Photo challenge in Vienna

Business does take me to Vienna quite frequently. But when I go, I usually stay right in the beautiful city centre. As luck had it, this time I ended up in a hotel right next to the famous Schönbrunn Castle which is a little bit outside of the city. Work was done earlier than expected and there was enough time to go for a walk through the gorgeous gardens. Equipped with my trusted travel companion – the Fuji X70 and a small Manfrotto Pixi tripod, I set myself the challenge to get at least three photographs that I could post on this blog. This type of endeavour is always fun and challenging – the Fuji X70 has a fixed 18.5mm wide-angle lens. There is no zooming or lens swapping.

The Gloriette

Timing worked out perfectly. I arrived shortly before the onset of the blue hour. Compared to daytime, the Schönbrunn castle itself ended up not looking that attractive in the evening light. Instead, I headed up the hill on the opposite side to experiment with a few different angles of the Gloriette.

An unexpected end

The park cleared out around 10pm and so I walked back to the hotel through the quiet darkness of the park. It was a bit of a surprise to find the gates closed. No big deal, I thought, and located another gate on the map. Ten minutes later, I found myself in the same problematic situation: closed gate. After a frantic search for options (climbing across the tall gate, calling the police), I finally found a small sign that stated: “Main gate open after park closure”. Oh well….another march through the darkness and I reached the hotel safe and sound 45 minutes later. Thanks for reading.