cave

When running through this tunnel I was fascinated by the atmosphere; I was happy to be there just when the light was perfect - in ordinary light this one really doesn't look too spectacular.

flood

Some flowers don't care too much about weather, they're flowering even when it's overcast and rainy, as Sedum sexangulare here. The floods are already retreating in Vienna; here's Waluliso bridge, the one I have to cross when I drive out to Lobau national park. On days like this, when the New Danube locks are open to prevent flooding in the city, the pontoon bridge of course must be disassembled lest the flood would tear it apart:

So today I had to take the detour over the lower weer which adds a good six kilometres to my route.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: the Donauinsel festival will be held, and its visitors will have to learn to do some mud-sliding still.

back

After more than a week I'm back. Two reasons, straight and simple: no photos to show, and last weekend I caught a cold which kept me indoors.

And there's soon to be not much, because by the end of next week I will be in hospital: finally my injured knee will be operated. But till then I hope to take some shots this weekend.

Weather by the way was too warm those last days, all those snow and ice melted away (and I completely missed the ice breaking up on New Danube which it surely has done); but the last couple of days it has become colder again and yesterday and today there was even snow. Still too warm to not melt away immediately, but this weekend we might get real snow, right here in Vienna: so far there weren't more than 3-5 centimetres snow on the ground in this winter, but this weekend we might get 10-15 centimetres!!

frozen danube

It was hot today.

For the first time in weeks we were above freezing - a sensational two degrees Celsius above zero we had when I took this shot. The warm weather hasn't yet done any damage to the ice. But as you can see, Danube river wasn't really frozen over: yes, the river is covered with ice - and yes, there are some places where there's even a little bit more ice than here; but no, the river is not frozen over, and of course it would be extremely dangerous to walk on Danube ice even where it looks more solid than it does here.

Still, we hadn't ice like that in the last two winters - we hadn't any ice worth mentioning at all those two winters. So it's nice to have some again.

toter grund

You see me standing on ice here - on the treachurous ice of the New Danube. It has some cracks which have frozen over solidly again, and I didn't dare go out more than ten metres:

Strangely enough, the bayou branching off from the New Danube here - called Toter Grund, dead ground/bayou - is free of ice even though it is a stillwater pond (while New Danube waters hardly move in winter - but they still move a little bit).

ice

The ponds and bayous of Lobau are frozen over, and so is the New Danube - the huge recreational area parallel to Danube river and where water only runs through in case water levels in the Danube are high, else it is just a stillwater bayou.

Even though it is not something special for stillwater to freeze over solidly in winter this hadn't happened for two winters now, and I am really really happy that the ice is thick enough to walk on.

This here however is the Danube river:

The river itself only freezes over on very rare occasions. And as you can see this hasn't happened yet - the ice you see here only could build in a small channel, out on the river there are only small chunks of ice: but those you can see already.

But I don't expect the Danube river to freeze over this year - this really only happens once or twice a century, and the last time was further back than I can remember. (Also don't forget global warming.)

Whatever: when the ice will break up on the New Danube and on the bayous of Lobau this could be spectacular. Remains to be seen, of course.

where there's smoke

Where there's smoke there is sure to be a fire (Michelle Shocked, V.F.D.):

Yesterday a warehouse in Simmering, Vienna burnt down; a huge cloud of smoke was the result.

You may browse through the gallery of wien.ORF.at.

mosquito

Mosquitos love photographers who let them suck their blood if they've found an interesting motive: because real photographers certainly have the cojones to just ignore the pain caused by a mosquito if a photo is worth it.

But mosquitos even more love bikers who have a flat tyre to repair on their bicycle (which really don't leaves them with a free hand to swat the lousy buggers), which I had to do today just a few metres from this sight here, the oil port of Lobau:

(By the way, no, still no autumn crocus. I guess you'll just have to wait just a little bit longer.)

interrail

You know what that is? Travelling through Europe with a cheap rail ticket, your lodging place being the train and your douche the rain, meeting strange people from strange cultures with stranger customs and getting the feel of what it is like to really be away from home.

You did that?

Good for you. I wish I had.

Can't do that unfortunately, at my age. Not only is the ticket much more expensive for people over twenty-six; that's a nuisance but could be overcome. The most serious problem would be that I can't stand any more dirt accumulating on my body, for a whole month.

WaLuLiSo

I have already written about Waluliso bridge here on this blog a few times; it is again assembled (it's a pontoon bridge) for quite some weeks and shortens my way to Lobau considerably. Althogh the nudists in this area are already out in great masses I caught the bridge unawares, with no people on it at all. As this is a special occasion really I considered showing this favorite bridge of mine once more.

no text

even

no text

is text

Kirsten

In other years, Austrian mass media probably wouldn't even have noticed orcan Kirsten, our latest winter storm.

But this year they did. Probably because it was the third orcan strength storm already even though storm Kirsten already was rather weak when it reached Austria; but then of course another factor was that Kirsten caused extensive damage to our neighbour Germany. Anyway, it is frightening how much winter storms seem to increase (especially as that is what exactly global warming theories predicted for Europe).

Anyway, Kirsten is gone already and it's rainy now; and rain it should, in spring, so that plants may grow.

Today's picture, therefore, already was taken the day before yesterday. As you see, it's just a ship:

See also: Kyrill, Paula & Emma

the channel

It was a cold, rainy day, and I decided that it was perfect for a short trip with the bike.

Originally I intended to take some pictures from the new biological gas power station which produces a substitute for natural gas out of biological waste. (Usually this was used to feed pigs. But the European Union decided that it is 'unappetizing' to eat pork from pigs who ate our kitchen waste - which we did for centuries, by the way: it was our ancient understanding of the modern word 'recycling'. So there was sought, and found, another way to make use of these waste products.)

Anyway, on the way to and from this site I twice stopped at the Danube channel or Donaukanal (which is a small branch of the river reaching right into the heart of the city).

It turned out that I like the pictures taken there significantly more than the one taken of the power plant. So here it is - my favourite shot of the day.

the new danube

We had a short, nice and warm indian summer in Central Europe. Very short indeed - but who knows, maybe we'll see a little bit more of it in october.

I've still quite a number of pictures to show from this period while it's wet and cold outside. Like this one:

The sun setting over the New Danube, left hand side you see the artificial island which was left over from the former flooding area when the New Danube was dug in the 1970ies and 80ies - and right hand side (the red-and-white banded chimney) there's the power station Donaustadt. In the background, where the New Danube nearly touches the sky, you see the hills of the Wienerwald - the woodlands in the west of Vienna, and a touch to the light the skyskrapers of and around of Vienna International Centre.

wild wine

The days get shorter by the week.

There's no pun intended, it's the simple truth. When a few weeks ago I had time after work for a three hours tour on the bike (and still was home before sunset), there's now left only two hours max, and I have to struggle to get home before it's dark.

Anyway, as sunsets in summer mostly are boring but great in autumn (and spring and winter too, of course) ...:

... I won't complain. This by the way is the sun setting over Simmering, the district where I live in Vienna.

There's a downside, of course: soon it will be dark already when I'm home from work and I'll be out on the bike only on weekends. That is, if I will manage to ride my bike even if it's freezing cold - which remains to be seen.

floodings

Waluliso bridge has been disassembled.

Due to the heavy rain in the last days and to prevent flooding in Vienna the weir to the New Danube was opened and the whole leisure zone, including the nudist area around Waluliso Bridge, was flooded:

The stink of mud lies in the air; and as I write this lines the smell rises up from memory again and seems to fill my flat. The boats making up the pontoon bridge now are free to rise and fall with the flood.

This is no special occurence at all, of course, and would happen every year at some time - but usually not already at the end of august, beginning of september. The bridge most likely will stay closed from now on till spring next year.

For me this means that I'll have to take a detour down to the lower weir of New Danube in order to get to Lobau national park. That's a nuisance, but no big deal - means only a few kilometres more on flat terrain, or a few miles alternatively; with that I can cope.

danube

Today was a rainy day exactly as the weatherwoman promised. I wouldn't believe her and drove out on my bike anyway.

Well, the rain caught me fully. I found shelter on the pedestrian bridge at Freudenau power station and watched a vessel manoeuvring in the danube:

Obviously the crane ship in the background should dig up sand and load it into the freighter, keeping the shipping lane free.

They didn't achieve much during the time I was watching, approximately half an hour. Or should I say they didn't do anything at all but manoeuvre a little?

After a while I decided that most likely I won't have any choice but driving home in the pouring rain - and that's what I did shortly after. It really looked like it would rain for hours on end.

And guess what, the moment I arrived at home - soaking wet and cold - it stopped raining and the sun came out.

the blue lagoon

Yesterday I showed you the warehouses of Alberner Hafen, and today follows what you could find behind them:

I'd like to remark on that picture a little bit, as it was taken in great discomfort.

Not only was I pestered by mosquitos, they also had an easy feed. For one, I was concentrated on getting good pictures (which wasn't easy as the sun hid for minutes behind the clouds - yes, there aren't any in the picture, that's because they were behind me).

Furthermore, on this day I had a minor accident on my bike, some scratches, bumps and swellings, nothing serious, but I was only able to wash off the dirt and had blood on my feet. This seems to have driven the mosquitos mad.

So I literally had to take great pains to get this shot. Hope it was worth it.

the nudist zone bridge

On july 7th I told you about Waluliso and the pontoon bridge named after him (German Waluliso-Brücke). Lately here in Vienna we had a few rather cold days so that finally I had the opportunity to take some pictures of this bridge without any nudists on it:

As for taking pictures of nudists I'd say that it's rather likely that quite a few of them wouldn't have any objections being photographed by foreign people. But it is quite save to say that hardly anyone on the nudist (FKK) beach on the New Danube would appreciate being photographed without being asked beforehand.

So, if you ever would like to try this out, be sure to ask for permission. And if you plan to publish the pictures of the net, then you better get the permission taken down in print, signed by all persons depicted. You might just get in serious troubles otherwise.

freudenau

There's a bridge in Vienna hardly ever used for anything. It's closed for cars and even bikes and pedestrians. The bridge is leading to a power station and I guess that at least sometimes some vehicles will use it, otherwise why bother building it in the first place?

There might be and unusual answer to that one: probably some architect thought there was too much unused space which should be filled with a beautiful bridge.

Of course it seems rather unlikely that this would be so. But let's just enjoy imagining this being the case - for the bridge to Freudenau power station reaching over the locks of Freudenau dam: