December 2006

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.