The center of Vienna is a grand place. It has large pedestrian areas, it is clean and tidy, plenty of provision for litter and reasonable public seating.  They have some problems with pigeons but not as much as I expected.  They did have one problem for us and that was lack of directions.  You would get one direction and then nothing!

This is a visual journey of our walkabout — to get the best from Vienna as a sightseer — you have to look up!

Looking back at St Stephen’s Cathedral:

Looking forward to destination across Stephansplatz/St Stephen’s Square:

Turning right into Graben:

Pestsäule — Enormous — 69 foot tall — Baroque Statue commemorating the end of the Great Plague of Vienna:

View to the right to St Peter’s Church — a Baroque Roman Catholic parish church.

The original church of which nothing remains is rumored to be the oldest building in Vienna.

As well as being a church it houses precious artifacts and holds regular musical performances and organ recitals.

One of the many fountains in Graben:

Next, we turned right into Kholmarkt through the roof tops a view of Franziskanerkirche — the Franciscan church of St Jerome:

We turn another corner — following a sign that takes us through a narrow gateway which joins the stables and training halls of the site of the new Vienna Riding School and which houses the Lipizzaner Museum.

Once you have passed through the gateway you enter the courtyard outside the Austrian National Library guarded by two magnificent statues.

A couple of hundred yards more and we are at our destination — The Albertina Museum!

We took about three quarters of an hour strolling to reach our destination — we could have spent a whole day if we had stopped and investigated everything on offer.  However, Monet awaited and was the primary objective for the day.

14 Comments

  1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Delightful, Nicola! Thank you for this spectacular tour! I love how the light changes from shot to shot as you move along your route. You’re right that all the good stuff is “up” and that’s why vertical images work so great for this kind of publication treat!

    1. Thank you for the great edits. Vienna is definitely an “up” city , more so than most. We did not visit the Hofburg Palace – that is for another visit maybe – but that is a huge Palace and that needs a wide screen and landscape format to show at its best – I think they built that one “long” to counteract all the “up”!

      1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
        David W. Boles says:

        I like using a long view to counterbalance a vertical one. Did you find yourself fighting elbows with others around you trying to catch the same “up” shots?

        1. I did not – there were a few spots where a lot of people were taking photographs – especially at the fountains but most were taking the landscape shot – mum and dad or relative at side of fountain .

          There were only four places where I had competition to photograph on the whole trip – where I had to be patient and wait my turn – The Albertina, the glass sculpture in Murano , one bridge in Venice and on the ferry in Venice.

          1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
            David W. Boles says:

            Fascinating! It’s interesting to learn what people value in the world to line up and record on their own device even though there are likely already thousands of existing images of the same object elsewhere.

          2. which leads nicely into this – which both irritated and amused me ………………. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23490926

            it is a magazine piece from the BBC whose cameras are everywhere and who document millions of things from what the Wimbledon Champion has as a snack in the rain break to front line news. Who are they to say we cannot document/archive our own lives and experiences ?

          3. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
            David W. Boles says:

            Fantastic article link!

            I remember getting into a friendly argument several years ago with another blogger who was using a friend’s photograph — without permission — of the exact same thing they each photographed together on holiday at the same date, place and time.

            The friend was furious that the blogger had used the image without permission, but the content thief — a rather famous blogger — claimed there was no difference between his photograph and his friend’s photograph, perhaps a few meters, maybe, and they were even using the same model iPhone!

            The only difference, the blogger claimed, was the eye on the camera and the finger touching the screen to take the photo.

            I argued that those differences between eyes and fingers — are the differentials between the artist and a wonk. He didn’t buy my argument, or his friend’s. SMILE!

    1. It is a very beautiful city which lends itself to photography – if you ever get a chance to visit – grab it !

  3. @ David – if he used his friends photograph without permission that is now considered intellectual property theft – friends or no friends. You however have nailed it spot on. It is the difference between eyes and fingers ……. we all see the world through our own eyes, with our own perspective and our own interests and take on things. Someone else would have taken this walk and it would be a series of designer shop fronts – because they were in designer fashion heaven.

    1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
      David W. Boles says:

      Right! I think my friend lost his iPhone and was working on a story and pulled the image he needed from his friend’s public page and didn’t think it was a big deal… until he found out it was… SMILE!

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