Woods, and some big hills, the Vienna River, and many atmospheric, pretty neighbourhoods. It is a a District which votes Red, like most of the city.

There is also the opportunity to ski in winter, and ride a fast go-kart on tracks in summer, down the steep Hohe Wand Meadow. And this was the home of Johanna Dohnal, one of the first women's ministers anywhere in the world, and a pioneer of Vienna feminism. We have so much to thank her for, in terms of social justice.

We will also try to squeeze in the Technical Museum, Austria's oldest cinema, the Breitenseer Lichtspiele (just as cute as it sounds), and the Sargfabrik adventurous housing project (and former coffin factory!).

With our series of neighbourhood walks (and podcasts), in cooperation with Club Melange from Recom, we want to introduce the international community to the different parts of town, and help them find the right place to set up home. But these tours are just as interesting for locals, since we show them hidden jewels of Vienna life, and build community through dialogue and networking. We have seen in recent times many people arriving into our liberal, progressive home city, as exiles from Putin's Russia, and Trump's USA. They often tell their stories on our urban adventures.