Recollected on Monday.
1) Too much culture can wear you out. Saturday I needed a break, so I succumbed to hotel breakfast, spent the morning writing and futzing around, and didn’t get out and about until noon.
2) Donauinsel is a narrow and very very long island in the middle of the Danube, and I ended up walking much more of it than I had planned. Retracing my steps via Gyygle two days later, it says eight kilometers, or roughly five miles, from my arrival on the subway to the Point of I Just Have to Sit Down Now.
2a) The first thing to catch my eye, crossing a footbridge to the island, was a fence studded with love locks. What impressed me from a distance, though, was that they were pretty evenly spaced out, and some sparkled with jewel colors; they weren’t all brass.
2b) Because of its length, I feel like I walked through all the urban/rural environments: set-up for music festivals, clusters of food trucks, campsites, and well-worn but isolated paths through high grass and tall trees. Many Viennese were out to enjoy themselves and the weather, choosing sun or shade (where it could be had). I was impressed with the number of people who had brought hammocks to string up between trees at the water’s edge.
The swans were encouraged.
2c) Swans were evident, and before I could snap a photo, at one point I saw one flying low over the water, its long neck fully extended. Later, a gorgeous gray crane set off from the water line.
3) After a pause for about half an hour (during which I was bedevilled by flies), I had to consult ye Gyygle for a less active way home. And there was a subway station much closer, which involved more walking and discovery of a footbridge over the other side of the Danube. It was hot, and the sun was quite strong. My walk led me into a tangle of foot- and bicycle paths, but I finally sorted myself out in a neighborhood of car dealerships closed for the weekend. And then there was the subway (same line as my hotel is on!), and I got home.
3a) In Vienna I have hardly been reading at all. En route home, however, I restarted a book I got in Bristol, The Greedy Queen, and Queen Victoria and her food, which is turning out to be quite fascinating.
4) At the hotel, I simply didn’t have the energy to think about dinner, so after a short and heavy NAP, I indulged in a schnitzel in the hotel restaurant, which was very traditional and very good.
5) Overall this was a helpful day to be alone with some disquieting thoughts. We all need those days.
The path not taken.