As promised: description of the pix of Vienna

Let´s start with the chimney sweeper: I guess y´all know the luck bringing meaning of a chimney sweeper- well, this seams to be the reason, why he is attached to the house of the class lottery in the first district.

I´ve been browsing the net, but cannot find any particular reason for his being there. If I ever find out, I´ll let you know.

Taking the picture of the chimney sweeper I stood on a short bridge and turning to the left I took the second picture down to the road underneath.

This lovely building is the Hotel Orient.

It is one of these hotels, where they charge by the hour, but still very noble and most of all: not cheap. I´ve never been there, but I know, that some people just die from curiosity and spend a night there with their loved one. It´s obviously hip to have spent a night there; gives one the certain tingle of thinking, that one did something a wee bit on the naughty side

http://www.hotelorient.at/

The white house with the golden décor is one in a row of houses in the “Linke Wienzeile”. There are so many, that it really makes sense to go there again and make a whole series just about these houses, built during art deco, art nouveau and fin de siecle.

I didn´t have enough time; we were on the way back from the biggest and probably oldest market: the “Naschmarkt” which is an adventure in itself.

We bought loads of different nuts, dried fruit, vegetables and I was introduced to wasabi- nuts. Wow! Nuts covered in the green, hot Japanese veggie…ho-o-otttt!

The lovely filigree building on top of the hill is the “Gloriette”, viewed from the “Schloss Schönbrunn” , which nowadays houses a café with amazing view and delicious cakes.

Both beautiful sights were built in the 18^th century when Empress Maria Theresia ruled the vast empire and it is said, that there is a secret underground corridor between these two.

The craftsmen ship and the love to details is overwhelming, the creativity of the builders astounding!

The delightful flower arrangements still follow baroque patterns and this figure shows Diana, goddess of the hunt, who watches next to “Schloss Schönbrunn”.

The little red huts are wagons on the “Riesenrad” the giant ferris wheel in the Prater.

You can tell, that I love taking pix from unusual angles...

René and I took a ride on it, me frantically taking pix of the area ( like the next, which shows Vienna to the north east, with a view of the UN- building) and bubbling away about the sights and everything was fine until we reached the highest point and the wagon stopped. *Gulp*

I had been on it as a child and half grown up without problems. But that day I had to sit down and René tried hard to get my mind off the idea, that I was in a flying red wagon on the way to mars.

Boy, was I happy to step on firm ground again!

Here´s an impression of the ferris wheel behind a roller coaster while the sun went down, followed by the closed toboggan, where people would slide down on a bag. Somehow the wooden building became dangerous, was closed down and rottens away charmingly until it will be replaced by a modern gambling hall or something like that.

Toboggan reminds me of Billy Connolly, when he tells the story of how queer it sounds, if somebody says, that he is a tobaggonist ;))

The huge wale is the entrance to a Prater restaurant, “Zum Walfisch” – in English: The Whalefish. It is old, very old, dates back to the time, when whales were still regarded as fish.

Danube Island- built about 30 years ago to save Vienna from being flooded. It is partly natural and partly covered with restaurants, bars and discos, and is flooded during summer by Viennese, tourists and gazillions of moscitos and well known Europe- wide for it´s yearly Danube Island Festival.

We went to a safari dinner about a month ago, which was held in the yellow round building on the next foto.

It´s situated right in the middle of the zoo, and used to be the breakfast pavillion of the emperor.

Before this dinner we had a night guided tour after the zoo was closed for visitors, which was exciting itself, and then was followed by a masterpiece of an Austrian chef, who cooked with a tendency to African cuisine.

I´ll finish my little tour with some pix from the interiour of the pavillion: the gentleman on the oil painting is Emperor Kaiser Franz Josef I in his younger years. He ruled the empire from 1830-1916 and was married to Empress Elisabeth, also known as Sisi, who you might have heard of.

I hope you enjoye your wee tour through Vienna!