Snowy Park Walk

On Saturday the 20th of January I went for an afternoon stroll in the park. The previous week had been long and I was so tired I slept in and rested for most of the morning, but by the afternoon I wanted to get outside. I knew there was a park nearby, about a 15 minute bus ride away, that I often saw it when I was taking the bus into the city. On Google maps it showed as a large green area surrounding the river.

The apartment I was staying in is very sheltered with the only windows looking out into a small inner courtyard. I often don't have a good sense of what the weather is like and so it wasn't until I had made it down all the stairs to the main exit that I had a clear view of the outside. Everything was covered in snow! There must have been a huge snowfall on Friday night and I had completely missed it. As soon as I saw the snow I immediately turned back, went up the stairs, and grabbed my Fujifilm camera. I went from just hoping for some fresh air, hence no camera, to being properly excited for some good scenery.

I took this picture near where I disembarked from the bus. The road across the bridge goes towards the city and normally I would pass over on that bridge. I figured here would be a good place to start walking as, from this point, the river has parks and walkways along both banks.

I had wondered what willow trees would look like with snow. It wasn't quite as impressive as I thought it might have been but these willow trees were still beautiful. I wonder if the design of the hanging branches helps the tree to offload the weight of the snow. While I was standing here there were also a number of birds flying overhead. I tried to capture a picture with them in it when they were closer but none turned out well. You can just see a few birds in the distance in this photograph.

Most of the time the footpath followed the river bank and there were always trees around. I imagine this park would be wonderful in summer just as it was beautiful now in winter with the snow.

The river was quite wide so only a panorama can capture it fully, and the above image was taken when crossing a bridge at one of the narrower parts of the river.

I loved how still the water was on this day, and I could capture the reflection of the other bank. With the day being overcast, the snow covering everything, and the water reflecting the grey sky, most of my pictures have an almost grey scale quality to them that I found fascinating.

In this image you can see ice floating on the river. The last couple weeks had been really cold and I had noticed the river ice even from the bus on earlier days. Even if there was no snow I had been keen to see how frozen the river would be. With the recent snow fall it made everything better. In the above picture I especially wanted to capture the tree on the right that had so much snow piled on its branches.

At this point the river was quite wide and I used my zoom lens to focus on the other shoreline. I wanted to simply capture the river bank, with a direct split between reality, and the reflection. This photograph most highlights the grayscale quality of the day, but I also love that on the left there is a Ferris wheel providing a few tiny specs of orange.

I loved this cluster of conifers that were just covered in snow.

Another picture of the river bank. This was sort of an inlet of the river that the path wound its way around. A large portion of the inlet was frozen with ice.

Walking through this scene was magical and I tried to capture it here. Just like when I hiked up Kahlenberg, all the trees were covered in snow and that lent an extra air of beauty and wonder to the scene around me.

This was the largest section of river that was frozen with ice. In this image, I wanted to capture the closer bank contrasted against the further away bank with the ice in the foreground.

Towards the end of my walk I came to an island in the lake. There were two bridges, one at either end. The island was filled with a number of parallel walkways and these pillars with every second pillar topped with a light-bulb. At the center of the island were some statues and a number of large stone heads. I still don't know what all of it was for, probably a memorial for something.

I took this photo while walking through all the pillars.

The island also hosted a small garden that had a semi-circular walkway beneath these arches with growing vines. This was so special to see during winter as the mass of vines captured all the snow and created such a beautiful covering. (note: I made the image grayscale as by this point there was so little light the white balance on the camera made everything look unnaturally blue, plus I think the grayscale better highlights the vines and the snow)

The light was failing by this point but there was still enough for me to capture the reflection of the skyscrapers in the river. Here the river was incredibly wide so I had to zoom in quite a bit to focus in on these skyscrapers. I also like how the orange street lamps create vertical lines in the water.

This path took me away from the river and to a bus stop. I loved how the lamp light is reflected in the black bitumen and on the snow covered ground and trees.

This is the view I had while waiting for the bus, it is the Acrul de Triumf with a nice big round about all around it. This arch is on the main route from my apartment to the city centre, so I was often passing it either on the bus or in a taxi/uber.

By the time I finished my walk the day was definitely over and night had arrived. I was so glad I went out as it was truly wonderful to explore the park right after such a large snowfall. And I hope you all didn't mind another post with me gushing over snow 😄, it certainly won't be the last.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 8th of February 2024

Please comment below if you have any questions or thoughts on any pictures.