Graz–Feb. 1, 2025

Reininghaus

Off to Reininghaus today. It’s a district in the west of Graz. Again, I was scoping out the area to see if it would be a good place to live. It’s also rather quiet, and a bit removed from shopping (at least as far as I could tell). Which brings up a point:

Following the Tracks

I normally take the streetcars out to the terminal point of the line, and then walk back. In order to keep from getting lost, I follow the streetcar tracks. This means I don’t get far off the main path, and I probably won’t see a lot of the things that might be a couple of blocks away from the street I’m walking.

OK...Back to Reininghaus

You might wonder what attraction these apartment buildings hold for me. I guess I’m used to seeing apartment buildings that have no character, sort of like Soviet-era housing blocks or public housing developments from the 1970s. They all tend to look alike, or at least I never noticed any that really stood out. Here, though, there really are a lot of apartment styles.

Apartment block with wood exterior siding

white apartment block with childrens playground slide

Apartment building with horizontal beige and white striping

Billa supermarket with electric car charging station outside

I did see one supermarket with an electric car charging station.

Apartment building with curved roof and wedge-shaped blue wood siding

Interesting architecture here.

This mural is right near the Reininghaus streetcar stop. The next few pictures are close-ups.

schematic drawing and drawing of two men at a conference table

apartment building with orange panels on facade

Rear view of Audi sedan; left half is painted pink and right half is painted black.

Never saw this sort of a paint job on a car before!

Apartment building with irregularly vertically spaced balconies

In a park near some of the apartments.

This seems to be a factory.

Apartment building with irregularly placed balconies outside apartments

Apartment with multiple thin vertical bronze strips on balconies

Building with yellow curvy line painted on front. A rusty metal sculpture in the shape of a cornucopia is in front.

Irregularly spaced black cubes protruding from building.

This is the K1 office building.

FH Johanneum

I went past the Fachhochschule (FH) Johanneum. It’s a University of Applied Sciences, and the level is pretty much close to a community college in California.

Wooden plank balanced at end of S-shaped concrete form

Shrine with religious writing in Fraktur

Here’s what the text on the shrine translates to:

(at left) Thy angel stands behind Thee. Saint Katherine, give the teachers and students of this university courage and success.

(at right) Blessed are those who use the brief moment of their lives to practice mercy.

Soda Cans

Here’s some no-sugar Coca-Cola with lemon flavoring. Not as good as putting actual lemon juice into Coke, though.

Can of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar lemon flavor

On the left, a can of sugar-free, caffeine-free Coca-Cola. (Yeah, I know—what’s the point, then?) On the right, Spezi, which is a mix of orange juice and cola. I haven’t had the nerve to try it yet.

On left, Coca-Cola can no sugar, no caffeine. On right, Spezi (mix of cola and orange juice)

Stickers / Miscellaneous

Sprühdosen, Marker, Keilrahmen, Bücher, Magazine - Alles für Kreative!

Sign in front of an art supply store: Spray paint cans, markers, stretcher frames, books, magazines - everything for creative people!

Word "esPLanaDe” with all letters the same height. Additional text: Wohen den Unterschied.

This mix of upper and lower case letters just looks wrong to me.

Beer Party (as in a political party)

Storm Graz in Cyrillic letters

Word Škoda from advert, with hacek on the capital S.

Here’s the name of a car company, with a haček (the mark that looks like an upside-down v) on the capital S

Capital S with a wedge taken out near the top (to symbolize the haček)?

On the logo, they took a wedge out of the capital S, possibly to symbolize the haček?

Autos out; pure nature!

Poster with words written in a tall rectangular array with no spacing: Wir sind alle Menschen / Wir sind alle Wasser / Wir sind alle Luft / Wir brauchen alle Erde

Once you figure out where the word breaks go, it says “We are all human. We are all water. We are all air. We all need Earth.