Day 3 Vienna,

I earlier mentioned that Diana and myself were going to look at some of the locations where The Third Man was filmed, 

rather like when we visited the park where some of Blow Up was filmed, whilst we are going to the cemetery Steve did his morning run, so a taxi out of town for us to,

Vienna Central Cemetery, or Wiener Zentralfriedhof, 

the cemetery is located in outer Vienna, near Simmering,

we were a tad early, only the two of us here as far as we could see, 

it was along one of these avenues that in the film Anna made her walk, at the end of day 4 I have made and posted a short video of our visit here, 

could it be this one?

well I just had too, 

the next avenue, 

we started walking,

looking at the graves, 

and other tree lined avenues,

we thought it may have been this one, 

we discounted this one as the tree line was too far way from the road, 

looking at the graves stones, 

many were works of art in their own right, 

still looking for the avenue though, 

we continued walking,

 

looking at graves as we went, 

many most unusual, 

like this one,

some very recent, 

like this one, 

the legend, 

this one more classical,

with its angel figurine,

the central building, 

which we walked behind, 

we had a huge area to look over,

the cemetery covers 620 acres (2.5 square kilometres) in size. This makes it one of the largest cemeteries in the world,

it may seem strange, 

weird even to look at graves, 

but I like looking at the stonemasons work, 

each grave similar but different to the next,

and there were lots of them, 

it does not look it, but the paths here were literally sheets of ice, 

and it was bitterly cold, 

a slightly different memorial, 

this one guarded, 

by I guess eagles, 

all around it, 

we kept coming back to this building, which was a good landmark for us, 

we had taken the precaution of buying a map of the cemetery, 

which was just as well, 

we became a tad 'lost' on more than one occasion, 

but each large plot has a marker in the corner, 

so with the map it was easy to work out where we were, 

I continued to marvel, 

at the stonemasons work,

not only in the figures, but here in the typography that was chosen, 

each one here a tad taller than its neighbour, 

it was now about 09.00 

so we still had an hour before the café opened, 

we walked past the large building,

the rear of it arraigned in a semi-circle,

a different take on figures,

away from the usual angels, 

some of the memorials were truly huge, 

like this one,

past the front again, 

we went along a different road, 

and came to a cross road,

we were not sure which way to walk,

whilst deciding, 

I took a few photographs of this headstone,

zooming in,

for a close up,

next to it, 

one in white marble, 

the winged angel delicately carved, 

as was this one, 

with her upturned face, 

a male figure here,

in close up,

next to another angel, 

beside this one,

a composition on this grave,

of two people,

shrubbery here, 

almost hiding the face, 

the veil, 

and face underneath it, beautifully carved, 

a huge edifice here all in black,

we continued walking, 

until we found a area where the graves were under cover, 

so they had not weathered with rain at all,

the carving as fresh, 

as it left the stonemasons workshop, 

each detail perfect

in every way, 

one more, 

close up, 

and it was 10.00, so time for a coffee, 

and a warm up, 

Diana went with a selection,

for myself a croissant, 

I had a look around, 

at what else was on offer, 

cream cakes, 

and macaroons, 

now warmed up, 

we continued exploring the cemetery, 

this one, 

looking very modern,

another decision, left, 

or right?

left it was, 

a close up, 

I have to say I found this one,

 a tad scary, 

back to a paved road, 

for a couple of photographs, 

on the opposite corner, 

a huge mausoleum, 

and two more people like us looking around, 

forward!

past the mistletoe covered trees, 

we thought this might be the avenue that Anna walked past, 

but of course so much may have changed over the years since The Third Man was released in 1949, and the scene could have even been shot a year or more before,

walk on,

we looked along lines of graves where ever we went, 

Diana said that she thought these low fences could have been featured in the original,

we just could not be sure, 

we made our way to one of the exits, but took a slight detour first,

 

as we had spotted some more huge mausoleums, 

so we walked towards them, 

this one was indeed a size, 

and from this view, 

of the side, 

gargoyles, 

looked down, 

a last look back and it was a taxi back into town, for the next part of our quest, 

that starts here, The Third Man tour, unfortunaly it does not take place in the winter months, 

but this is the sewer entrance made famous in the film, 

if we ever come back to take the tour, we must make it in the summer!

walking again, 

we were looking for a building, 

and this is it, 

the Grand Opera house, 

because two thing are nearby, 

the square where Harry Lime famously disappears, 

and that archway in the distance, 

we passed a few shops, 

and here we are, 

first a pose from Diana, 

this the doorway that Harry Lime supposedly walked out of, 

and was hit by a speeding car, 

that came through this archway, 

the view of the square from the doorway, 

his body was carried across the road, 

and laid here, but was it by two men, or was a Third Man involved?

a panorama of the square, 

and then just as we were walking under the archway, horses from the Spanish Riding School, 

crossed the road, 

looking into their stables,

we looked at some of the more unusual shops, 

as we made our way to meet up with Steve and Kai, 

looking back to the archway that was Harry Limes end, or was it?

a few horse drawn carriages nearby, 

also some of the old town,

I am not sure what this building is, 

but it is on the route of the horse trip, 

as every few minutes another one would wander by, 

we walked back, 

past more of the old town,

and into a pedestrianised area of shops, the shops very upmarket, 

with carefully constructed window displays, 

like these, 

a unicorn in this one,

I had to struggle to keep Diana out of this one,

the Louis Vuitton store,

the window displays, with just two,

or even one bag, 

on display, 

on more pose, 

as we walked to meet Steve and Kai,

behind us the clip-clop of horses, 

we passed the huge statue, 

and Aida,

today many more cafes and restaurants open, and this I think is neat, just past the restaurant a heap of old Christmas trees, there are a number of points like this around the city, people drop off their old Christmas trees and have them disposed of daily by the council, pity we can not come up with that idea over here in the UK

the four of us had already decided to hire a horse and carriage for a city tour, 

which was why we were meeting here at the cathedral, 

and luckily there were plenty of them,

and this chap had a real nice riding outfit on, 

but first a coffee, 

before getting acquainted with our steeds, 

and these were ours, 

so all aboard,

and we were in, 

and clip-clopping around town, 

it was really very nice, 

Diana was making a video, 

having said nice, places like here, where it is cobbled were a tad noisy, 

it must be wonderful to have a building where customers que to spend their money, like this restaurant,

we passed some of the places we had already visited on foot, 

still it was nice seeing them again, 

from our carriage, 

we had hired the coach for a 40 minute trip 106 euros, how time flies when you are having fun, 

it seemed in no time at all the 40 minutes were up, 

our coachman,

helping everyone out, 

Diana the last one, 

still filming!

and here he is, 

and our trusty steeds, 

who Diana was not too sure about, 

but she is getting confidant now, 

stroking the horses and looking away!

we passed more shops, 

like this one with Omega Man in the window, 

we then just had to sample one of the many sausage stalls in the city, delicious!

we carried on walking, 

until we found an Asian restaurant, 

time to relax, 

jacket off, 

and like our percolators at home a genuine Vietnamese sweet coffee, 

just let them,

trickle though,

then a Vietnamese soup, and there our day ended, well it did not really, but I do not have any photographs of our last meal as Diana had them on her telephone and I do not want to disturb her, so I may post them in a few days, but if you would like to see our last day and the video, just click the 'Older Posts' at the bottom right of the page.