World's 10 best places to live...

Saw an article on msn.com that caught my eye - 10 best places to live in the world, and I've visited about half of them! So here's the "Eva-view" on these places.

1. Vienna. The picture in the article wasn't very flattering, but there's no question that I found Vienna to be a great city when I visited in 2002, and I would love to go back. The art museums, the Hapsburg palaces, the churches and that great Sacher torte...

2. Zurich. Beautiful little city. Great scenery. Good train connections. Large watch selection. Dangerous airport, though.... Only flight I've ever been on where we wobbled like that on landing AND there were fire trucks with lights flashing right by the runway, ready to come put us out after the expected crash (which didn't happen to us, but did happen 2 weeks later in similar weather conditions and caused several fatalities....)

3. Geneva. Didn't get there when we lived in Germany. Got close! Someday!

4. tie between Vancouver, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand. Okay, to my shame, I have never been anywhere in Canada. I have flown through Auckland's airport and I've seen the South Island, and New Zealand had to be one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Reminded me a lot of Switzerland and Norway.

6. Dusseldorf, Germany. Okay, I never got there, either, but it's not exactly a tourist destination. Some friends of mine who went there for a long weekend said it was more of a one-day kind of town... But if this survey says it's livable, I believe 'em... Maybe because so many trains connect thru there and it's easy to get out of town...

7. Munich. Got there several times! Nice city. Good pretzels. Great Glockenspiel.

8. Frankfurt. Spent a day there sightseeing and traveled through there several times on the train. Nice town. Lots of sex shops near the main train station...

9. Bern, Switzerland. Been there! Seen Albert Einstein's house. Looked like a pleasant place to live. Capital of the country.

10. Sydney. I miss Sydney. Great city. Cool opera house and bridge. Nice botanic gardens. Cute flying foxes. Lots of opals.

One of the criteria this year was infrastructure, especially transportation, which is the reason Germany had so many cities on the list. You know those Germans -- they make the trains run on time...!