Friday, May 17, 2013

Vienna- Die Graben and the Prater


Prater is an enormous recreational parkland between the Donau river and the Donau canal. The most famous attraction of the Prater is the Riesenrad, a historic giant wheel (View on Cities). The prater includes large areas of green space, tennis courts, a large stadium, racecourses, a swimming pool and a planetarium. The biggest attractions for visitors are the Wurstelprater, the amusement park.
A little history I found about the Prater is that it originally was a hunting ground along the Donau River before it was opened to the public as a park. In 1873, Prater played host to a World Trade Fair (Views on Cities).
As I mentioned earlier the most famous attraction is the Riesendrad, which is part of the amusement park. This giant wheel was created by the British Engineer, Walter Basset. Now it is the only surviving example of a series of giant wheels that Basset erected; others that he created were in Paris and London but dismantled long ago (Views on Cities).
Graben is one of the most famous streets in Vienna’s city center. The streets name can be translated to ditch or trench. Most of the buildings on this street date back to the early 19th century (Views on Cities).  I am excited to visit this area of Vienna because after researching it I learned that Graben is the heart of Vienna’s most famous shopping streets. The most popular shopping street in the center of Vienna, Karntner Strasse starts at one end of the Graben (Views on Cities). I shop a lot so I was really excited to find out more about his location.
References:

View on Cities. "Graben." , Vienna. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013.
View on Cities. "Prater." , Vienna. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2013.

Photo References:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3603/3368392363_6e5184b03e.jpg
http://www.gothereguide.com/Images/Austria/Vienna/Vienna_Prater.jpg
 
View of Die Graben street! So excited to go shopping here!
 
View of Riesendrad!
 
 

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