On our last day in Vienna, we had a free day to spend as we liked. My friends and I knew we wanted to rent bikes in at least one city, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity so we went for it. It took awhile to figure out how to register and to find a place with enough bicycles for all of us, but by the time we had it all figured we were off! Looking back this probably worked in our favor since by that time it had cooled down a bit and we got to see the sunset!
We mostly stuck to biking along the river, since we decided upon two goals: to get some water shots for photography class, and also to get near the famous Ferris wheel so we could ride it!
Along the way I noticed a lot of graffiti, which was certainly starting to mark its presence along the course of my travels. A lot of it was pretty neat though, and admittedly it has to take some talent to paint all that! I liked a lot of it we passed but unfortunately my ability to hold a camera still while biking was not quite up to par..but I had to try (:
Alas, we made it to the carnival where the Wiener Riesenrad (Viennese Giant Ferris Wheel) stood! At 212 feet high, I was beginning to have second thoughts about getting on this thing. But I guess knowing how famous it was and how often I travel to Vienna (never) finally overrode any shred of vertigo that was trying to talk me out of it. The history spiel was practically ringing in my head: the Riesenrad was built in 1897 and was thus one of the first Ferris wheels to be built. The wheel itself is acclaimed for having achieved such an engineering feat, and its longevity ought to be acclaimed as well considering all the destruction and reconstruction it has undergone since 1897. It is a miracle it still exists today, and is a major marker of Vienna and even Austria. I had to do it.
So I suppose the next challenge was something that arose since not a single person in our group had enough foresight to recognize that we would eventually need to lock our bikes while going on the Riesenrad. I kind of laugh at this now since it seems so obvious, but yes, we biked around for quite some time looking for another bike stand where we could turn in our bikes, or even a good place to hide them. Heck, we nearly turned around when a nice German family showed us that there was actually a key inside our bikes. Ha! This is something I definitely was not expecting to hear, but sure enough we took the keys out and voila--bikes locked!
After buying our tickets, we followed the line to encounter a pretty sizable room full of Ferris wheel gondolas! I was pretty surprised to see this, and a closer look at them revealed a small showcase of the history of the Riesenrad in model form. One of the gondolas held a modern-day model of it, another an original model, one after it was bombed, etc. Clever idea, I thought.
And then it was time for the dreaded ride. I was excited but also beating myself up. I was slightly relieved to find that the actual gondolas for the wheel were giant--I'm talking at least 10 of us in a single car! I definitely had never really heard of so many people occupying a single passenger car like that before. But this was good for me since it meant it would be hard for people to rock the gondola (: Also another cool thing about the spacious cars was that every other one was actually used for dining! Small tables were set up and people were actually being served every time their car returned back to the loading platform! Haha how cool is that?
All said and done, it was a remarkable and I'm glad I convinced myself to do it! Biking through the city was also another amazing memory I have of Vienna and one I would definitely recommend to any traveler with the opportunity to rent a bike. Next up, I'll be sharing some more fun adventures from Bratislava, Slovakia and one of my most anticipated cities of my journey: Budapest, Hungary!
Happy Friday to you all, and enjoy the weekend!
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