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My Vienna
A Walk in the Park
Across the street from our apartment building is a park where I was often taken as a child (as was my mother, and as were my children). The first thing you come across is this Mid-century bear statue (1). I sat on that bear many a time when I was little (as did my children).
After leaving the bear, you next see this enormous bomb shelter (called “bunker” in German) (2), an everlasting remnant of WW II. There are actually two in this park, and numerous others scattered throughout Vienna. They are now being used in various ways — one is an aquarium — because, of course, there is no way to tear them down safely. They’re pretty heavy-duty.
The sight of this thing is etched very strongly among my earliest memories. There’s a playground at the base of it, and I spent many hours there as a child (not to mention as a mom).
My mom didn’t use this shelter during the war. The building in front of hers had been a post office, long ago, and because back then the post office was used for transferring cash, the basement of the building had extremely sturdy and secure walls, and was suitable to go into each day near the end of the war, when the U.S. was bombing Vienna on a daily basis.
From this angle (3), it looks like a monster in a science fiction movie, looming among those other buildings, that are just kind of standing there, minding their own business.
Like most parks, this one is ringed by some very fine, old houses. I never noticed this one as a child, not until I was much older and could appreciate such things. It’s a splendid Art Nouveau building in pristine condition (4).
