Wednesday 19 March 2008

Come Walk With Me!


Josefstädter Strasse
8th District

View from the intersection
of Josefstädter Strasse and Piaristengasse,
with the venerable Theatre in the Josefstadt
(Josefstädter Theater) to the left,
and the scaffolded bell tower, the "Steffl",
of St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom)
on the far horizon .


Parliament Building
and Imperial Palace

This is the view from Rathausplatz,
with the Parliament building rising to the right,
and the cupola of the Imperial Palace's (Hofburg) St. Michael's Wing (Michaelertrakt)
beckoning on the horizon.

Walking downhill on Josefstädter Strasse,
at the intersection with Lenaugasse and Auersperstrasse,
the street becomes first Stadiongasse, then Rathausplatz.

City Hall

At Rathausplatz, you can see the Austrian Parliament building to your right, and to your left extends a park with the City Hall building and, on the other side of the Ringstrassen Boulevard, the Burgtheater.


Burgtheater

The Austrian Parliament
View from the Volksgarten's Rose Garden

Pallas Athene
Athene Fountain
in front of the Parliament building


Volksgarten
The Rose Garden and,
in the background,
the cupola of the Museum of Natural History.

Rose Garden

*

Vienna is a witch.
Beware!


She sure knows how to pull me in!
I have never walked out of sheer lust
of enjoying the sights
as much as I do here.
Yesterday was one of those days
when I succumbed once again to her spell.
I was standing at a tram stop
way up in Hernals, the 17th District,
when it struck me.
Why take the tram on a day
with beautiful light like this?

I started pondering the possibilities.
Might as well walk,
and take a few pictures
!
Oh well,
my boots started walking
and carried me
all the way downhill,
to the First District,
and not on the shortest route either.
Yesterday's and today's images
show but a few sights I encountered
along that walk.

Tabucchi probably would call it
"A Hallucination",
because in Vienna
walking not only means communing
with one's surroundings,
but with people and events of the past.

*

You'd like to do more walking?
Just click on any of the images,
plenty of walks ahead, and even
a coffee stop or two
along the way
!

17 comments:

  1. Yes, communing with people and events of the past...that is exactly what it is about. Luckily I had brought my coffee from home, and so sipped and explored to my hearts content. Sharing is so good of you...in answer to your question, no further tests required right now...thank heaven, because I'd have to tranquilize him to get him to one more doctor!

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  2. Lovely blue skies. Hope you are well. have a lovely Easter

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  3. Lovely pictures, I enjoyed my walk with you.
    And how nice to see the leaves and flowers coming out on the trees.
    I had a penfriend in Vienna when I was a child, her name was Elisabeth Moser and she lived on Wasserburgerstrasse! I wonder where she is now????

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  4. Lovely blue skies. Have you noticed that first few pictures have some kind of web (of wires & branches) when you look up ?

    Have a lovely Easter.

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  5. @ cuckoo:
    Oh yes, I noticed them and tried to "use" them as creative design elements. *smile* These are the overhead wires that power the streetcars (unlike cities like Washington DC, where streetcars used to run on underground power). If you enlarge the first picture, you can see that the wires run parellel to the tracks. Some of the wires carry street lights.
    Lovely Easter to you too! :-)

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  6. @ Sandi MacBride:
    I am glad you enjoy following me around! :-) Thank heaven for the good news, congratulations.

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  7. @ ex-shammickite:
    I have more flowers and leaves waiting to be posted!
    I looked for the street you mentioned, the official Vienna map doesn't give me any Wasserburgerstrasse, but a Wasserburgergasse (click here). If you'd send a postcard, somebody at the old address may know of the whereabouts of your pen pal. Good luck!

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  8. I loved this little guided tour! I'll be back for more....I'm so glad you decided to walk instead of ride the tram. I often wonder, looking at your blog, if my grandfather enjoyed many of these same sights....his family often visited Vienna, he grew up in what is now south Poland but was then Austria-Hungary. He immigrated to the USA in 1910.

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  9. @ Mary:
    Happy Easter to you too! :-)

    @ Sara:
    I would say most of the buildings were there before your grandfather emigrated. Have you been to Vienna yet?

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  10. Love your cloudy skies and the intense blue.
    The Tabucchi books have arrived at last.
    Will keep you posted.
    Haven't been able to post a comment on your last few posts because I was using Firefox and the comments wouldn't 'take'.
    I loved the pretty spring colors.

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  11. Ah it's nice to see green leave! Still a couple weeks away here for me. Thank you for the photos.

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  12. Nice photos.Vienna is on my list of cities to visit.

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  13. absolutely gorgeous!!!

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  14. Thanks for the lovely walk!!!!

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  15. Everytime I follow you on your walks I vow that my next trip will include Vienna. I don't think my little ones are ready for all the walking I'd want to do so I may have to wait a bit (or hope that this summer my sister and I can pull off the children swap). Keep walking and I hope to have some photos of my shorter walks through Belgium and the Netherlands soon.

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  16. I can't take my eyes off of all the new shoots on the trees! Lovely.

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  17. I come with you, so lovely walk!

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