Two days ago I caught a whiff of a sweet fragrance as we set out on our morning dog walk. Yesterday it was clear it was the linden blossoms of one particular tree that gets a lot of sun. Today it reminded to let you know — it must be June, the linden trees are out.
Happy June!
Every year the MA 42 (the “Magistratsabteiling” of the City of Vienna responsible for public parks and gardens) choose certain mixtures of flowers that they plant everywhere. The daffodils and red tulips are gone, but these have come out. I have no idea what they are (I am the kind person who is happy to work in a garden as long as someone else tells me what to do), but they are tall (about a foot and a half) and look like something out of Dr. Seuss, if you ask me. Fun.
We are nearing the end of the Rundumadum. In fact, because I started with the last leg of the trail, I have now come full circle. I do still need to get the stamp from the Roter Hiasl restaurant in the Lobau as they were not open when we passed that way. Then I will be eligible for my City of Vienna hiking pin. 🙂
But I am getting ahead of myself, which is a pity because the start of this stretch was so enticing (not just because the bus took us uphill and we only walked downhill ;-)). Here it is, an old “Kellergasse” within the city limits.
What is a “Kellergasse”? Many will already know that a “Keller” is a “cellar” and, in this case, a wine cellar, and a “Gasse” is a narrow street or alley. They are (or were) common in wine-growing regions and were used to store wine before it was sold. Now, many people are buying them up and converting them into weekend retreats. As they are typically in rather green and agricultural areas, they make good retreats.
We followed Krottenhofgasse all the way down into Strebersdorf (one of the many villages that were incorporated into Vienna), oohing and aahing over the many flowering shrubs, which were at least two weeks behind what they are in town.
In Strebersdorf, we linked up with the Marchfeld Canal again, part of which we had seen on one of the earlier stretches, and carried on in even as it started to rain, noting the many places you could go down to the water and presumably swim. I couldn’t say I’d be very tempted as the water was pretty murky, but it might be nice to have the option nearby on a hot day.
On the left is a stretch of the canal that had an unidentified round structure on the shore (barely visible on the lefthand side) and on the right is a view still of the canal, although it looks like a lake or pond, with a glimpse of the church at the top of Leopoldsberg on the other side of the Danube (not visible). You can see from the photos that the weather was not bright, to employ a bit of understatement.
As has happened before, we at some point lost track of the Rundumadum signs and had to find our own way. We navigated, rather unusually, by checking out the bus route and managed to find our way to the 34A, which took us back to Floridsdorf. And just in time. By the time the bus pulled into Franz-Jonas-Platz in front of the U6 station at Floridsdorf it was coming down pretty heavily.
Trail number 23
Distance: 3.8 km
Time: 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes
Link: https://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/wald/freizeit/wandern/rundumadum/etappe23.html
Trail number 24
We did 2 to 3 kms of this one, getting in the bus at Am Hubertusdamm.
Link: https://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/wald/freizeit/wandern/rundumadum/etappe24.html
As I look over my notes, scribbled while watching the marathon on TV, I’m not quite sure to begin. Perhaps at the beginning. 😉 I missed it, sadly, but the event was opened with speech from Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, who emphasized the themes of this year’s marathon: joy, togetherness, and peace. (He was also reponsible for the starting signal, which worked, thank goodness, even though the bell fell off the can. [Sorry if that is not the correct terminology. I hope you can picture it nonetheless.]) The themes were highlighted by some of ORF footage, including an enormous “Stop War” banner on Stephansdom and a “Stand with Ukraine” banner on the Burgtheater, where the race ends.
As always, the commentary focused mainly on the first man, the first woman, the first Austrian man or, in this case, men, and the first Austrian woman. And as usual there was a lot to say what with giving running histories and personal interest stories — that the winner of the men’s race, Cosmas Matolo Muteti, placed 5th in Berlin in September 2021, that Vibian Chepkirui, winner of the women’s race, was defending her title, that one of the top Austrian men, Timon Theuer, has had a run of bad luck, which continued in this race as he fell and injured his hip at eight-kilometer mark and gave up finally because of the pain at about the 32-kilometer mark, that his pacemaker had planned to bow out at about the 30-kilometer mark but felt great so just kept going and crossed the finish line in 19th place. In fact, Muteti also commented that he could feel it was a really good day for him and so sped up to pass the leader, Oqbe Kibrom of Eritrea, who ended up coming in third, and so managed to cross the finish line first and with great panache.
As usual, I went down to watch the top runners go by at the stretch near me and was sad to realize I had missed the top men runners. (Boy, they must have been fast this year!) I made it just in time to see the leading Austrian man, Lemawork Ketema, go by and then Chepkirui, who was at that point still clearly in the lead of the women’s race. I waited about 15 minutes to see if the first Austrian woman would go by, but there was no sign of anyone. It turned out there was no top runner and, in fact, there was some question at the end as to who the fastest Austrian woman was. It turned out to be Anna Holzmann with a net time of 3:03:59, about a minute and a half faster than Carola Bendl-Tschiedl, the first Austrian woman to actually cross the finish line. (The start, as you can imagine with over 30,000 runners, is staggered.)
The men’s race was close at the end and exciting. The women’s race had me shouting at the TV it was so thrilling. Chepkirui was in the lead but Ruth Chebitok was catching up so fast and running so well that it really wasn’t clear if Chepkirui would find enough left inside herself to stay in the lead. She did, however, and, perhaps because of the pressure from Chebitok, broke the course record (Nancy Kiprop’s record) with a time of 2:20:59. Chebitok came in four seconds behind her. It galled me that although there were interviews with three of the men (the winner, the first Austrian, and the pacemaker who completed the race) there were none with the women, in spite of that spectacular run. Of course, there could be other reasons than unconscious bias for that omission — Chepkirui was clearly exhausted at the end or perhaps she doesn’t speak English and they didn’t want to spring for an interpreter — and then again it could be unconscious bias. ORF take note!
In any case, it was a Kenyan day. Out of the six top runners, the three men and the three women, five were Kenyan. And the Kenyan fan base went wild (see photo of my TV). I also thought it was lovely that in the photo session after the award ceremony Muteti, who had done his victory lap wrapped in a Kenyan flag, shared that flag with Chepkirui (other photo, from the ORF website).
For more info:
https://wien.orf.at/stories/3153155/
https://www.vienna-marathon.com/
And I have put the 2023 VCM into my calendar already — April 23rd!
Where I went today to see if I can test my way out of quarantine. (Yes, the evil C-Virus did finally catch up with me.)
Just made me think of a line from an old Jennifer Aniston – Paul Rudd movie. Their ballroom dancing teacher kept admonishing them “Head up, young person!”
A week ago, my walking partner and I (and Maylo, of course) walked the 22nd stretch of the Rundumadum trail. It’s amazing to me how the landscape changes. After all, we are circumnavigating only one city.
This time we walked through rather bleak vineyards (well, it is still February) and then open fields on the flat, with a view of Vienna on one side and of Lower Austria (not shown) on the other, before climbing up a stretch of Bisamberg and heading back to Hagenbrunn.
I’ve walked this route before but in the other direction when doing the Stadtwanderweg (city hiking trail) number 5 with a friend. In addition, I have pleasant memories of snacks on Bisamberg before Bergheuriger Langer closed its doors forever, a stop once at the Magdalenenhof, and enchanting coppices (or copses).
It was a pleasant, uneventful hike — even the buses ran when they were supposed to. 😉 We only did one stretch, which turned out to be just right. Anyway, I’ll be going back to re-visit the Heurigen (wine taverns) out that way when the weather gets warmer.
Trail number 22
Distance: 6,2 km
Time: 1.5 to 2 hours
Link: https://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/wald/freizeit/wandern/rundumadum/etappe22.html
Yesterday I was looking for a route I hadn’t walked before and came up with a path to Nussberg that starts in Grinzing. I found this: https://www.weinwandern.at/grinzing-nussdorf/
Nussberg is a favorite of mine and it’s even nicer if you can circumvent Beethovenweg, which tends to be excruciatingly overcrowded on a sunny weekend afternoon. That’s what this route does. It brings you out at the Döblinger cemetery and takes you up Nussberg from that side. It was wonderful.
I hopped on the bus to go and finally buy some wineglasses. (Of the 18 a friend gave me about 25 years ago — six each of three different sizes — only one remains, and there are some nice ones on sale for €1.49 each.)
There was a man standing with his dog near the door, a pitbull mix by the look of it all correctly leashed and muzzled. Since the man didn’t seem interested in the empty seat near him I took it. Within 30 seconds the dog had decided that I was a friend and came over with dog-like enthusiasm to say hello. We exchanged a few friendly words and then he (she?) turned his (her?) attention to the woman sitting across the aisle from me. Similar raptures and then the man called his dog back to him. The woman across the aisle smiled at me and “So eine nette Begrüßung” (“Such a nice greeting”). I replied “Ge?” (Viennese for “Wasn’t it?”) And then, true to proper behavior on public transportation in Vienna, we each went back to what we had been doing.
Eine nette Begegnung (or chance encounter).
I’m in the process of re-reading my journal from 2021 before putting it away and came across the following entry, from 6 July 2021:
This morning on our walk we ran into the MA 48ler [man who works for the city sanitation department and keeps our neighborhood clean] who loves to talk. We had a really good chat about how inconsistent the government is (“Sagt ‘man kann bei zwei Dingen nicht sparen — Sicherheit und Sauberkeit’ — und dann sparen sie trotzdem”*), how beautiful Vienna is, the oldest houses (apparently somewhere near Mölkerbastei), sustainability and not using coffee capsules, and so on.
This all came back to me as I was doing my gratitude session and I thought how amazing it is that I was allowed to experience that, in this city, in a foreign language I now speak well enough to follow almost all of what he says [he speaks a pretty thick Viennese dialect], safe, healthy, comfortable, on a beautiful not-too-hot July morning. What an amazing life I am allowed to live.
* “They say ‘There are two things one mustn’t try to save money on — safety and cleanliness’ and then they cut the budget for those two things anyway.”
After an abortive attempt on one of the May holidays (not only the rain but the wind was too discouraging and I wasn’t dressed right), a friend and I decided to attempt this stretch again. Because we were so deep in conversation most of the time, I’m afraid I didn’t get any pictures. Still, if you look at the pictures from this post–Trail 09–you’ll be seeing very much what we saw, complete with ducks.
I did take in some things, in spite of our conversation, and it was special to do this stretch with this friend. She not only lives in Alterlaa and often walks along the Liesing River, but she has lived in the 23rd district all her life and so can tell me about landmarks other people would miss.
We started more or less at the aquaduct that was built in the early 1870s to provide Vienna with clean water from the mountains. Apparently, 40% of Viennese tap water still comes from this source and is exceptionally good. As an old Viennese friend of mine used to say, with somewhat justifiable pride, “We flush our toilets with the kind of water people in other places buy in the supermarket.”
One thing that struck me as we walked was how varied the buildings are in this part of Vienna. Some are clearly from a more agricultural time before the area was incorporated into the City of Vienna. Some are non-descript newer buildings that look as if they are only there to serve a purpose but not to delight the eye. And some are interesting newer buildings.
When we got to Alterlaa, my friend invited me in for coffee and some of the best Christmas cookies around. The deep conversation continuing, I ended up staying for supper. Perhaps it would have been better if this stretch had been a bit longer so as to burn a few more calories!
All in all, though, it was a wonderful way to spend one of my holiday afternoons and evenings.
Trail number 8
Distance: 5.6 km
Time: 1.5 to 2 hours
Link: https://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/wald/freizeit/wandern/rundumadum/etappe8.html
ecbinvienna 