There is also the Lainzer Tiergarten, a large nature reserve where visitors can walk through ancient forests and sometimes spot wild boars and deer!
Within Vienna itself, however, the city is perhaps better known for its beautiful parks and gardens. This week, I visited the Botanical Garden near the Belvedere Palace. The Belvedere is a magnificent Baroque palace built in the early 1700s for Prince Eugene of Savoy, a famous military commander. Today, it is an art museum and its gardens are a lovely place to take a walk.
Since it is now well into autumn, many of the flowers and plants that would have been blooming earlier in the year have started to disappear. But I still discovered something very exciting: bamboo! I had never actually seen bamboo growing in person before, and I was surprised by how tall and unusual it looked. Walking among the bamboo was wonderfully peaceful.
The garden also has a cactus collection, including varieties from places like Arizona in the United States, alongside plants like Indian lotus flowers. There are also more familiar European trees, including willow and birch. I thought it was fascinating that one garden could bring together plants from so many different parts of the world! It was a lovely reminder that even in a busy city, you can find little pockets of nature where you can slow down, explore and discover something new.
You might think that because I live in a big city like Vienna, I don't get to see much nature. But did you know that Vienna has some wonderful projects to help nature grow right in the city?
This week, something exciting happened in the northeastern part of Vienna.
