A visit to Prague

During the easter holidays, my husband and I visited Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. From Vienna to Prague it is only 4 hours by train - so I wonder why this is my first visit to this wonderful city!

Prague, almost undamaged by WW II, is famous for its unique medieval architecture, the historical centre of Prague is inscribed in the World Heritage List.

The Town is beautfully situated on the Vltava river with many old bridges connecting the Old Town (Staré město) and the Lesser Town (Malá strana), the area below the Castle (Hradčany).

We enjoyed endless strolls through the medieval places and streets and colourful Easter markets, mourned at the Jewish town, and walked up to the Castle through hundreds of  blooming cherry trees. Slowly the city unfolded with every step upwards, the dark Castle appeared behind the cheerful blossoms. 

We returned to Charles bridge with its famous bridge tower.

 

 Learn more about Prague here at Wikitravel!

Our doggy D'ora is gone...

It's bad news, our sweet little darling doggy D'Ora died last September. We spent a wonderful time together in summer, but then she had to surrender to cancer.
We love her so much and we are so glad that we had her around for 12 happy years.

Look, how peaceful she was on her last evening. I think she looks happy, although she was so weak...

I will always remember her and her joy of living.

Thank you for accompanying us on our doggy walks in Vienna over the years!

Vienna Time Lapse

My blogger friends will certainly know many of the places shown in this phantastic video which was produced by some students of the Fachhochschule St. Pölten/University of Applied Sciences.

Enjoy!

VIENNA TIME LAPSE - By Pöcksteiner Thomas, Orner Fabian and Peter Jablonowski
im Zuge der Lehrveranstaltung "Projektarbeit"
3. Semester, Bachelor FH St. Pölten
Visit also:  http://vimeo.com/57481811

Prosit New Year!

Dear Friends,

I spent a cosy holiday season with my family. 

This is the picture I took from my hubby and our cute doggy D'Ora today and which seems to indicate:
no significant changes for 2013:

My hubby besieged by D'Ora who is waiting to get some food - just as usual!

Best wishes to all of you for the New Year!

PS: I read two interesting books:
Paula McLain's novel "Madame Hemingway", and Paul Auster's "Sun Set Park". I loved both of them.

Autumn is almost over

 Last Sunday we made a trip through the wineyards south of Vienna,

from Pfaffstätten to Mödling. In the morning the sun was still hidden in the fog, but the wineleaves showed their bright colours even so.

Some days ago, the "Heurigen" were still open and people enjoyed the last sunny days here among the wineyards.

 

The landscape was painted green, yellow and red, and in the distance, the hills of the Vienna Woods showed their white cliffs.

What a beautiful autumn day!

 We left Schloss Gumpoldskirchen behind and ascended the hills of the Vienna Woods.

When we walked along the small paths through the pine woods, the sun came out. Slowly we went down the hills to Mödling.

Only a few days later we had the first snowfall - winter is approaching!

Pink Poenies

Back to Vienna, everyday life has set in again and the good times we had in Paris seem to be far away.

I wear my pink sweater and put pink poenies on the window sill.
Rain has set in, but the pink poenies bring back good memories of sunny days and of the pleasant time we had in Paris!  

Have a nice and sunny week ahead, dear friends!

Imagine I'm in Paris!

 

What a sensation to be in Paris!

We spent a whole day strolling through the city, visiting Notre Dame, the Louvre, Jardin des Luxembourg,Centre Pompidou, and walking back to Rue La Fayette, through a wonderful city!

 

And look what an ambiguous picture came to our view when we approached Notre-Dame des Paris!

Happy Easter!

 Today my doggy and I went for a long stroll through Vienna's Green Prater. Although the weather was cold and rainy, we enjoyed the lonely walk along the old arms of the Danube. The fresh green leaves and white blossoms on the trees showed us that Spring was actually there.

 At home we relaxed and ate boiled Easter eggs and ham, and watched a nice movie on TV: Ratatouille, the story of the adventures of the little rat Rémy gifted with some highly developed senses of taste and smell.

 

Dear friends, I wish all of you a happy and peaceful Easter time!

Spring has come!

Last Sunday I visited Vienna's Stadtpark. To my surprise, the cherry trees had already opened their buds and were fully abloom!
After all those cold winter days, it is wonderful to enjoy the warm weather, the blue sky and the first spring colours outside!

If you want to see more flowers from all around the world, please click HERE!

Winter at the Danube in Vienna

Finally winter has come to Vienna, 

with extremely cold temperatures and even some snow.

I took a long walk with my dog along the shore of the Danube this afternoon and enjoyed the winter atmosphere.

Water birds had left their foot prints in the snow,

and D'ora followed the decorative patterns on the ice.

What a lovely picture!

We returned home when the sun set.

Have a nice week ahead!



http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

A November trip through the Donau-Auen National Park

Last Saturday my friend and I went by train to a place called Wolfsthal, 70 km East of Vienna.

Originally we had planned to follow the St. James' Way, but soon St. James' Way led us to the banks of the river Danube and we followed the hidden paths throuhg the riparian forests instead.

The sandbanks of the river were much larger than usual.
Due to a very dry autumn season, the water-level of the Danube is extremely low.

We had not expected to see Devín castle on the other side of the Danube in such beauty.
The afternoon light was picture perfect, and so we walked down to the dry sandbanks to get a closer look.

Devín castle (Burg Theben) is situated on a 212 m high cliff at the confluence of the Danube and Moravian rivers in Slovakia.
The place has been settled since the Neolithic and fortified since the Bronce and Iron Age.
We plan to visit the cliff next summer to explore the ruins!

We walked on through the riparian forests along the old arms of the Danube.
The path is so romantic! It strongly reminded me of the fantastic settings of the Kingdom Hearts video games series. I even expected to find Kairi and Riku around the corner :)

Of course we were not on Riku's Island, but in the Donau-Auen National Park near Hainburg, one of the largest remaining floodplains of the Danube in Middle Europe.


Also the history of the National Park Donau-Auen is remarkable:
In 1984, Austrian environmental activists began a successful fight against plans to build another hydro-electric power plant at the Danube which would have destroyed the unique area.
Clearing operations had already begun and the first trees had been chopped when the activists began to occupy the area.
The occupation of the floodplains in Hainburg led to a significant change in Austria's idea of the meaning of democracy and of the protection of the enviroment.


Thus the Donau-Auen National Park was founded and designated an IUCN category II national park.
It spans the areas of Vienna (Lobau), Groß-Enzersdorf, Orth an der Donau, Eckartsau, Engelhartstetten, Hainburg, Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Petronell-Carnuntum, Regelsbrunn, Haslau-Maria Ellend, Fischamend and Schwechat,
which is an area of 93 square kilometers (3.900ha).

After a three hours walk, we arrived in Hainburg and had a delicious meal at the elegant local Gasthaus Zum goldenen Anker.

If you want to see some more pictures, please follow this link !

A visit to Telč - UNESCO World Heritage

Telč is a town in southern Moravia, in the Czech Republic. The town was founded in the 13th century as a royal water fort on the crossroads of busy merchant routes between Bohemia, Moravia and Austria.

The most significant sight is the town square, a unique complex of long urban plaza with well-conserved Renaissance and Baroque houses with high gables and arcades; since 1992 all of this has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 1979 Werner Herzog filmed the movie Woyzeck in Telč.

It's only 2 hours by car from Vienna to Telč!
Sometimes it's really good to make a weekend trip to a neighbouring country!

We had coffee and sweets under the arcades at the plaza, and afterwards we strolled around the lake and enjoyed the reflections of the town in the clear blue water.