Not a bad place to be imprisoned

At the beginning of March I finally got round to going to the famous Danube/ Wachau region village of Duernstein, having previously only floated past it on a boat from Melk to Krems. Well, in fact I gratefully took up the invitation of my hiking buddies, without whom I wouldn't go half the places I do! Duernstein is a beautiful village in the incredibly picturesque Wachau region, where the Danube flows through the harder metamorphic rocks of the Bohemian Massif. This leads to a narrower river with steeper cliffs to either side, complete with tor-like rock pillars peeking from between the trees. A covering of sandy, wind-blown glacial loess fills the valleys and allows for huge ranks of vineyard terraces. The whole area is overflowing with history, geology and wine!

Duernstein is particularly famous, for its medieval architecture and walls, for its striking blue church (that looks to me a bit like a 50s sci-fi rocketship) and for its ruined castle perched among the rock pillars above the village. Although we no longer know for sure whether it was in the village, in the much rebuilt castle (Burg) above, or somewhere else nearby, the name Duernstein has passed into history and legend as the place where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned from December 1192 to March 1193, while trying to travel back from the Crusades. His ransom paid for many things, including the founding of a mint, the founding of a city, and upgrades to several castles...

Our hike took us switchbacking up the steep rocky cliffs next to the river, almost immediately giving us fantastic views of the rock formations across the valley, the castle, the Danube, and Duernstein itself. Zigzagging further between trees and rock formations, we passed the odd geological curiosity, like a beautiful ductile shear zone and some lovely small folds. Not everyone was as excited as me, of course.

The views of amazing rock formations remained for the whole of the hike, sometimes near, sometimes far, and occasionally adorned with the odd climber soaking in the early spring sunshine. This place looks amazing to climb in, and I really should come back and give that a go someday! The final highlight of the walk was the arrival at the castle proper, sitting almost impossibly atop a bit of rocky high ground. I have to say that castle builders seem to have much more of a flair for dramatic locations here in central europe! The castle has of course been worked and reworked over many centuries, including being invaded by marauding swedes (yes, swedes!) during the 30 years war...

We headed down the educational Richard the Lionheart tourist path back to the Danube, where there was time for a quick sunset stroll before the bus back to Krems. A selection of my photos can, as ever, be found by clicking a link. All in all, I wouldn't mind spending a few months imprisoned round here, at least if I got a window!

Bis bald,

der Tom

Research Seminar in the Snow

A while ago now I went to a research seminar where all the members of my department and some external collaborators met up to talk about science. This may sound interesting or boring depending on your views about the science in question, but there was an extra perk: the venue for this meeting was a 300 year old wooden alpine farmhouse in a snowy valley and well known ski resort, Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

Naturally this was not coincidence, and most of the party, professor, postdoc and student alike, were soon off on the slopes. The lecture schedule, a few hours in the morning and a few hours after dinner, was specifically designed to enable as much hurtling down snow covered slopes as possible. I, however, am a very lazy person, and naturally wary of any activity that will make me exhausted, cold, and look like a fool. Well, not always, but sometimes, while in the closing stages of writing of your thesis, you just don't want to do new things, you'd rather go have a lie down...

However, I didn't spend all my time in between lectures lying down or staring forlornly at incomplete papers on my laptop, and on one sunny day in particular I did get out for a stroll. I didn't have any snowshoes, so it was lucky that most of the paths had a good frozen crust on them or I wouldn't have got anywhere. As it was, uncharacteristicly without a map and with unclear, snowy tracks that might just have been skiing trails, I still managed to have a nice time. Definitely blew the cobwebs away, and there were some great views out down the valley and of the ice encrusted back wall. Also sun! Lots of sun!

Enjoy the photos at this handy link, I've been letting them pile up so I have more to share soon, now that I have at least handed in my thesis!

bis bald,

Der Tom

Valentines day in the snow

So I really haven't been doing any hiking in this part of the year. Most of that is being busy, but certainly since the start of January we did finally have a bit of snow round here, which also makes one think twice about going for a walk. It's not been a proper crazy winter like two years ago, but there has been just enough punctuation by white stuff that I at least feel like there will be a difference when Spring rolls around, it will actually feel like we have had a proper year pass!

In the city itself we have only had the odd delightful day where the snow has been relentless enough to properly cover the place and start forming picturesque, wind blown drifts (Vienna is a windy city, which is what its Latin name, Vindobona, pretty much means). What with the traffic and the pretty startling efficiency of the snow-clearing operations - not to mention some inopportune 'warm snaps' - most of the snow in the city has ended up disappearing within 24 hours. But out in the countryside, the deep snow stays around a lot longer with the cooler temperatures, lack of asphalt and absence of snow ploughs.

The photos in today's album were taken on a quickly arranged Valentine's day stroll with Ash. He brought a packet of dates with him, because he is a joker :-)

The route is a very traditional one for me, one of the first walks I did after returining here in 2011, up from Huetteldorf over the hill and down to the end of the 43 tram in Neuwaldegg. The whole route is within the boundaries of Vienna, but nonetheless far enough away from buildings to seem like another world, even without the snow on the ground. It was a beautifully sunny day and I got some shots I'mreally happy with. The icing on the cake was that the fantastic, twisting viewing tower was open despite the wintry weather, affording some excellent, hazy views over the city and surrounding Wienerwald as the sun edged towards the horizon.

Here's the link to the gallery, and here's to more hiking soon!

Bis bald,

der Tom