Freizeit im Schlosspark

I spent a day a few weeks back in Schlosspark Laxenburg.  Only now have I gotten around to posting a few pictures.  Obviously, it's a magical park that one should certainly visit, if only to pretend for a day to be Sisi, the Empress of Austria, strolling through her big backyard reading aloud her favorite Heinrich Heine poetry.

Celebrating our anniversary (with Austria)

This past weekend marked our one-year anniversary in the Land of Mountains, Music, and Schnitzel.  So to celebrate, we packed our bags, grabbed our heavy coats, boarded the new Westbahn train, and headed to Salzburg, a world-famous, incredibly charming little city in Austria that we had yet to visit.

Salzburg was not unlike Vienna in that it was COLD!!!  Double-digits below zero in Celsius-speak.  So cold that most of the city was frozen solid, including this fountain at Schloss Mirabell.  Peering through the foot-thick ice, we could see hundreds of coins laying at the bottom of the pool - wishes to be granted in the spring when the ice thaws.

Salzburg's historic district certainly deserves its UNESCO World Heritage title.  We didn't have a great deal of time to explore this part of the city, but minus the throngs of "Sound of Music"-crazed tourists, we felt like we pretty much had the city to ourselves.  (The cold weather probably also had something to do with keeping people indoors.)

A great find was the 220 GRAD coffeeshop - a modern, cozy little place serving up a number of drinkable delights using fair-trade beans that they roast on site.  For this and several other local tips, we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge the recent "36 Hours" article on Salzburg that was recently (conveniently for us) published in the New York Times.

St. Peter's Cemetery.  Apparently where some of the flight scenes of "The Sound of Music" were filmed.  We thought the architecture was pretty cool; note how one of the chapels is built into the precipice behind it.  The latter leads up to Salzburg's famous medieval fortress on top of the Mönchsberg mountain.

The mighty fortress -- Festung Hohensalzburg

Looking out over the city from atop Mönchsberg.

After a short 1.1 km stroll along the ridge from the fortress, one arrives at the Museum der Moderne, which showcases rotating exhibitions of 20th and 21st century art. A highlight of the museum is the restaurant M32. It's a great place to rest the legs, warm up / cool down, and enjoy a snack.  The best part is the view over the city, especially as dusk sets in. 

One Sehenswürdigkeit ("sight worth seeing") that is off the beaten tourist route is the Hangar-7 complex out at the Salzburg airport.  The glass-domed building is a piece of art in and of itself.  But the collection of Red Bull-emblazoned airplanes, Formula 1 cars, motorcycles, and helicopters is the real draw.  All are the property of Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, who shares his treasures with the public for free.  The plane behind David in the photo is a WWII-era B-25J bomber, and the racing car to the right is the actual one driven by Sebastian Vettel when he won his very first race as a professional some years back.

And this picture was snapped on the train ride back to Vienna as we rode past the Wallersee.  I'm in love with the idea of freely ice skating on top of open, albeit frozen, waters.  Isn't that how ice skating should be enjoyed anyhow?  I must admit that neither David nor I have ever tried it, but I think it's time for us to purchase our own pairs of ice skates and join the winter sport club.

Mariazell

We took a little Ausflug with friends this weekend to see how Christmastime is celebrated in the Styrian Alps.  We spent all of Sunday in Mariazell, an unspoiled, old-world, enchanting mountain village about 150km from Vienna, situated on the border between the states of Niederösterreich and Steiermark.

Mariazell is a sacred destination for Catholics.  Legend has it that in 1157, a Benedictine monk was searching through the forest for a place to build a monastery.  At one point, his path became blocked by a giant boulder that was too big to move or even go around.  Not knowing what to do, the monk pulled a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary from his bag, knelt in prayer, and asked the Virgin Mary for guidance.  Suddenly there was a great noise and the rock split down the middle, allowing him to pass through.  As he passed, he placed the small statue respectfully on a nearby branch.  Soon thereafter, he and some of the local people constructed a small chapel to house the statue.  Word of the miracle and the statue quickly spread across the countryside and the pilgrimage that continues today, had begun.  Over the years, more religious events have occurred here and the size of the chapel has grown into a giant Gothic-turned-Baroque basilica that it is today.  It is certainly one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen.

In addition to visiting the church, we also enjoyed seeing the town, roaming through the Adventmarkt, and shopping at the famous Pirker Lebkuchen shop.

 

Ah, Mariazell.  Sie sind so schön.

Alpine Hiking

Hiking: it's the Austrian national pastime.  We've certainly done our share of it over the past months - around Vienna, around Innsbruck, and at points in between.  But the hike we did last weekend was altogether different, a proper Alpine experience.  We and some friends rented a car and drove roughly two hours southwest toward the Rax and Schneealpe (a.k.a. Schneealm) mountain groups.  Our task was to climb the Windberg, a 1903 meter high peak on the Schneealpe side.  Not a particularly high mountain and only 1100 meters of elevation gain from the valley floor.  But with steep trails and some fairly technical sections, we definitely got our exercise for the weekend.

To anyone in or around Vienna, we can certainly attest that the Windberg is well worth a visit.  Just make sure you wear good boots and leave yourself enough daylight hours for the hike back down, especially in the off-chance that you or someone in your party sprains an ankle.  It's been known to happen.  :-(

We started in the tiny village of Hinternaßwald, our base camp.  Five hours to the top.

Thanks to the incline, it didn't take very long to reach some amazing vistas.

Indecision 2011

Reaching an Alm (mountain pasture) and hearing the cowbells always feels very alpine.

On top of the Windberg, mountains as far as the eye can see

All smiles (after just having woken up from a short nap)

Our hiking buddies.  This should be an advertisement for REI or Patagonia.

Lindsay + David = Lindsay & David in the exact same spot

Innsbruck Part II: Wandern auf die Nordkette

And here's the fotolog of our hike around the Nordkette, the mountains on northern side of Innsbruck. This was our favorite day of our trip to Innsbruck.

Look at what we found!

Arzler Alm (1067 meters high)
Höttinger Alm (1487 meters high), first opened in the year 1441

Höttinger Alm

Lindsay's midday Cappuccino fix. Extra tasty when one's dining in a cloud!

And this is your friendly hiking guide, David!
Strolling through Stadtpark on our way to the station to catch our train back to Wien

Innsbruck Part I: Die Brücke über Inn

As mentioned in the previous post, we spent this past weekend in Innsbruck, the capital city of Tirol in western Austria. We have heard from many friends that Innsbruck is a charming Alpine city, but we could not have imagined how magical this place really is until we visited here ourselves. These were some of our first impressions:

• Innsbruck is caught in a medieval time-warp. Although the city suffered heavy damage from 22 bomb attacks during WWII, it appears while roaming the cobblestone lanes that not a lot has changed since the 15th century.
  
• Very sporty folks live in Innsbruck. The vibe around town reminded us of somewhere like Boulder, CO. While Austrians all over the country appear quite fit, people in Innsbruck are the fittest -- or at least look the part. Unlike in Vienna, most people were dressed in sport wear rather than classy urban wear. Of course, they are probably more likely heading into the mountains as opposed to heading to the Opera.
  
• Tirolers, despite having a strong dialect, speak hochdeutsch (high German) more willingly than Wieners do. Everyone we talked with spoke German to us (albeit slowly) and never once switched to English (unlike in Vienna, where as soon as our accents are heard, people often make the switch).
  
• Very, very friendly people live in Innsbruck. On several occasions we were surprised by the hospitality, kindness, and warmth of the western Austrians. The city is refreshingly unpretentious and friendly.

Map of Austria

The photos below are of sites around Innsbruck and a small village 9km east of Innsbruck, Hall in Tirol. (Tip: click on the photos to view as a higher resolution image)

Innsbruck, Austria

Alpine Club Museum
Hall in Tirol, Austria

Eine Kaffeepause (a coffee break) in Hall

A walk in the rain. . .

I came across the following quote today on the blog Outlandish Musings. Posting our pictures just now and reading this quote make me very happy with the life we've chosen to live and the adventures we have chosen to take.

"The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” - Christopher McCandless

Stay tuned for pictures (and videos!) of our new experience wandering in the Alps!