Danube - Day 1: Boston to Vienna (by airplane and on foot)

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I flew from Boston to Vienna via Frankfurt overnight Friday, met Scott at the Vienna airport Saturday morning, and took the train to Wien Mitte, where our adventure begins [4036 mi]


Over-the-top car display in the Frankfurt airport

en route from Frankfurt to Vienna

I couldn't resist investigating this art that we saw on the Vienna airport conveyer belt; sadly, i have no further information to share

From Wien Mitte, we dropped our bags at Hotel Austria, then walked to die Ankuruhr, the clock that runs a slideshow of twelve figures from Austria's history every day at noon. Then we had lunch at a pita shop called Hungry Guy (food sadly not photographed), checked in at Hotel Austria and at BDan's hostel, and met up with Joe and did a slow walk via the city park to the Belvedere Palace gardens, where we met up with Lisa and Tim. We tried and mostly failed to check out the University of Vienna botanical gardens, then headed back for dinner at Griechenbeisl. I'm pretty sure some of the river photos were taken along the Donaukanal, but i'm not sure where. [~7.5 km]


First stop in Vienna: die Ankeruhr, the nostalgic moving clock tourist experience of my childhood

A reasonable crowd shows up for the noon clock parade

The clock parade kicks off with number XII: Haydn (it goes without saying that i'm going to show y'all all twelve of these, right?)

I: Marcus Aurelius

II: Karl der Große (aka Charlemagne)

III: Theodora Angelina, Duchess of Austria (1198-1230), und Gemahl

IV: Lyric poet Walther von der Vogelweide

the figures in the parade are very close together

V: Gertrud Anna von Hohenberg, progenitor of the House of Habsburg, and spouse. Again for scale, this shot has a pretty good view of III Theodora in the channel ahead.

VI: Hans Puchsbaum, who built St. Stephen's Cathedral, to which we will return later

VII: Maximilian I

VIII: Vienna mayor Andreas von Liebenberg

IX: Graf Rudiger von Starhemberg (another 1683 Battle of Vienna type)

X: Prince Eugen von Savoyen, who also got his military start in the Battle of Vienna

XI: Kaiserin Maria Theresia (and, in all fairness, this one actually does say "und Gemahl" on the plaque)

History of die Ankeruhr

A street in Vienna

BDan approaches their hostel (what is even happening with that arch?)

Spiral stairwell at Hotel Austria

A street corner in Vienna

Boats docked along the Donaukanal

Tagging along the Donaukanal

Street art along the Donaukanal

Refugees welcome (graffiti)

City view from a bridge

Vienna street view

Pedestrian area

Campaign posters whose context we never figured out

Columns on a building

Check out this jacket though

Wall art in Vienna

A statue of Schubert in the Vienna city park

A busker in the Vienna city park

People hanging out in the Vienna city park

A water feature in the Vienna city park

More water feature

A mosaic in Vienna

Catholic church on Strohgasse in Vienna

Oh no, Amazon is everywhere

Scott watching a fountain

Flowers!

Memorial for Soviet soldiers killed during WWII's Vienna Offensive

These geometric plants tell us we've arrived at the Belvedere Palace gardens

Building which is not in fact Belvedere palace

Lisa walks in the gardens near the front of the palace

Tim walks towards actual Belvedere Palace

Sculpted trees along the walk to Belvedere Palace

Lisa, with a statue of someone playing an instrument which i'm going to call a lute even though i know it isn't

Let's call this one a harp

Flute?

Drum!

...compass and globe?

A water feature in the park

More statues

We interrupt statues to bring you these hedges, overshadowed by a dome

Back to statues: sphinx time!

Battle of sphinxes

Detail on battling sphinx

Tall grass art in front of the castle

A water feature with bonus sea-creature wrestling

A water feature demonstrating what happens when mermaids don't brush their tails regularly

View down from the steps of the palace

View up from the steps of the palace

I like domes

Last call for sphinxes

Sphinx close-up

Gate cherub oversees construction

We found some grounds where we could hang out, complete with weird lawn chairs

...and got a view of the closed University of Vienna Botanical Gardens

some tall plants

Lisa and Tim try the weird chairs

view of grounds, under construction

Scott, visiting the view

walls and greenhouse roof of botanical gardens

Scott tries out the chairs

It's Joe, peering inside a shrubbery!

The exciting view from inside the shrubbery

Looking up through a tree in the park

What is happening on the bark of this tree?

canon. apparently

Garlic soup at dinner

Lamb and ratatouille at dinner (don't forget to ask for rare)

A dessert wine i liked

Fried dough with plum sauce

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