Buchberg

I have been endeavouring to go hiking as much as possible in the autumn and early winter. I missed some of the best parts of autumn in September while gallivanting around greece, but I wasn't going to let the whole of the most beautiful and least hot season trickle away!

At the beginning of November we had the last of some pretty sunny and relatively warm weather, and today's images are taken from a hike taking advantage of the beautiful yellow, slanting winter sun. This hike was in the Wienerwald, but a little further west from Vienna than many of my hikes taken from my trusty hiking bible. Out this far, everything is definitely rural. The small town of Neulengbach at which we started the hike featured a pleasant old schloss, and while leaving the immediate surroundings of the town we passed a few horseriders and sunday walkers, as well as a horse paddock inexplicably next to a whole pile of mouldering ex-vienna transport buses...

The scenery of this hike reflected its location on the edge of the Wienerwald, just before the more open fields rolling down towards the Danube north of Vienna. The imposing, triangular lookout tower on the Buchberg, the destination of our walk, provided a fantastic view; out north over the rolling fields towards the Danube and Melk; southwest towards the capital of Niederoesterreich, St Poelten; and southeast towards the peaks of the limestone Alps, the striking (and by now actually snowy) Schneeberg among them.

Here you are then, a link to another small gallery of pictures of a hike in Austria. The scenery is a bit different in this one, and I'm really happy with some of these capturing the combination of undulating ground, the lines of the fields and the afternoon sun!

Der Tom

Potsdam

At the beginning of November I spent a week in Potsdam, the often somewhat overlooked small city just 20km SW of central Berlin. It is the capital of the Bundesland in which Berlin is embedded, Brandenburg, and is really completely different from Berlin. I was there to do some measurements on my samples, but a public holiday that took me slightly by surprise (Reformation Day, 31st of October, it is only celebrated in 5 of the Bundeslaender) offered an excellent opportunity for some sightseeing. This was my third trip to Potsdam for work purposes, but the first time I had ever had the time to see the city centre in daylight!

Sanssouci and wine terraces

Potsdam has long been a place where various rich people would retreat to to escape the hectic life of court or the big city and hang out on the banks of the many lakes/rivers in the area. The big trend setter here was Prussian King Frederick the Great in the mid 18th century, who built his frankly modest sized retreat in Potsdam, the Palace Sanssouci. Having heard this place mentioned along with places like Schoenbrunn, it was a big surprise to me that it was so tiny! Very impressively situated atop a south facing series of terraced vines though, an impressive feat of survival at Potsdam's latitude. Sanssouci is one of a whole complex of various grand houses and palaces from the last 250 years, set in a broad landscape of ornamental parks completely engulfing the actual urban areas of Potsdam.

Part of a different palace, actually the servants area/kitchens!

The centre of Potsdam has some really nice areas, more pedestrian streets and some narrower streets make it feel less horribly spread out than the vast multi lane highways that I find Berlin streets to be. The architecture is a nice mix of older buildings, with the star attraction being the beautiful Dutch-built houses of the Dutch quarter, built by and for Dutch workers on the various palace projects. There's also a Russian settlement in the area!

Autumn colour in the park

The weather on the day I chose to explore was beautiful, a perfect late Autumn day with a slightly unseasonal boost of extra warmth, few clouds and lots of sun, so much so that I could enjoy a fantastic meal in the Dutch quarter outside while reading a book! After the hectic few days science-ing, Potsdam was the perfect city to relax in, a great counterbalance to its big sister Berlin which is nonetheless only an S-Bahn away. (I guess I will use sister as cities are female in German).

Here is a short gallery of pictures taken that day.

Der Tom