Pink Bunny, Vienna Woods, Monasteries, and Boat Cruising Underground

What do pink bunny rabbits, the Vienna Woods, monasteries, and boat trips in underground Nazi airplane factories (yes, you read that correctly!) all have in common?

They were all part of just one more day exploring Austria… but let’s start with yesterday afternoon. I heard the unmistakable clip-clop of horses’ hooves outside, so peered out the window (since the horses do not normally go past my door)…

Because of the works to lay down new light-rail tracks, the horses have been diverted past my home sweet home… What a delight!

OK, so now only my day in the woods… Starting yet again just after the sun has woken up…

…and the meeting point was beside “the pink bunny rabbit”…

…I found winged horses…

…and I found swans…

…and then… A pink bunny!

Btw, I think I would love any city that has Jaguars as taxis…

Now having safely found my tour group, we eventually headed off… (with “if you go down to the woods today, you’d better go in disguise…”

UPS seem to be doing their bit for the environment and ditching motor vehicles…

These balconies were fascinating!

…through the red light district…

The sky was extraordinarily beautiful…

No, that’s not Sasquatch – do you remember my post through the Swiss Alps where it seemed people in Austria went walking miles from anywhere? Well, we are in Austria, miles from anywhere…

Our first stop – Meyerling where Crown Prince Rudolph (the only son and heir to the throne) and his mistress died (murder, suicide, we will never know for certain, but there is overwhelming evidence that it was sadly two lovers taking their own lives) – and this event ultimately started a series of dominoes to fall that ended up sparking WWI.

By the way, one of the benefits of having a mobility challenge is that the crowd has usually dispersed by the time I get to where we are all going! LOL! Makes for much better photos. 🙂

This (below) is Kaiser Franz Joseph, Rudolph’s father…

…and off to a Benedictine Abbey…

It was magnificent being in the church and listening to the monks practice…

On the road again, further into the Vienna Woods…

…to an underground lake that was once a Nazi airplane factory!

I was very proud of myself – on just this section of the trip, I managed almost 200 stairs AND walked over one kilometre underground… I feel ever so blessed that physically, today was a good day – and soooooo appreciative for my folding hiking stick, without which I could not have managed this feat – and also sooooooooo appreciative for the lovely people in the tour who didn’t complain when on two occasions I slowed down the group.

This room (below) was used in ‘The Three Muskateers’ movie…

This (below) was also used in the muskateers’ movie…

Our first glimpse of the lake… that was once a gypsum mine, before being drained during WWII and being used for the production of Nazi Heinkel He 162 jet fighters.