Our Travels

Today the weather was very nice, not only sunny, but also warm.

After taking wonderful breakfast in the hotel, we drove to the city park.

It was a very big park, and there were many famous peoples' statuaries. Actually, this should be a very beautiful park, but in winter, there were not many colorful flowers and green leaves, so it made the park look not enough nice. However, we still could find many people coming here, and enjoying the sunshine.

Well, in this park, i found some people sitting around on the ground, guess what they were doing? ---They were making Fa Lun Gong!!! I was very surprised to see that, and among them, there were some chinese people. But my honey did not know about the evil belief, even never heard it, so for him, it was a very normal scene.

This is the statue of Johann Strauss.

He is the famous composer whose music is being played every year at Vienna's New Year Concert.

This is a theater in the city park, very beautiful...

This is Beethoven's statuary.

I like the Ad hanging on the theater,haha...

I never heard the name of this man, but my honey said he was very famous person in Austria, so I went to take a picture with 'him', haha...

This church is really very beautiful, not only its outside, but also the inside. that was the reason why we took so many pictures of it from different angles.

In the church, there is a lift to let the visitors get the top of it to appreciate those nice paintings...

In such a holy church, i wanted to pray for my happy marriage, and wished my honey and me could love each other forever...

These wall paintings are very beautiful...

Vienna Opera house.

This is an expensive Cafe which named Cafe Mozart, we had a short break there, and ordered two cups of Capuchino, really very good!

Haha, I happend to find there was a small interesting booth which selling many different sex magazines on the street, had to admit a fact that the western people are much more open-minded than our chinese.

Shopping always is the fav thing that all girls like to do...

This is also a popular Cafe which has long history, but the food here is just so so...

My honey looked like so professional, haha...

But when i pour the beer into the glass cup, almost can not see the beer, only the foam. It made my honey have a big laugh at me, and then showed me how to pour the beer.

This is museum square with the Natural History Museum on the right and the Museum of Arts on the left.

In between is a statue of Maria Theresa, an excellent Empress of Austria. Under her reign Austria prospered and so people still remember her until today.

BTW she had 16 children!

So cute elephant...

The Museum of Arts.

In the kingdom treasure museum, there are many valuable things. Here also did not allow to take pictures, but still some people, including my honey wanted to try without the flash, even though we knew the quality is not good...

In the museum, we can find many this kind of beautiful lamps...

At the out of the kingdom treasure museum...

Window shopping is also an very interesting thing for me, haha...

In the shopping center...

The street performers were playing the strange musical instruments...

It is a very big and old church which Sisi once got married here...

My honey told me these were lucky candles, so i baught one and lighted it, while was praying in my heart...

Window shopping again, like those cute bears...

An old restaurant again, also locates in the deep ground.

This time we ordered the typical Austrian farmer food...

Today, the weather was not so good.

My honey always likes driving fast, so, only 1.5 hours, we had already arrived Vienna.

Eurostar Hotel, a 4-star hotel, but when we entered the room, hmm...i was a little disappointed, because it was not a nice one as what i imagined, also was not as good as the same star hotel in china, contrary, it looked like a small inn. Besides, there were double windows in our room, so that it was too hot inside, the air was not enough fresh, but if we opened the window, it would be very noisy, and almost could not sleep well, too bad! However, the breakfast in this hotel was not bad, we were all satisfied with it.

Wienerwald, it means "Vienna forest", it is one of the popular restaurants in Austria, and the chicken is reputed to be best food in this restaurant. My honey and I all like it so much, really very delicious!

Except for the chicken, the white beer was also not bad, but unfortunately, i could not drink too much, because my face was very easy to get red!

After eating, we began to take a sightseeing in the city center.

This is Burg Theater (main theatre)...

The Rathaus (town hall)...

At Parlament, the buildings and arts are all very beautiful...

At the other side of the road, we can see many carriages back and forth. But it is very expensive, about 90 Euro per hour...

It is not only a big park, but also is an very special place. Because the right half part of the buildings are the working place of Austrian President, and the left part is Sisi museum.

When i took the picture with this naked man statuary, my honey was a little jealous, haha...

This is Sisi museum shop, many different souvenirs about Sisi and Franz were selling there...

In the museum, actually taking pictures is forbidden, but still can find some people taking without the flash, even though inside there is not enough bright. My honey also tried taking some pictures, but most of them were too blur, so pity!

This is Franz's picture when he was old. There are not many picutres of young Franz, and he also is not as handsome as the one in the famous SISI movie, especially his mustache, so ugly!

But contrary, there are not many pictures of old Sisi, maybe because she is a woman, and want to make her keep young and beautiful in all the people's mind. But it was pity that Sisi's teeth were very ugly, so all of her pictures, she always closed her mouth tightly, not like the Sisi in the movie, had so sweet smile.

This is national library. Here taking pictures is allowed, but still can not use the flash, and the worse thing is inside too dark, so the quality of the pictures is not good!

This is a small square behind Sisi museum.

Not far from the big palace in the inner city there is a rather expensive shopping area.

Esterhazykeller, it is an old restraurant, has more than one hundred years history, and it locates in the deep underground.

The white wine mixing with the water, tasting not bad, also can make my face not get red so quick, haha...

Finally we have snow in Austria, but as it's just a little in the city, we decided to go the north of Austria where there is much more snow.

We started near the small village of Karlstift,

using our snow shoes again.

We really needed them there,

in average the snow was 30-50cm high.

Later we reached the small lake "Stierhuebelsee", but could not see much of it, as it's surface was already frozen to ice.

On our way back we went through a cute forest with small...

and big trees.

Finally in late afternoon the sun also came out a bit, letting us see some beautiful blue skies.

Days are short in Austria in January, so the sun was going down soon again.

Let's hope for more snow, so that we also can try skiing soon!

We got tired of waiting for the snow to come to our place, so we decided to go to a place where we could find some snow.

We chose to go to mountain Hochkönig, right in the middle of Salzburg province.

Fortunately we did not get disappointed and found plenty of snow there.

Getting dressed at the car.

Beautiful winter landscape.

Nearby our parking place there was also a small skiing area.
However, we did not go skiing this time.

We rather wanted to try walking with our snow shoes!

The houses on this pictures are small pensions and hotels, mainly frequented by skiing tourists from Germany and the Netherlands.

The "Mannlköpfe" are part of the big mountain "Hochkönig".
In summer they are a great playground for rock climbing .

Making my first steps with the unfamiliar snow shoes.

Omg, even though it is quite cold, walking in the snow can make one feel quite hot, so I have to take off some clothes.

Trying to build a small snowman.

Continuing our way up.

Feeling so tired...

...but my honey still feels so fresh.

Some skiers are passing by.

We quickly asked them to take a picture of us.

Finally reaching our target...

...a small hut with restaurant, which is usually very crowded in summer, but not inhabited in winter.

Hmmm, too much snow. Cannot sit down here.

So we had our picnic just on a carpet which we placed on the snow.
BTW the hot tea and hot wine tasted delicious.

Near this hut is a big flat area, which is perfect for what we want to do after the picnic.

First we make a small snowball...

...and let it grow bigger...

...and bigger.

Then make another, smaller one.

And put it on top.

Finally a third one.

Can you already guess what it is?

Add a hat...

...hairs, eyes, nose...

...and give him a big smile.

Now here he is finished: Our snowman!

Posing with our cold friend.

But soon we have to say goodbye to him again, as it is time to go back.

Some more views of the white winter landscapes.

All in all it was very nice to finally experience snow in the European winter!

In winter, the weather becomes not so nice, it is impossible for us to go outside to climb mountains or hike frequently. So, my honey and I choose the indoor sports club, and go there to climb rocks in bad weather.

Actually, we have already climbed rocks for more than 10 times, but never had a chance to take some pictures. Fortunately, this time, my classmate Monica, a girl from Macao, and her Austrian boyfriend, went to climb rocks with us. It was a good chance for us to take some pictures and make some movies of each other.

It was the first time for Monica to climb rocks, so my honey taught her how to secure her boyfriend climbing. But later, seemed like she still could not completely understand how to operate the rope, then I taught her again.

After teaching Monica, it was time for us to climb...

Haha, if my honey looked like a Spiderman?

Every time, after reaching the top, always had the strong sense of success. See, my honey was so happy while going down.

It was my turn...

The pose looked so cool, haha...

My poor short legs and arms, made me look so funny...

Wow, would reach the top soon, go go go!

When I went down, I was already very sweaty.

We are always the best partners.

Monica and me were all happy after climbing rocks, even though we were very tired, especially her.

It's only about one more week until Christmas, but there's still nearly no snow in Austria this year. Most of landscapes look green instead of white. What a weird winter!

For this Friday they predicted mild temperatures, lots of sunshine and clear air again, so we wanted to go to Salzburg province to a place where we would have a view to some of the highest mountains of Austria.

However, an unexpected problem of our car made it impossible to follow this plan. So instead of enjoying some nice views we spent some time at a car repair station, waiting for our car to get fixed.

At least the repair was finished soon enough, so that we still could climb a small mountain nearby at lake Traunsee.

Already at the start of our route we had some nice views of lake Traunsee and mountain Traunstein.

Having a rest...

Another rest again, and refueling some water...

Continue climbing the mountain, even though was too tired...

Oh my god, my honey was so sweaty!
And this although we already had middle of December on this day!

Whilst climbing the higher part of mountain Sonnstein we had many nice views, such as here the view down on the southern end of lake Traunsee.

See, did I look like the long arms monkey? haha...

Soon we reached the top of the mountain and had delicious lunch there.

This panorama is capturing only a part of the view on top.
It was a very beautiful and quiet day.

Sitting on the top of mountain and enjoying the warm sunshine was quite nice!
One would not believe that Christmas is only one week away!

Touching Jesus´s blood...

Holding Jesus´s legs!

Pluscity is the biggest shopping mall in Linz. Everyday you can find many people shopping or eating there.

The pity thing is that all the shops in Austria do not open on Sundays, and all are closed on 7:00pm from Mondays to Fridays, and 5:00pm on Saturdays.

Now Christmas Day is coming, it is the biggest and the most important festival in the western countries. So from the pictures, we can see the beautiful decorations for Christmas in Pluscity.

December in Austria is usually a very cold month with (hopefully) lots of snow.
Because when there is snow all the landscapes will look very beautiful and romantic, and one can do some winter sports such as skiing.

But what is happening this year?
No snow in December. All the landscapes are still green!?!

Well, at least this way we got some more nice and sunny days, giving us the possibility to visit a nice place about one hour south of our home.

Contrary to the weather forecast the air was very cold in the beginning of our route.

Probably this was due to our route leading along a small river and through a forest.

Fortunately later we left the forest, and once we reached the open we pleasantly could feel the warm sunshine...

...and enjoy some nice views.

Later we reached lake Gleinkersee...

...and started to walk around it.

If I looked like a monkey? haha...

Oh my god, standing in the heavy wind, almost would be blowed down!

What did I look at?

It was pity that the sunshine could not reach the small lake, it was blocked by a mountain nearby. If not, the lake would look much nicer!

We had planned to rest to take some food on our way back to the car, but unfortunately there was not any sunny and nice place on the remaining of the route.

So we took our car and drove just a few minutes until we saw some place to sit. Although it was next to the road, it was still nice to have some food there and enjoy the views to the mountains around.

My honey was enjoying the nice sunshine and landscape in such a quiet beautiful small village.

November 28 was a very foggy day in Linz, but south in the mountains there should be sunny conditions.
Well, we saw only a little sun this day, but the weather was definitely much nicer than at home and so we could enjoy some nice views on our short climb of mountain Predigtstuhl.

The route is short, but still requires some climbing.

About half way up there's a nice place to rest, from where one has a nice view on the highest mountain of the province of Upper Austria.

Mountain Dachstein, nearly 3000 meters high. Its top is covered by snow for all the year.

Me and my honey with lake Hallstättersee in the background.

At this lake is a very lovely village, which is so cute that it's often printed on posters which are sold world-wide.
We plan to visit there some day next year.

When continuing our way up there were more difficult parts to climb.

Needing a break and a drink...

...but soon we reached the top...

...which is offering some beautiful views.

I wished I could fly!

What's this?

That's fog!

In Austria fog is very common in late autumn, and sometimes can cover the ground below for the whole day.

That's why it's a good idea to climb a mountain on these foggy days, because usually the fog won't reach very high, and above the fog one can find nice weather and great views.

Predigtstuhl isn't very high, but still a nice piece of a rocky mountain.

What do you get if it snowed two days ago, and suddenly temperatures are raising sharply?

You got lots of melting, wet snow, which is making all the roads and paths soaking wet and dirty, thus it's quite difficult to walk.

I think this route could have been nice and we could have taken lots of nice pictures - if only there would not have been so many wet snow and if only our beloved digital camera would not have ceased to function that day.

So we only have 3 pics this time, which we took by our cellphone as a matter of emergency replacement.