This Looking Back Series is dedicated to my Travel and Life Companion who has shared with me the joys and sometimes frustrations of travelling in Europe in 2012.
It was so easy to get to Vienna, just a train ride from Bratislava main station that costs an unbelievable €14; so cheap compared to the astronomical prices in the UK. The OBB trains run every hour and we would get off at Simmering, then take the U-bahn directly to Stephensdom, right in the heart of Vienna.
I adore Vienna: the historic centre is grand, magnificent, glorious, and has some of the most impressive Baroque architecture in Europe. And most of all, it is a city associated with two of my favourite composers: Mozart and Beethoven.
This time, we visited some lesser known sites, purely to see a different side of Vienna. One of them is Zentralfriedhof, the Central Cemetery. To the Austrians, cemeteries are places of culture and part of Vienna's history as a city. Apart from the graves, there are also green spaces, trees, churches, historical buildings and cultural monuments. The Vienna Zentralfriedhof is a cemetery on a grand scale, with notable interments such as the composers Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss I and II, and of course there is a memorial erected in memory of Mozart. The tombstones are art in themselves, some traditional, some imaginative, some creative, and some moving. It is a magnificent way to honour the dead.
Onto something less grand but equally interesting. We took the Twin City Liner from Bratislava to Vienna, landing at the jetty at Schwedenplatz. Passing through the Donaukanal, I had the pleasure of visiting what is best described as an urban art gallery, and all the more better because admission is free. The Danube Canal breaks off from its mother river and slithers like a snake through down town Vienna. From the boat, the eyes of the travellers can feast on a kaleidoscope of bright colours sprayed on the brick walls that unfold a comic-book style panoramic exhibition of contemporary, urban graffiti. As we cruised along the canal, the wall-to-wall murals consume every bare, grey surface of stone, brick or cement. I love the cheekiness of the drawings, and admire the sense of fun that the artists impart through these paintings.
It was so easy to get to Vienna, just a train ride from Bratislava main station that costs an unbelievable €14; so cheap compared to the astronomical prices in the UK. The OBB trains run every hour and we would get off at Simmering, then take the U-bahn directly to Stephensdom, right in the heart of Vienna.
I adore Vienna: the historic centre is grand, magnificent, glorious, and has some of the most impressive Baroque architecture in Europe. And most of all, it is a city associated with two of my favourite composers: Mozart and Beethoven.
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| Stricken with grief, a figure in mourning Zentralfriedhof, Vienna |
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| Graffiti along Danube Canal, Vienna |
