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24 – Final stretch

5 Jan

We did it! We finally finished the Rundumadum hiking trail. And only 😉 two and a half years or so after we went hiking together the last time, as described here. We managed to pick the perfect day for it, too. It was sleeting and windy and, of course, rather icy under foot with all that sleet. But, as we agreed, there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing, so we pulled on our warm and water-repellent things and went out.

As I mentioned in that post from May 2022, we didn’t manage the whole last stretch in one shot and so just had a couple of kilometers to go this time. We took the 34A bus from Floridsdorf more or less to where we stopped last time and set off from there in the direction of the Danube. Remarkably, given that we had often had trouble with the directions and missing trail signs, we didn’t have to re-trace our steps once. We found the pedestrian overpass that allowed us to cross the Autobahn first try and found ourselves walking along the banks of the Danube where the wind was, if possible, even stronger.

Other than a few hardy dog walkers, some with rather unhappy looking dogs, and a couple of joggers, we were the only ones crazy or driven enough (“We *will* finish it today”) to be out. Oddly enough, I can’t say it was unpleasant. We had enough to talk about, the scenery is always beautiful, and we were about to complete a journey I started alone in November 2018, if my memory serves me correctly. (Here is that first Rundumadum post with some photos of the stretch in friendlier weather.)

We found the Jedlerseer Brücke (bridge) easily and crossed to the Donauinsel, I remembering the first time I did that, with Maylo, who had to be carried part of the way. (He never did get used to bridges.) Then we transversed the Donauinsel, waved to Nussdorf, where we were headed, on the other side of the Danube, and followed the trail southeast to the next bridge and crossed. We came out quite close to the Heiligenstadt U4 station, and it was a little tempting to just stop there. However, we walked out to Heiligenstädter Straße and walked northwest to Nussdorf, the official end of that trail section. We were rewarded with a combination of some of the most famous “Gemeindebauten” or public housing blocks, including the Karl-Marx-Hof, and some beautiful 19th-century privately owned apartment buildings.

In Nussdorf, we congratulated each other and went back to my hiking partner’s place for some much needed Glühwein and Christmas cookies.

Up next — the city’s 14 “city hiking trails” (“Stadwanderwege”), which include some as short as 4 km and one as long as almost 23 km. (I suspect we won’t be walking that long one in one go!) Most of them seem to be between 10 and 12 km.

Below are a few photos from today’s walk, mainly to show the sleety, foggy weather. The last one also shows that we did make it all the way to Nussdorf.

Trail number 24

Distance: 7.8 km (of which we did three or four today)

Time (if you do the whole thing): 2 to 2.5 hrs

Link: https://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/wald/freizeit/wandern/rundumadum/etappe24.html

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The Second Day of Christmas

26 Dec

No turtle doves, but Vienna is showing itself from its best side. Weeks of grayness are very common in November, December, and January, so we rejoice over every hour of sunshine. At the same time, today, the temperatures are hovering around freezing, making it feel like Christmas. And, of course, who could do without the walk in the Vienna Woods (in the picture, you see the Pötzleinsdorfer Schlosspark in the 18th district) after the celebrations yesterday — and, in my case, this evening again?

Lots of people were out.

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We like to take our time in Vienna

3 Oct

I couldn’t resist this postcard, which I sent to my mother. (She’s been worried about what Putin might do since before he invaded Ukraine.)

What it says is: When the end of the world comes, go to Vienna. It’ll happen 20 years later there.

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Hiking season is starting

29 Sep

Actually, I already took quite a hike last weekend (Sophienalpe) but didn’t have time to upload photos so you are getting a couple of photos from yesterday’s hike on Wilhelminenberg. As I am fond of saying, “And it’s all within the city limits!” (A friend of mine from London, having heard this multiple times over a couple of hikes, commented, “That seems to be quite important to you.” Yes, it is!)

The big difference between last week’s hike and this was that yesterday, suddenly, the woods smelled autumnal. They had that special sent of fallen and just-starting-to-rot leaves as well as mushrooms.

Whatever time of year, it is all very beautiful, even when the sun isn’t shining.

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Wiener Alltagspoeten and the Taylor Swift concert (that didn’t take place)

23 Aug

One of my kindest and most faithful readers asked if I had survived the invasion of Swifties. This made me think I should share these posts from the Wiener Alltagspoeten (Vienna’s Everyday Poets).

Wiener Alltagspoeten is a movement, one could almost say, started and run by Andreas Rainer. It comprises a website, Facebook page, and a couple of books. It’s a collection of “seen and heards” from the streets of Vienna.

The two excerpts below come from the Facebook page. In the first one, an older gentleman is saying he doesn’t know who this “Tannor Swift” is, but he finds it utterly ridiculous that some total idiot wants to ruin the day for 200,000 peaceful people. The only thing is that it’s pretty much completely in Viennese dialect (e.g. Vollwappler, versaut, and depatt), which makes it especially memorable.

The second one tells the tale of, again, an older gentleman, this one in the upmarket district, Döbling. He is usually observed driving through his neighborhood playing classical music full volume on his car stereo. After the concert was canceled, he was heard playing Taylor Swift. 😊

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A typically Austrian story

16 May

I just heard from a colleague who is currently in Vienna with a group of U.S. American students that two of his group were walking around yesterday and ended up chatting with the Austrian president, Alexander van der Bellen.  They even got a selfie with him! (With or without his shelter dog I don’t know. )

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The Linden (Lime) Trees

15 May

The last two mornings I got the faintest whiff and thought I was imagining it because it is very early. This morning, it was clear — the linden trees are flowering again and the air is full of the sweet tantalizing scent.

Since I like to check my perceptions, I decided to go back and see if it really is so early or whether I was making that up. Here are the dates of my previous posts about the linden trees:

2023: Beginning of June

2022: June 2nd

2021: June 7th

2020: June 10th

2017: May 30th

2016: June 4th

2015: June 2nd

2012: May 24th

2011: May 30th

I’ll let you do the math.

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VCM 2024 (Vienna City Marathon)

21 Apr

The Vienna City Marathon (VCM) 2024 has come and gone this sunny and cool day, good for running although perhaps a tad too windy. It seemed a bit uneventful this year.

No course records were broken as two were in 2023, when Samwel Mailu of Kenya very clearly broke the men’s course record and Julia Mayer, in a stunning display of tenacity and speed in the homestretch, broke the Austrian women’s course record by one second.

No pacemakers finished the race without their racers as Timon Theuer’s did in 2022, when Theuer fell at the 32-km mark and bowed out of the race. This year, Theuer was entered for the half marathon.

There were no neck-and-neck finishes, as there were in 2022 when Joyce Chepkirui, defending her title from the year before, just managed to maintain her lead and cross the finish line before Ruth Chebitok.

No one collapsed near the finish line and therefore none of the other runners had to dodge an ambulance on their way to the end of the race as Chepkirui had to when she won on 2021.

None of the winners was disqualified for wearing the wrong shoes, as happened to Derera Hurisa of Ethiopia, heartbreakingly, also in 2021.

So, beautiful weather and clear wins by the leaders: Chala Regasa (ETH), Bernard Muia (KEN), Albert Kangogo (KEN), Mario Bauernfeind (AUT), Nazret Weldu (ERI), Faith Chepkoech (KEN), Rebbeca Tanui (KEN), and Julia Mayer (AUT).

In fact, coming into the homestretch Chala Regusa was so far ahead of the other men the VCM Twitter feed (I refuse to call it “X” and, in fact, only look at it to stay on top of what is happening in the marathon) had a post: Umdrehen muss er sich nicht, der erste Verfolger ist mehr als zwei Minuten hinter ihm. (He doesn’t have look over his shoulder – the nearest competitor is over two minutes behind him.)

In terms of diversity, just two interesting points from the interviews after the race. When Mario Bauernfeind, first Austrian man and on the police force in Vienna, was asked where he would go from here, he said he would have to go home, talk to the people close to him, and figure it out, that his children were getting older and needed more of his time. And Julia Mayer, first Austrian woman, mentioned that she had her period and so was really proud of her body for doing such a good job. To his credit, the ORF interviewer didn’t blink and later said something about how good that she felt free to mention that openly.

Once again, the Kenyan fans were out in force and showed great joy even though the first places were occupied by an Ethiopian (first time for the men since 2015) and an Eritrean (first time for the women ever, if I understood correctly).

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What a weekend, in a good way

3 Mar

After a few days in Baden with a friend, I got back to Vienna Friday evening. A good bit of Saturday was taken up with the usual household tasks, but yesterday evening I went to hear a bluegrass group I’ve known (about) for a long time at a wine bar in Grinzing. Yes, you read that correctly — bluegrass in Grinzing. A friend of mine from West Virginia and I go whenever we can and always leave feeling restored. The band itself has four regular members: one Austrian, one Slovak, one Czech, and, now, one Dutch. Constructive globalization in action. 🙂

As for today, this is the last day the ice-skating rink in front of the Rathaus is open. (Actually it offers two levels — so probably one of the few places you can skate uphill and then down again — and paths through the park so “rinks,” plural, seems more appropriate.) Given that not only the forsythia is out but also the flowering trees, it is probably a good thing that today is that last day.

I hadn’t been yet this season so I went down at 10 a.m. just as they were opening and stayed for about an hour. After that, it got so full(!) it wasn’t as much fun anymore. The photos I took show the general flowering of everything as well as the statues that have been accommodated. Now I feel I need to go down once the rinks have been removed and see who those gentlemen are.

Now I slowly have to get back into a work state of mind. Luckily, I have most of the afternoon to do that. And I’ve had a lovely time so — as the old tenant says in the Gwyneth Paltrow “Emma” — mustn’t grumble.

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Kommissar Rex

17 Feb

Today’s Kurier is reminding me that the only TV series I ever planned my life around, “Kommissar Rex”, is celebrating this year the 30th anniversary of its debut.

It seemed such a natural hit (Rex, Tobias Moretti, and Vienna) that I was surprised to read that the writer, Peter Hajek, tried for ages to get someone interested. Even when he found a director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, who had just won a prestigious prize for another crime show, it didn’t get much easier. Finally, a private network, SAT1, took it on. To think we might never have had it at all!

It was a show that not only appealed to the Viennese. It was shown in 120 countries around the world and inspired a Canadian version, “Hudson & Rex”.

And it gave work to some young actors who went on to international fame, notably Karl Markovics, who played the main role in “The Counterfeiters”, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008, and Christoph Waltz, who, with two Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, is practically a fixture in Hollywood at this point. He got a good start playing very sinister characters on Kommissar Rex when he played a doll maker who liked to dress women up as dolls, photograph them, and then murder them.

The episode that has stayed with me the longest was one in which someone was killing off little old Viennese ladies to get their hands on the apartments, leased until death at very low rents. (I would say “rent-controlled” but I think the system in New York, for example, is a little different from here.) That seemed quite realistic to me, and perhaps a bit worrying as I am now getting older, living in just such a flat (although without quite so low a rent).

Thirty years. That takes me back.

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