Since we arrived in Vienna, we’ve noticed at long, narrow island in the Danube across from where our boat is parked. It looks like a park and since we had the day free today, we decided to check it out.  So it was a bit of a trip, ya.  We had to walk down the road that the bus takes to get to the place where our boat is docked and then walk on the bridge until we reached the island and then walk down the island.  As it turns out, it’s a long, narrow artificial island lying between the Danube River and the New Danube Channel.  And it’s called Danube Island. The island is 13.1 miles long but only 230-689 feet wide.  The main purpose of the island was as part of Vienna’s flood protection system. The island allowed them to dig an additional channel to protect from flash floods. Danube Island is known as a recreational area with bars, restaurants and nightclubs.  It supports rollerblading, cycling, swimming, canoeing and nude beaches.  And it’s the location for Europe’s largest open air festival held every June – Danube Island Fest.  Madonna gave her first concert in Austria there in 2008 in front of a crowd of 57,000. But in the ”winter,” everything closes so what we saw was just a lovely park with beautiful fall trees and lots of swans.  Here are a few photos.

Crossing over that huge bridge on foot was kind of creepy until we got onto it. Cars go across on the top level. The 2nd level is divided into half for ”pedestrians” and the other half for Metro. You can’t see the Metro go by but you can hear it and everything shakes. On the pedestrian half, bicycles, scooters, & rollerbladers stay to the inside and walkers are on the outside.

Chuck agreed it was a little creepy at first, especially when the invisible Metro trains went by.

Graffiti is illegal in the city and they were finding it everywhere.  So they decided to allow it on the river banks, including the river bridges, and graffiti dropped by 80%.  As a result, most of the city is relatively graffiti-free, and the graffiti we have seen up close is fascinating.

We even saw mothers on bikes pushing kids in their covered ”strollers” crossing the river on the bridge.

Cute little Lighthouse on the Island.

This is how our boat looks from the Island.

The trees on the island were turning colors and were so pretty.

Another view from the Island to the side opposite our boat. It’s so pretty over there.

This man and his little dog were taking a rest on the lawn of the island. Actually the man was taking a rest but I got the impression that the little dog was ready to go any time.

Don’t these picnic tables look positively indestructible?

At least the WC’s were open. Apparently they didn’t get the memo about graffiti being illegal.

From the Island, looking back up at the bridge we were just about to go back across.

Loved all of this exercise equipment just as we got off the bridge where the flags indicate it’s the cruise ship site.

On the other hand, if you’ve just walked the better part of a 13-mile island, maybe a rest in a hammock is a better idea.

This is the end of our time in Vienna.  Last night we sailed to Budapest and today we took 2 tours here.  Early on Thursday morning sadly we leave for home.  After we get home, I’ll do a post on our 2 Budapest tours plus one more post with a more detailed look at our boat.  So keep an eye out for those last couple of posts and then we’ll be finished. Thanks for hanging in there with us.