Freiberg

More messages from the frozen past! Beaming blue skies and 20+ degree temperatures are beckoning distractingly from outside my window... I may have to update a bit more often to get through all the winter photos before this starts to get ridiculous.

Only one month ago I travelled by car with a group of colleagues to Freiberg in eastern Germany. Freiberg is a tiny medieval town just West of Dresden. We weren't there for a holiday, rather for a course the details of which probably don't need to be too deeply gone into here except to say that it involved computers (as a lot of things do these days, even if one claims to be studying rocks the whole time).

I didn't do much looking round the town, to be honest. This was a combination of the freezing temperatures, driving snow, and pure laziness on my part. Unlike most Germans I never had to start school at 8am and I still cannot deal with waking up early. This means that when you make me start an intensive week long course every day at 8.30am by the time 5pm rolls around I am a little bit groggy, to say the least. Towards the end of the week my lazy PhD student physiology was slowly hammered into shape and on the very last evening in Freiberg I managed to brave the cold and frozen fingers in the early evening and get a few shots of the sleepy, picturesque town.

I did ask one of the demonstrators what there was to actually do in Freiberg for the students at his university, and the answer was basically: go elsewhere. Nonetheless it is a very charming place to spend a few days, knowing that one day you will leave again and dive back into the real world.

In my case the intrusion of the real world was pretty abrupt, as we travelled immediately from Freiberg to big, flat, dirty, noisy Berlin...

Anyhow, I bet you all want to get outside and enjoy the weather as much as I do, so here's the customary photo link, have fun! I repeat the now tradition plea to click the enlarge button to actually see the nice resolution photos.

Der Tom

Everyday Beauty

Hello there! In real time I have just successfully presented my talk at the European Geosciences Union conference in Vienna, and am now relaxing after an intense and exciting week of rock discussion and free alcohol consumption, all while basking in the recently sprung Spring weather. However, in blog time we are still mired somewhere in mid March, a bleak and chilly time...

Looking at the bunch of photos I have for you this week, no obvious story occurs to me. The only unifying thing about them is that they were all taken within an area that you could safely call central Vienna, inside the second ringroad called the 'Guertel' or belt, which splits off districts 1-9 from the double digit districts. It is quite a marked architectural and socio-economic boundary in many ways, Vienna definitely suffers a bit from the stratification that occurs in many European cities, something that (at least in the past) was avoided in London by virtue of the patchwork of council housing veining the whole of the city. Anyway, the Innenstadt is certainly the Vienna of the postcards.

These photos lend themselves best to description by caption, so by all means, head on over to picasa! And so new camera doesn't get sad, I will repeat the usual advice that by clicking on the magnifying glass you can see them at high resolution.

Enjoy exploring the things that form the backdrop to my daily wanderings!

Der Tom

Auf dem Bisamberg

Travel one stop outside Vienna on the S-bahn to the Northeast and (if you got the right line) you arrive in Langenzersdorf. As always, the transition from central Vienna to the edges causes one to pause briefly. Just a few kilometres outside the city limits and everything really does seem to be a village. If it is a suburb, it is not a suburb of any kind that the British would recognise. To be honest, several areas of Vienna inside the city boundaries are also villages in all but fact, so maybe one could conclude that whoever drew the boundary of 'Vienna' was being a bit generous.

 Above, Wolfersgrunweg, a 'street' in Vienna's 21st district found in the course of this hike :-)

Langenzersdorf lies at the foot of the Bisamberg. In many ways this small hill is the little brother of the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg to the southwest across the river, in fact geologically it is exactly the same. The danube flows through the gap between the two groups of hills, the gap bearing the name of the 'Donaupforte', or Danube gate.

 Looking from the Leopoldsberg across the 'Donapforte' to the low hump of the Bisamberg, taken by me on a much less pleasant day.

The Bisamberg may have the same rocks underfoot as the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg, but in many ways it is subtly different. The flora and fauna of the Bisamberg belong not to the Wienerwald and alps, but to the Pannonian basin, the warmer and more southerly climate zone of the low lying land which stretches from Vienna across the whole of Hungary. There are more conifers here, and the soil seems very sandy. In fact in the past the whole place was a managed landscape, maintained by grazing as a grassland much like the Chiltern hills of my home county.

Once you have climbed up the hill, enjoyed the view over the Danube and travelled through the woods you come to the tree-free areas of the Bisamberg, a long shallow slope back down to the outskirts of Vienna. Here you can find earthworks thrown up in defence of Vienna during Austria-Hungary's war with the Prussians in 1866. The atmosphere here is again very different to hikes in the Wienerwald as you are completely exposed to the wind walking through rolling fields, with the towers of the newer parts of Vienna hanging in the distance.

 Austro-hungarian ruins

The area is also (according to one of the many informative nature signs) recognised for its Hohlwege (hollow ways, just like we have in the UK) as the older tracks cut deep into the sediments forming the uppermost, most recent layer of the local geology. These sediments are loess, dust-fine grains formed by the grinding and pulverising action of glaciers in the last ice age, transported and deposited first by milky melt water streams and then blown into their current locations by the wind.

The whole walk is best topped off with a visit to one of the many wine establishments or 'Heuriger' that can be found on the outer edge of Vienna.

Hope you enjoy the photos! Don't forget to press the magnifying glass if you want to see them at high resolution.

Der Tom

Camera is dead! Long live new camera!

As you don't know, because I didn't tell you, my trusty camera companion disappeared under suspicious circumstances last June. After a long and valiant struggle through the postal systems of Norway and Sweden, camera was thwarted in its attempt to return to me at the last minute by some unknown worker in the austrian postal system, who removed camera from its packet and replaced it with a bottle of (decidedly less useful) vinyl cleaner. Thanks, postal worker. I wish camera the best of luck in its new life!

Now though I can reveal to you, the people of the world, that we have a NEW camera! As new camera is much more expensive than old camera, it is capable of taking nicer photos, though only if the person using the camera actually has any skills. Also owing to new camera's expensiveness, I feel it should be put to some use. What is the point of storing all these photos if nobody else looks at them? Furthermore, I think posting photos on the internet is a good way to encourage myself to actually use new camera.  Plus, I figure you invisible presences out there might like to see some new images of this very photogenic country in which I find myself (plus guest appearances from other countries!).

SO, I shall be posting links from time to time of things I have photographed, which you may peruse on Picasa. These images have been uploaded at high resolution, so if you want to look closer at one you like, don't forget to click on the magnifying glass at the top to load the high res version! I have already stored up a number of different sets of photos, so there should be material available for a while.

I am trying to take 'better' pictures, so these galleries tend to be slightly less good at documenting the appearance and interesting features of a place I have visited as if you were visiting it yourself. There are less travelogues and more unconnected details. Nonetheless I hope that through them and the captions you will get an impression of the sorts of places I hang around in and what my life is like at the moment.

It is difficult to write easily and often about my time in Vienna now everything is so normal to me. I don't mean I don't spend most of my time marvelling at how good we have it here. My friends will tell you that I still manage to do so almost daily. Nonetheless, there is only so often that one can blog about perfectly ordinary comings and goings in different restaurants and cafes before it becomes rather routine. Hopefully by letting the pictures of the interesting things do the talking, I can more regularly introduce you to my life here without repeating myself, and maybe get better at photography in the process!

The first set of shots are selected from a bunch taken as I wandered around the immediate neighborhood of my house in the 1st and 8th districts of Vienna very soon after I got new camera. They showcase a few of the beautiful things one can see in the central districts of Vienna almost without trying, as long as one rembers to look.

Bis bald ('till soon)

Der Tom

Oh Austria

I was going to start this post with 'Austria is a land of contrasts' until I realised that what land isn't? That's like saying: Austria has people in it.

Anyway I just thought I'd give you a distorted and unjustified snapshot of why Austria confuses me, politically and economically speaking, by highlighting a bunch of stories that all ran in the same Sunday tabloid last week. And if you sit through that you can have the link to looads of pretty pictures I've been saving up.

So yeah: the newspaper. What first hit me were the stories that just don't seem like they could ever belong to a british newspaper. Firstly, the austrian finance minister in an interview saying, basically, yes, our budget deficit is again under control and below the EU limit of 3%, so we should be off emergency measures soon. Yep, got a bit hairy there for a second, but we're totally on it. Can you imagine that being true in the UK any time soon? Ok so I am simplifying a bit as Austria is relying on some new bank tax regulations making it into law to make up its budget, but still. The optimism from a politician is confusing to a British person such as I...

News 2: Austria is in the top 5 countries in the whole eurozone for growth, and has the best unemployment figures in the EU, 4%. FOUR PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT. Whaaaaaaaat.

News 3 (front page): (Paraphrased) OMG a russian born girl won Miss Austria, this is NEWS so we can put her on the front page in underwear! Sigh.

News 4 (paraphrased): Hey Britain, remember when last week you all got completely outraged when the government suggested it might start tracking all your emails and internet traffic? Well, that is ACTUALLY A LAW in Austria. As of a couple of weeks ago, all my internet action is saved for six months by the Austrian government. I probably ought to take measures to somehow prevent this, if possible? I need to solicit technical help. In the meantime, anyone planning Oceans 11 or The Italian Job, email me at your own risk!

News 5: The 'Freedom Party of Austria' under H.C. Strache (did even that name ring alarm bells?) is again courting controversy , now being sued (by the King/prince of Marocco, no less!) for a billboard in Innsbruck that read 'Homeland-love instead of Maroccan thieves!' (catchier in original as 'love' and 'thieves' rhyme in german, 'Heimat-liebe statt marokkaner Diebe!'). This would almost be comically racist, (ie you would assume it was satire, I don't think racism is funny per se!) except that the FPOe gained 18% of the vote in 2008 national elections. That's right, Austria, one of the most economically successful and beautiful countries of europe, sadly 20% of the population vote for a party that is basically a cleverer and better looking BNP. Sigh.

Yeah, well at least the cake's good? And we aren't lead by no descendant of William of Orange. But it makes laughing at british politics from afar tricky...

And now, as promised, pictures! I have been enjoying the heck out of my walking guide to the Wienerwald, it is now cemented as my absolute favourite thing about Vienna this year. Here are two galleries of my wonderful discoveries in the woods.

Plus I finally overcame my Viennese resistance to seeing the rest of Austria and visited its second city, Graz. Graz is small, but perfectly formed. I also manged to get out into the woods round Graz too.

Got RSS working again now I think??!
Till some other time, the Tom.

Testing

For some reason google reader took a brief dislike to posting when I write something, this is what them folks in the IT business call a test post. Keep walking, nothing to see here.

Oben

In the last week or two I have managed to get out into the countryside a bit more, helped naturally by the lack of -15 degree temperatures, winds and snow...




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