Vienna Watered Down

It rained most of the time in Prague, but it was a heat wave when I got to Vienna. Being that it's a tourist-driven city, I expected to pay Silver Oak prices for a simple bottle of water, but the generally over-priced city surprised me. In several key spots throughout the city center, there are actually chilled water stations for people to drink and fill up whatever bottle they might have on them. How much did it cost? Nada.

And in case you're wondering how the water tasted, let me just say that Vienna gets its water supply from the Alps. It's literally like bottled water coming out the regular sink faucet!

Can you imagine how nuts Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Dasani and the rest of the American bottled water companies would go if the government started supplying its citizens with free, drinkable water in public places? Sure, there would be political pressure against it, but Vienna has a great idea that more cities need to emulate. I bought one bottle the entire trip and simply refilled it, at the drinking station when I could and at the sink when back at the hostel. While there was limited information about the stations, there seemed to be a tie-in to the local university, which doesn’t surprise me.

America might not have as many walking cities as Europe, but we do have some. How about distilled drinking water centers in Times Square and Central Park in NYC? Los Angeles could use one at the Santa Monica pier or boardwalk. Even Miami could use one on Ocean Drive. Here’s hoping these cities will soon follow Vienna’s example because plastic bottle waste has got to be curbed!