At the weekend I made a trip once again up into the hills north of Vienna to visit what has fast become one of my favourite places in the whole Vienna area, the Leopoldsberg. Great views, far fewer people than the Kahlenberg and less cheesy piano accompaniment. Instead there are concrete viewing platforms, a lonely boarded up set of buildings surrounding a church and a gorgeous view over Vienna and the danube. I have now been up here twice at sunset, and although chilly it is certainly worth it.
Returning from the Leopoldsberg I stopped off at the Kahlenberg, which had been all but cleared of tourism by the still bitter wind and retreating sunlight. And I am hugely glad I did, for the final throes of the sunset were even more spectacular with a better view of the first peaks of the alps to the southwest. For some reason the sky above them stayed pink and orange long after the rest of the deck of clouds had turned blue-black, the wispy orange glow almost giving the impression of fires on the peaks. Utterly impossible to capture with my small (but trusty) camera, but I have got some shots to give y'all an impression of what you're missing!
Of course the Wienerwald is nothing, hill-wise, in comparison with the real alps. Luckily we had a research group seminar scheduled at my professors house right at the end of an alpine valley. Two and a half days of research discussion, beer, food, sledging (I mean proper down an icy track from high on the mountain sledging too) and snowball fights. Pretty OK for a start to the week! And now I actually know what my colleagues are working on in a bit more detail, which is always nice. This time the sun was shining brightly and it was ideal conditions for even my camera to achieve its best results. So if you are curious what an average snow depth of greater than 1.5 metres looks like, click on!
Bis bald,
Der Tom
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