Urban Art Façade

If you are looking for young Austrian fair trade fashion, this store in the 7th district is the perfect address for you. I have to admit that I have never been inside, but the urban art work on the façade catches my eyes every time I pass by.

Sunday Flowers #118

"The flowers are nature's jewels, with whose wealth she decks her summer beauty." -  George Croly

More Love Locks

Here's another photo of some love locks at the Jedleseer bridge with the Danube, the Donau City (to the left) and the Millennium Tower (to the right) in the background. I love the quiet atmosphere in this photo, the city's bustling activity seems far away...

Sunset Obession #3

Last summer I got obsessed with sunsets... I usually return from my bicycle tours on the Danube Island at sunset and I stop to take a photo when I cross the Danube.

Ligne indeterminée

The sculpture "Ligne indeterminée" by French artist Bernar Venet in front of the Upper Belvedere is part of one of the museum's current exhibitions. The sculpture is a sort of old aquaintance to me as I have seen it already in Salzburg (2010) and in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles (2011).

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Since last year it has become easier for restaurants, cafés but also shops to get the permission to set up an outdoor area. A fashion store in the 7th district (a rather creative area) put a sail boat on the street and realizes in this boat an urban gardening project. What a great idea!

How to be Cool

As I can't afford Prada (not even during the sale season), I will have to focus on point nr. 1)... What is your definition of "being cool"?

Sale Time

I thought I showed you the current window display of the department store "Steffl" last Friday, but the day before yesterday I had to notice that it was updated and is now dedicated to the recently started summer sale season.

Sunday Flowers #117

"The sharp dorn often produces delicate roses." - Ovid

Formula 1 Racing Car

After an 11 years break tomorrow the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg, Styria, takes again place. An Austrian company that is an official sponsoring partner of one of the racing teams did some advertising by putting a formula 1 racing car in a shopping center in the 3rd district. As you can see the car attracted a lot of attention.

Art Nouveau 2014

The department store "Steffl" consistently invites young designers to create artistic shop windows: Otto Girsch created several rooms in the windows that display key elements of his modern interpretation of the typical Viennese Art Nouveau style.

KUNST HAUS WIEN

Yesterday evening I went to see an exhibition about shoes in art and design at KUNST HAUS WIEN. The museum is located in the 3district, in a former Thonet furniture factory that has been remodelled by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. For him human misery was a result of the rational, sterile, monotonous architecture; he propagated instead an architecture in harmony with nature with uneven floors, woods on the roof and spontaneous vegetation. His buildings are not to everybody's taste, but they really stand out of the normal.

An Afternoon in The Park

Last Sunday the Institut français de Vienne (French institute of Vienna) at the Palais Glam Callas hosted a design market with French flair. In the park that surrounds the palais visitors coud also savour French delicacies, listen to French music or simply hang around and enjoy the sunny afternoon.

Palais Glam Callas

The neo-classical Palais Glam Callas was built from 1834 to 1835 for Prince Franz Joseph von Dietrichstein as a summer residence. Since 1981 it has housed the Institut français de Vienne (French institute of Vienna).

Opposites Attract

The modern Haas Haus, opened in 1990, forms quite a contrast to the Roman towers of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna's most important religious building.

Sunday Flowers #116

"The flower doesn't dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes." - Mark Nepo

Putting on The World Cup Decoration

Austria doesn't take part in the current Football World Cup in Brazil, but of course the football fans are still following the matches and there are several public screening locations in Vienna. Yesterday morning this café in the city center was decorated with a flag garland for some worldcup feeling. By the way, in "neo-German" we use the English term "public viewing" for "public screening"...

Façades

Beautiful façades in the 3rd district. I love especially the small balconies.

Love Locks

Last weekend the railing of  the Pont des Arts in Paris has semi-collapsed due to the weight of all the love locks attached to it. In Vienna we are far from a similar situation (maybe because it's not such a romantic city like Paris), but I recently discovered some first love locks at the Jedleseer bridge, a bridge only for pedestrians, cyclists and skaters which connects the 22nd district with the Danube Island.

Waiting For Money

This golden cylinder on Graben is a temporary installation by Austrian artist Axel Stockburger - "Quantitative Easing (for the street)". With this art project Stockburger wants to point out the financial and banking crisis. "Quantitative easing" is a strategy in an extreme crisis of confidence in which banks restrict their function as lenders and become barriers within their own ecosystem. In order to prevent a collapse of the money circuit, central banks buy financial assets at the public expense and thus introduce new money into the ailing financial system. The golden cylinder represents the “central bank,” which randomly distributes euro coins in the street. When I passed by yesterday evening unfortunately the cylinder didn't distribute any money, there were only these three men watching and waiting...

It's About The Colours

Sometimes you see two colours in the street and you absolutely want to have them in one photograph. That's what happened when I saw the purple shutter and the red scooter...

Skyscrapers

Here's another photo taken during my bicycle tour on Danube Island last Friday: The 250m high DC Tower is Vienna's newest and tallest skyscraper. The "skyscraper Neue Donau" pales in comparison with this new edifice, but it's still the tallest residential building in Austria.

Sunday Flowers #115

"Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands." - Japanese Proverb

Summer Evening

Yesterday evening I finally made the first bicycle tour of this season on the Danube Island. This was one of my views: the Millennium Tower and the setting sun. For me this view means summer because I never go to Danube Island during the cold season.

Back to the 1950s

Yesterday I was at the opening of the exhibition "Swinging Teatime" at the Augarten Porcelain Museum. The exhibition shows unpublished designs and original porcelain from the 1950s and provides also an insight into the general stylistic feel of that period.

Flower Boxes

Eye-catching flower boxes in a passage in the 3rd district.

Red Ribbon Sweets

Even sweets were decorated with the red ribbon as a sign of solidarity on the occasion of last Sunday's Life Ball.

Flower Girls

Every year the AIDS charity event Life Ball has another theme and brings the visitors to create elaborate, flashy and crazy costumes. This year the motto was "Garden of Earthly Delights" and these two girls opted for a very flowery styling.

Sign of Solidarity

Last Saturday the Life Ball, one of the biggest AIDS charity events in the world took place for the 22nd time at the Vienna City Hall. The Life Ball is an exuberant festivity with extraordinary performances and makes a loud statement in the fight against HIV and AIDS. As a sign of solidarity the Parliament was decorated with a huge red ribbon.

June Theme Day: Zest

I didn't have the slightest idea what to photograph for this month's theme day.... and then I went to a shopping center in the 22nd district and saw these kids enjoy the interactive children's area. They were running around, happily chasing the moving "tiles" - the boy in the green sweater was paticularly into it.
Click here to view thumbnails of all participants in the theme day.