"High on the shore sat the great god Pan
While turbidly flowed the river"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"A Musical Instrument"
*
Click here
for more excursions
to the Danube river.
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Down by the Danube River
"High on the shore sat the great god Pan
While turbidly flowed the river"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"A Musical Instrument"
*
Click here
for more excursions
to the Danube river.
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Did you know that the swans in Australia are black...
ReplyDeletethat would make Swan Lake a much darker ballet....(no pun intended)
Great photos!
The swam photo is amazing, the reflection in the water makes it looks like there are hundreds of swans coming.
ReplyDeleteI love the way you ad pieces of poems in your posts. You are a great resource for me on litterature.
And speaking of litterature I have a question for you. Can you recommens liiterature from Austria? I always read books from places I plan to visit, and as you know Wien is high up on my list.
I think I prefer that sort of vegetation to the more 'manicured' type that is found in the city.
ReplyDeleteI can hear some music...
ReplyDeleteSIMON:
ReplyDeleteThank you! :-)
No, this is the first time I hear about your swans being black. I suppose the black swans move just as gracefully as the white ones, still, unimaginable in "Swans Lake". If my memory serves me right, in Lucchini Visconte's "Ludwig" the King was navigating his underground lake on a boat that looked like a black swan, maybe a foreshadowing of the tragic end (to music from Wagner's Lohengrin).
BRITT-ARNHILD:
Thank you.
Unfortunately I have little time for literature now, my time's taken up with non-fiction.
As far as readings about Vienna, I think everybody should have read Stefan ZWEIG's "The World of Yesterday" (in German it has the subtitle "Memoirs of a European", which is quite fitting) and Joseph ROTHs "The Capuchin Crypt" (I know everybody will tell you to start with "Radetzky March", but I think otherwise).
MAALIE:
The wonderful side of Vienna is you can have both, within a couple of underground stops. ;-)
CREAM:
Me too. :-)
The Danube I have paddled my feet in the Danube to cool off and hummed a certain little tune by some one called Strauss while I was doing so !! Mary
ReplyDeleteLove the shot of the swans ....
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that you can sneak out of the city to capture these wonderful photos. My favorite is the castle peeking out of the grass - like a child playing hooky from school, it appears that you are lying in the grass just out of reach of the responsibilities in the city.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, I love those swans!
ReplyDeleteLovely verse...Pan's homeland, Arcadia is on fire tonight. Apollo's temple and even the sacred Olympia are in danger. Oh Pan, Apollo, Hercules, Zeus. Where did beauty go? I am so happy to see the Danube.
ReplyDeleteMARY:
ReplyDeleteWherever that waltz was being played, it made me feel a part of something I couldn't even begin to explain. Now that I live here, my feet haven't touched those blue waters yet. ;-)
DAVID MCMAHON:
I was leaning towards the edge of the water when suddenly those swans appeared and floated by silently. A truly magic moment.
HEXE:
It takes only a few subway stops from St. Stephan's cathedral to reach the Donau-Insel, where I took the walk. And this is only one of many places where you can commune with nature in Vienna. I was indeed playing hooky, sort of. ;-)))
HELENA:
Welcome and thank you!
I grew up near a river and I loved to watch the Swans and Great Crested Grebes, escpecially in winter. They are such graceful birds.
IRENE:
I was thinking of you when I heard of the tragic deaths in your beautiful Greece and was wondering whether you were safe from the fires. So good to hear from you!