Vienna #3of5

We rode the bus and streetcar in Vienna when we could decide our destination could be reached without too many transfers. If we bought the tickets at the little store across the street from the campground, they cost about 65 cents each, if we forgot, then bought the ticket on the bus, they cost a little more.

As we stood in line in a bank to get money using our BankAmericard, we met a very pretty Italian lady, who was an American citizen, visiting in Vienna. Her husband works for a US company, on satellite communication for the Government of Italy. They live at the lake where we had camped one night, near Rome. She said that due to the sensitivity of her husband’s job, they are not allowed to travel to the Iron Curtain countries, as we are planning to do in a few days. In the early 1980’s satellite communications, were still new and very secret.

We drove across the Danube River and the Danube Canal to the Donauturm, the 827 feet high TV tower, then rode the to the revolving restaurant at the 500 feet level. Much of Vienna can be seen from there, but since it’s a mile or two from downtown, the most famous buildings can’t be seen in much detail. Right below the tower is the Donauparkhalle, a large complex of triangular buildings, with sides that are deeply concave. We were told that the United Nations occupy most of the office space. The Tower and the Halle sit in the Donaupark, and we remember small houses more or less on display. They looked like they could be someone’s summer houses, situated in flower gardens. Occupied or exhibit, we don’t know.

At the Volksprater, the amusement park near the right bank of the Danube, we saw the Riesenrad, the huge Ferris Wheel that was built by an English engineer in 1897. In 1916, for financial reasons it was almost demolished, but it survived until it was nearly destroyed during a bombing raid in 1944. It was rebuilt, and by 1947 the Ferris Wheel was seen slowly turning once again. However, when they rebuilt the wheel, they installed only 15 cars, rather than the 30 cars on the original wheel.

We paid about $1 for a ride that consisted of one round, with many stops to load and unload people. This is a huge wheel. Unlike the seat that holds two or three people, as usually seen on a ferris wheel in the USA, our car was about 8’ X 17’ (we measured) and there could have been two or three times the number of people who were in the car, and it still would not have been overcrowded. The time we rode the Riesenrad, there were 17 people (actual count) in our car, 15 were standing at one end. It appeared that three times as many would have fit, comfortably. There were so many people getting on and off the wheel, we didn’t move very far without a stop.