Based on a promise to ‘Pay Attention‘, this is one of six blogs with the good intention is to publish a photo a day of my six month adventure in Vienna with a caption and thoughts on the image. Be patient and wait for the pictures load.  August has no theme but I will be looking for good pictures over the past 5+ months that did not match the prevailing themes or that have artistic merit (well, at least to me).

August 17: My last photo of the day and one of the first I took in Vienna last March.  A quiet moment on the Danube Canal with a young woman sitting in safety on the near shore and families out with their prams walking past tidy apartment buildings.  In a single a few of the reasons Vienna has been voted the Economists most liveable Global city for 2018.

August 16: A collage of corner buildings in Vienna.  The question is, if you owned such an apartment, what would you put in such a room?  A swivel chair to look out each of the 3+ sides in turn?  Filled with plants to catch different sun locations or a series of cat-stands so Fluffly is never bored.

August 15: Two separate images of a large and now partially abandoned farm building.

August 14: No, these are not little homes for elves.  They are ventilation chimeys for the wine cellars built into the side of the hill.  Above freezing in the winter and cool in the summer, they dot the Austrian country side.  This particular group near Hohenau.

August 13: Having read the book The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham as a kid, I always find sunflowers to be particularly creepy – especially when they are part of a field as far as the eye can see and standing in military precision rows.

August 12: Scenes from the FeCT 2018-08-12 Ride.

At the point where three countries borders meet, my trusty steed and some Carp gone wild!

August 11: A winch attached to St. Stephen’s Cathedral.  Used (according to the book Secret Vienna) to winch asylum seekers up into the cathedral to avoid prosecution.  As to who did the winching and why not remove the winch – details not available.

August 10: A nick nacks shop within the courtyard formed by 3-4 buildings.  A quiet and cool place on a hot summer day.

August 9: A free mason’s door complete with hanging stone… errr in case of earthquake perhaps find a different door way to shelter under.

August 8: occasionally you will see these signs and this one was outside of the literature museum in the inner city of Vienna.  In four languages (English, French, Russian and German – the first three being the languages of the occupying powers) it reads: ‘Protected by the Convention of The Hague, dated 14 May 1954, for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict’.  The Austrian Military even produced its own rules of engagement for managing cultural property in case of conflict.

August 7: Scooters are incredibly popular amongst the Viennese for getting around.  Normally associated with a 10 year old, I have seen seniors, business men, professional women (complete with heels) and everyday Joe/Janes zip around on them.  It makes sense as it allows you to cover a longer distance with less effort.  For those wanting more ummphhh you can also buy electric scooters so you don’t need to exert yourself at all.  Cost, in the 80-300EUR depending on quality, powered or not, etc.

August 6: Add on Buildings: Both Vienna and the city where I grew up, Calgary, made the top 4 list of the 2018 most livable cities. By way of sustainability however, Vienna has Calgary through density.  Vienna covers an area of 414.65 km2 (160.10 sq mi) while Calgary is double at 825.56 km2 (318.75 sq mi).  Populations and respective densities are even further apart at 1,889,083/1,239,220 and 4,326.1/km2 (11,205/sq mi)/1,501.1/km2 (3,888/sq mi) respectively.  One of the ways that Vienna is that much more dense is because of it builds up and then provides excellent public transit to service the population.  Sometimes building up goes questionably wrong.

In the following montage are 4 buildings in which an additional floor has been added.  In the bottom left, assuming the top floor was an addition, the penthouse flows nicely with the architecture.  Bottom-middle has a top floor peaking up above the others but it sort of flows in an erect sort of way, bottom-right is germanic metal super-structure on an otherwise ordinary building.  And then there is the flying wing.  This gold doggish-thing apparently serves no purpose other than decorative and the Southeast exposure ensures the penthouse is an oven in the summer-heat.  No wonder it has apparently gone unsold in over two years.

August 5: Scenes from the FeCT 2018-08-05 Ride.

Euro Velo 13: A new memorial sculpture commemorating those that died trying to cross the border during the Cold War was due to be unveiled. The visitors are given an early glimpse of this thought-provoking piece – each iron column represents one of the 53 people that died trying to escape along the Czech-Austrian border.

Heading North, the city of Mikulo in the distance.

August 4:Two sides to the same statue, public art example.

August 3: Boats on the Danube.

August 2: Another orphan, the main entrance to Ausgarten.

August 1: An orphan from July-Photo-A-Day displaced by a district.  On the road to Baden.