We walked the few km along the Danube canal - I have learnt that the main river that runs beside the old town in Vienna isn't actually the Danube, but a small canal running off from the Danube, which they call the "Danaukanal" - we have yet to really see the 'real' Danube.
Anyway - we wandered along the Danaukanal and then found the Prater, which is like a giant park that houses a planetarium, a big amusement centre and other things as well as park grounds....
Autumn officially starts tomorrow in the northern hemisphere (they go by the phases of the moon/sun rather than just the months like we do) and already you could see that the leaves had started changing colour.
The highlight of the Prater park has to be the ferris wheel....this is the worlds oldest ferris wheel and also the only one with wooden carriages. So of course we had to give it a go.
The "Wiener Riesenrad" (or Vienna Ferris Wheel)
The wooden carriages. They look like little houses!
Before you go on the ferris wheel, there is a little display room which houses some of the cabins that were previously used on the ferris wheel ( I think in the past they had twice as many cabins as they do now)....the cabins were now filled with small dioramas that show the history of Vienna and the ferris wheel.
You can see in this one how there were far more cabins on the wheel then there is today.
This one is about the war and how in world war II the park was basically destroyed, but the ferris wheel was almost immediately rebuilt to symbolise the reconstruction of Vienna.
Once we had looked at all the displays we jumped into one of the cabins and had our turn on the real thing. We were very lucky because today the entire place was practically deserted and we walked straight on the ferris wheel with no queue at all!
On the trip over, we got a great view of the whole of Vienna, along with the amusement park that lay below us.
Approaching the top of the wheel....
The amusement park
After we got off the ferris wheel, we took a walk around the amusement park....although half of the rides were closed and most of them were too big for the girls to go on....they did find one ride they liked........
My girls the 'thrill-seekers'.......
After the excitement, we walked back along the Danaukanal to our apartment. On the canal, they have 'beaches' set up, complete with sand and beach chairs......but it just isn't Sardinia really!!!
The Viennese 'beach'
Our apartment block (the one in the middle above the blue truck).....told you it was the ugliest building in Vienna!!!!
After a rest, we were out again strolling through the shops of the old town, where we met up with Shane (who had finished for the day) and enjoyed a drink in the setting sun by the side of St Stephens church.
A pretty great adventure day I must say.
