In the 1st century AD the Romans built a military camp (castrum) on the site of today's Vienna city center near the Danube and the connected civil city Vindobona (today 3rd district) as border security of the province of Pannonia. Still today you can see from the streets of the 1st district (Inner City), the course of the wall and the streets of the camp. The Romans remained until the 5th century. The Roman legionary camp lay far to the east of the Western Roman Empire and therefore rapidly was victim the turmoil of the Germanic barbarian invasions.
Those who drive through the city center of Vienna these days will encounter astonishing lines of visitors in the early morning already, which despite cold and light snow fall hike towards Schönbrunn Palace.
Every city, like every country, has its own bizarre peculiarities, so we were more than surprised about the central cemetery in Vienna during a conversation when we found out that the cemetery is also used as a park and green area by the Viennese.
Sunshine and the urge to move had lured us up to the jubilee area into the Vienna Woods, a kind of lookout tower on the Gallitzinberg on the western outskirts of Vienna.
And we continued with regard to the visit of various Christmas markets in Vienna, this time we went to the Christmas market "Art Advent" at Karlsplatz.
Of course, we took the advantage to pass some city areas in Vienna within our presence in Brunn am Gebirge, this time our interest was mostly directed to one of the buildings of the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, which were planned and implemented together with his architect friend Josef Krawina.
The sunny weather once more lured outdoors - this time the Vienna River should be our destination and at the same time tour beginning to the Vienna Woods, where the Vienna River has its origin.
Once again we took the tram into the city center of Vienna, leaving the tram at Vienna State Opera. This time, our exploration tour was to include the Vienna Hofburg and the museums housed in it, where our special interest was directed to the Ephesus Museum.
If you want to enjoy the ultimate, almost oriental market experience in Vienna, you should visit the Brunnenmarkt in Ottakring, which we were able to do thanks to our city guide Gernot.
If you would like to experience Vienna in a completely different way and not only want to use the excellent and well-marked network of cycle paths that we often used during our stay at the Campsite New Danube, we recommend the various mountain bike trails in the Vienna Woods, which are a real alternative for outdoor friends.
During extensive canal construction work in 1948, the remains of the tribunal houses of the legionary warehouse Vindobona were discovered at the Hohenmarkt in Vienna.
Within continuing of our project work on the development of camping tourism on the Balkans as well as the creation of intermediate stations (camper-route.de) on the way to the south, our tour planning first integrated the locations of Vienna and Budapest before moving on to Belgrade.
At the end of our tour through Mödling, Robert introduced us to the local museum, which gives an insight view into the history of the town as well as into the surroundings places and into the past too, when the area was connected to an ocean.
Robert's name has long been a synonym for our readers, often we have reported on his activities in Vienna and its surroundings, be it his Roman festival with the legendary Egyptian blue or his salt crystal model, which is now part of a UNESCO exhibition and within this will travel to India.
Many travelers may think it is too far hiking into the inner city of Vienna from the New Danube campsite, but we have managed the hike to the Viennese Prater through the green belt of the city, which was, even very hot that day, really enjoyable.
Like in Bremen (we have reported) and many other cities, cycling in Vienna has become quite popular too. The bicycle has conquered an important place in urban transport in the area of Vienna, but also in the surrounding regions.
We had already mentioned that we wanted to use our stay during the local Roman days in Brunn am Gebirge to make some explorations through Vienna to explore the cultural and historical evolution of the provincial capital of Austria.
In our first blog reports we had already written about the coin findings from the Roman period in Brunn am Gebirge, which are today located in the exhibition at the Heritage House.
Yet another exciting artifact was found in the aforementioned excavations of a burial ground in Brunn am Gebirge in 1972: A polychrome-painted stone slab with the representation of a woman in a Noric-Pannonian costume, a kind of dress in modern language, in a dark shade of red.
The Viennese Karls Church, a Roman Catholic church in the 4th district of Vienna, was built in the first half of the 18th century. Today, the church is a protected monument.
During our tour through Vienna, we have chosen the subway to the station on the Danube Island to take advantage of the rare sunshine of the mostly dull days in February.