11-20 deg C, overcast and ordinary start to the day, a very gusty (up to 55 km/h, stronger at the top of the Tower), to fairly clear shies, but still a bit breezy
Walk G: 10km; total: 182km
Walk W: 6 km; total: 178km
Week 4 begins.
Due to our very late finish last night, we slept in a bit this morning and were at breakfast at the very late (for us) time of 7:30am. After breakfast and a bit of travel admin, we took the underground to the United Nations complex on the other side of the river. Unfortunately, the whole complex of the UN, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna International Centre and some other buildings, are all behind a very tall fenced adorned with razor wire; we suspect that they really didn’t want any uninvited guests. We could have taken a guided tour, but would have had to either wait 2.5 hours or come back. We chose neither, and left. Quite sad when an organisation such as the UN has to resort to security, including very well armed guards.
While we were over that side of town, we visited the Danube Tower that opened in 1964 and has both open-air and covered observation terraces, a revolving cafe and restaurant. The wind was really bad on the open-air deck and caught a number of people off guard and either blew them forwards or backwards, depending on what side of the tower they were on. It was just very unpleasant. You could also take a tube slide from the level between the cafe and restaurant down to the uncovered terrace. Greg considered doing it but didn’t.
Some other odd-shaped buildings were photographed on the way back to the underground. Two stops into the journey, Greg decided to hop off to visit the St Francis of Assisi Church that was not open today, it is tomorrow though, pity we won’t be here. Wendy made her way back to the hotel and did some route research for tomorrow then hotel research at the recommended stops. Our next two stops have been booked with one more to come.
Greg went out for one final wander while Wendy continued with trip admin. We both had takeaway dinners, then prepared for our departure tomorrow. Our time in Vienna has been spent as productive as we wanted it to be. Self-guided touring is not everyone’s cuppa, but we like to be able to do what we want, and when and how we want. There are probably a lot of things we didn’t get to see, but, there is always ‘next time’.
Tech Gate Buildings
Part of the UN complex and the IAEA
We believe this to be a large conference/congress centre
Saturn Tower, a 90m-high office tower
Views from the observation decks of the Tower
The Tower from a different angle
Short video of us coming down
The UN and IAEA complex
More Tech Gate buildings and flats
The PWC building
The Danube (Donau) City Church of Christ, Hope of the World is a Roman Catholic Church. It is a listed monument
St Francis of Assisi Church, a landmark basilica consecrated in 1913
Prater Park, carousel and Ferris wheel, both very old, late 1800s
This is our local underground, complete a three-storey shopping centre on the top. We have become quite proficient at using it. We believe we got our moneys worth on the seven day pass.
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