whereabouts: Hubertuswarte, Lainzer Tiergarten

The weather forecast for this weekend has not been too promising but still ok enough to punt on the Scotland-gear and go for a walk.

The Lainzer Tiergarten can be quite crowded on Sundays. It has been almost 4 months since our last visit at the park. I expected the park to be deserted, because of the weather forecast. The parking area was full and the main paths were busy. We made a turn at the Rohrhaus and went for a new destination, the Hubertuswarte, a look-out in the middle of the woods.

The plan was to see some green plants. This is what we got: 

On our way to the look-out we walked through unfamiliar settings, as if we had been translocated straight to the Siberian taiga. The soil was wet and dark, mosquitos were in the air and the trees along the path were young, with a light foliation, just like I would expect the trees in Siberia to be in the summer months, in a climate were trees won't grow as large as they do in Austria, due to a short growing season. In the Lainzer Tiergarten you find trees aged 100, 200, 300 years and older. Due to the quite recent deforestation, this forest is young, with light barks.

 The tower comes with an intimidating appearance. Built in 1937, it embodies the style of that time:

 
 An enamel relief has been vandalised during World War II. Soldiers shot at the relief just for fun. The owners of the tower decided to keep the relief in the damaged state.

 Two information panels tell the whole story about the tower in the woods:

Sorry, only in German

Sisi loved to climb towers in the woods to enjoy the views. So did we.

I did not take any photos on top of the tower, it was really windy up there. I did not stay up long enough to unpack the camera.

Old school picknick bench, new style: hikers and their devices. 

The appearence of the tower matched the overall weather situation. Gray, not too sunny. 

 Not too friendly, no? Am I the only one to think of a watch tower?

I was just kidding at the beginning - the trees actually were VERY green. Mission accomplished.

 It is always good to know your goals:

Metric, not miles. The Lainzer Tor is were we were coming from.

We continued our round and on our way we discovered new landscapes, can you believe we are still in Viennese, in the 13th district to be precise.

 Some trees brought me to my knees:

 Faces in Things. It seems as if not everyone sees what I see.

No walk inside the Lainzer Tiergarten without a boar-watch. Here it is:
 (in the distance)

High seat to the left, boar to the right.

The closer we got to the exit gate, the less we worried about getting wet and I halted for some  dandelion portraits. Not only to take a photo, but also out of curisosity. I wanted to see how far into detail the Sigma DP2Merrill can go in low light, me sitting on the ground:

An orange buggy always forms a nice contrast in the background.

So this was our walk. 9km later, we returned dry at the starting point. The rain gear served as a training unit on my back.

And it might not be apparent, but I did enjoy the walk. So did my company.
:-)