Snapshots from an early Spring

Spring really has sprung early this year, just as wrongfooting in its way as the late winter of the previous year, but somehow, people aren't really complaining. Of course I have been among the masses flocking to the parks and green places in and around Vienna, mostly before they have even *become* green again.

I am managing so far to keep up one hike a week, which is a pretty reasonable pace, considering that on several weekends I have then also completed smaller aimless wanderings on other days as well. Someone pointed out the other day that the temperature (in March) here (22 degrees) was the same as the average high for London for July... No wonder I have already started to feel a bit hot :-/

The shots I have selected for this blog are an extremely mixed bunch, featuring buildings, parks, people, woods, a solitary kite, and a sunset. As such they feel like they give a slightly more realistic view of my outside life than some photo collections, representing as they do a cross section of photogenic things I have been doing, rather than just one (though I think it important to point out I'm certainly not doing photogenic things so often as it probably seems from this blog!).

The first photo in the group I am particularly happy with, not because of any brilliance in composition but because it comes closest to capturing the magic of my favourite building, that much beblogged flakturm in the Augarten. My previous images captured some of the forboding bleakness of the place, but it is very important to realise how much of the flakturm's coolness comes from the fact that right in front of it is a tattered, reclaimed grassy bit which clearly once had flowerbeds, before it surrendered to the relentless logic of football and frisbee. Nowadays at any sign of good weather, and frequently without even that, hordes of viennese citizens take to the field to play and lie around. It is much more vibrant and less stuck up than the central viennese parks, lying as it does in a more immigrant neighbourhood. The clash between this and the sombre ruin of the giant Nazi fortresses is what gives the place its special *something*

Here's wishing spring comes to you too, soon! And if it isn't springing right now, here's the photo gallery to make up for it.

Der Tom

Alps: snowy edition

A while back now, I headed off to the mountains of Tirol (more specifically, the Pitztal) to celebrate a friend's birthday in a mountain hut. Unfortunatley (and for no good reason considering I live here) I cannot ski, so the major attraction of the alps in winter is rather lost on me. As such, I have very rarely ventured into the alps at this time of year.

The weather on the day we set out to explore was fantastic, barely a cloud in the sky and bright sunshine. Extremely strong winds closed the highest cafe in Austria (perched precariously 3440m up at the top of two or three separate cable cars...) but this was in a way a benefit, as it encouraged us to go out for a walk. options are limited in the high mountains where snow depths are 2m plus, but we found a flat area next to an invisible lake where a cross country ski piste provided tamped down snow that we could walk on without snow shoes. Deviating from the path meant instantly and hilariously being swallowed up by deep snow...

I had a lot of fun with the camera, trying to capture all the bright whites, sharp rocks and smooth snowy curves. An absolutely stunning landscape, and though I shall be a bit more proactive about looking for snowshoes if I go to the alps in winter again, I have to say there were many points on our small walk where I could have just sat for hours staring at the same view (watching blasts of windblown snow come off the tops of the peaks in great clouds).

At night the full moon lit up the snow covered valley to the point where absolutely no torches were necessary. We all had moon shadows (feels very mystical, having a moon shadow, and doesn't really happen in the city!), and thanks to some very thin misty clouds, I even saw a moonbow! First time for me, I think.

I hope you will enjoy this gallery of majestic pointed rocky things!!

Der Tom