Herbst

There isn't really much of an autumn for the average londoner*. For one thing, that cosy urban heat island which keeps you warm means that the London trees take a long while to realise it even is autumn, and then by the time they decide to get all pretty and drop their leaves it's starting to get dark early, it's raining or you're working hard on some report, and you don't have time to make that trip to Hampstead Heath or Clapham Common or whatever. And then all of a sudden it's December and you're cold and the only reminder of those lovely autumn colours is a vague brown pavement gunge...

Not so in Vienna. As befits a city which can boast that 50% of its area is green space, there are several places in and around the city which really encourage some joyful autumnal wandering. This weekend I attempted to explore the largest of these, the huge park/reserve/forest that is the Lainzer Tiergarten. This sea of trees on the western edge of Vienna is approximately 7.5 times the area of Hampstead Heath (I googled it) and therefore approaches the area of the entirety of central Vienna (say, districts 1-9). It has various wild inhabitants, deer, horned sheep, wild boar, and all the other commoner inhabitants of european woodland.

In comparison to the rest of Vienna's green spaces, the Tiergarten is a little trickier to reach. It can only be entered through a series of gates studded round its vast perimeter. One of these, the Nikolaitor, is a short walk from the end of the U4 line, and it was here (after a brief but successful reconnaissance a few weeks ago with Ash) that I attempted to visit on Saturday. Alas, my google skills had failed me, and I had not noticed that between November and February a large part of the Tiergarten is closed to visitors for winter. This meant a locked Nikolaitor and a disappointed me. However, I turned my trip around by hopping back on the U4 to Schoenbrunn, to enjoy nature of a more regimented kind. Although I have as yet remained untempted by its palatial interior, the park at Schoenbrunn is a wonderful place, filled with majestic avenues of trees and over the top architecture, as well as tourists and squirrels. On a late, slightly misty autumn day as the sun goes down, it's a pretty nice place to be! Here are a few electronic images wot I put on the internet for you.
Today I set out earlier to get to the Lainzer Tor, the only gate that remains open at this time of year. This required taking two buses, an underground train and a tram, a pretty massive trek by viennese standards. Unfortunately it turns out that most of the Tiergarten is also sealed off during winter closure, leaving only an area probably just less than one Hampstead Heath to wander around in. So, a full exploration will have to wait for spring. But! What amazing colours! And some lovely big meadows with mist hovering over them. Here's the odd picture.
Hope you enjoy the photos, if it is still autumning where you live, get out and look at some trees!

Der Tom

* I freely acknowledge that several of my friends are definitely not included in this category. Take, for example, ex-housemate and current friend Ed Taylor, who loves decaying leaf matter so much his website is named for it (Okay actually his favourite thing is the fungi that may feed on said leaf matter, BUT WHATEVER).