Palmenhaus Schoenbrunn

Plants often get overlooked in favour of animals, and indeed, I have definitely been guilty of this in the past. But perhaps helped by spending two weeks in the mountains with multiple botanists, or perhaps just because of the slightly greater patience that comes with age, I'm definitely starting to appreciate the incredible world of plants more than I used to. The best thing about plants is that a lot of them are just so absolutely alien-seeming, even some that are relatively common. Others are just beautiful, and of course there are the beautiful alien plants too. And then there are those that are just a bit scary...

The Palmenhaus is situated in the grounds of the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna. It is an absolutely gorgeous building, a large greenhouse complex whose wrought iron bulk looks both elegant and strange situated within the manicured gardens off to one side of the Palace itself. Until recently I had never visited it, because I was always at Schoenbrunn for some other reason, and there never seemed to be the time.

This winter though, on one of my many brief trips back to Vienna, I finally got to check it out. Inside is even more impressive than outside, the high ceilings and complex detail of the ironwork combine with towering palm trees and strange, spiky undergrowth to create a mysterious atmosphere that would almost be cathedral-like if it weren't for the recorded tropical birdsong and the warm humid air. In the main part, big iron spiral staircases decked in vegetation rise upwards. Here and there throughout are inviting white-painted iron chairs and benches, and it certainly seems that some people get a season ticket and a book and use this place as a way to escape the harsh realities of winter!

The Palmenhaus is divided into three parts, cool, warm, and hot. Big tip for winter visitors, DON'T start cool and work up, you'll feel it when you leave :-) Regardless, though there are weird and wonderful plants in all three sections, the hottest is probably the highlight. The vegetation is very dense and the air very humid, the yellow light from the lamps reflecting everywhere off dark green, rubbery leaves and big spreading palm fronds. It is here that some of the best aliens, monsters and beauties can be found, chief amongst them the orchids, several of which found their way among the photos I am showcasing here.

In addition to the Palmenhaus the neighbouring Wuestenhaus (desert house) is absolutely worth a visit, with unbelievable cacti, tortoises, and a whole menagerie of different bird species and even a whole naked mole rat colony with tranparent pipes! Sadly I don't have pictures of that so you will just have to go yourself. However, my pictures of one afternoon's journey to the jungle can be perused by following the appropriately greenish link.

Bis bald,

der Tom.


PS there was a special Poinsettia exhibition on when these photos were taken, so good times for all you Poinsettia fans!

 

Boxing Day +1 again

At Christmas time lots of people come home, so it's a perfect time to meet up with old friends. But there are a lot of different places everyone has to be at once... Our solution this past few years has been to have a standing date, the 27th of December (or more catchily, 'Boxing Day +1'). On this day, we always plan (maybe plan is too strong a word) to have a hike combined with a pub visit, where all of us local friends can meet up while doing what we like to do best.

  This year was no different. Seeing as it was a pretty last-minute arrangement, we opted to do a walk we had done on two previous occasions. The day started out cold, and there was frost on the ground as I walked down from the village to meet my fellow hikers. But the sky was almost completely clear, and the bright sun was quickly melting the frost and led to a pretty pleasant walking temperature. Still, the ground stayed cold enough and the weather had been dry enough that we didn't have to contend with too much of the thick slippery mud that can often be an issue in the good old Chiltern hills.

The landscape of the Chilterns is very familiar to all of us former (and some still current) scouts, but it is still always nice to be reminded of the beauty that lurks behind the hedges we all too often find ourselves behind, speeding along in our cars from one urban centre to the next. Up on the hilltops the views open out over the broad chalk valleys, and towards the northwest where the chalk runs out, Aylesbury Vale can be spotted low in the distance.

 We stopped at the pub, stocking up on proper British food and ale, for me an unusual luxury, for others an everyday occurrence. As usual running just a tiny bit behind schedule, we piled out of the pub and made a slightly fuller, more stately beeline for home. As the day went on, clouds started to form out over the plain, but up on the high ground visibility remained good, although the clouds did close in and cause us to pick up our step as the early winter dark crept in.

All in all a great day, unremarkable in that it happens every year but also remarkable for that very same reason! And some great weather too, which should never be sniffed at, though I feel that we have had generally good luck for most of the last few years. My extended set of photos from the hike is accessible at this link. Here's to more hikes in 2017!

Bis bald,

der Tom

Exploring the eastern edge of Düsseldorf

At the start of November the weather was clear and sunny and Autumn was still brightening up the countryside, the perfect time for my second Düsseldorf hike! This time I picked a hike starting from within the city itself, sticking quite close to its edges but nonetheless taking in some proper countryside. I love the feeling of walking out of a place on foot and arriving in somewhere that feels completely different, sometimes within a few minutes.

After a 10 minute S-Bahn journey I reached my start point in Gerresheim, now an outer district of Düsseldorf, though once its own town/village. The station is located next to the rather desolate-looking building site where a huge old glassworks is being torn down. But after 5 minutes of walking along a main road I turned off east and was immediately looking over fields, with the bright (if low) late autumn sun highlighting the golden clumps of trees on the high ground across the valley. I took so many photos in the first hour of my walk, slightly drunk on all that nature (well, very cultivated, but still alive) after a while away.

I wound on, passing forest, then railway, then horses, then a skate park, then an old castle, a patchwork of town and country where Düsseldorf peters out. Eventually I reached the Rotthaeuser Bachtal, a valley just over the hill from Düsseldorf but already a different world, winding along through yellow-orange beech forests, passing serene fishing ponds, old farmhouses, cows and fields. There was also a lot of mud, but I'm well used to that. As I may have said before, walking near Düsseldorf is much more like Buckinghamshire than Austria was, and I know deep black muddy woodland paths well from my youth as a scout.

My route finally led me over a blustery, scrubby hill and back into town proper, passing a petrol station and some houses before turning outwards again, threading past a golf course and over an area used as a glider launching site. The clouds had rolled in by this time and the wind turned cold and biting as I walked over the featureless grass, with the windsock on the horizon. Eventually I found myself back in autumnal forest, albeit on paved roads. This was the park-like Stadtwald (or Aaper Wald), full of families, joggers and dog walkers enjoying a slightly less muddy dose of the almost-natural.

I got a bit lost looking for a geological site of interest marked on my map. Although I was led to expect a dramatic boulder, I eventually found a small, mossy and overgrown pile of damp rocks, little bigger than a meter across. Lucky I'm a geologist, otherwise I would have been disappointed! As it started to rain as forecast, I walked briskly downhill, luckily discovering a tram stop practically inside the woods, leading directly back to my flat!

As always, my favourite pictures are uploaded and can be found by clicking on these words that I am writing here.

Happy new year and bis bald!

Der Tom

Along the river Düssel

I've moved a long way from the alps, but even in the more populated areas of Germany, you're never too far away from some countryside. After spending some time adjusting to my new work schedule and hurrying around Europe to multiple conferences I finally had a weekend free in Duesseldorf where I actually felt like doing something other than my laundry. Luckily I had picked up some maps in the weeks before and with the help of this extremely useful Nordrhein-Westfalen hiking website, I had everything I needed for my first trip.

Considering my lack of condition I picked a pretty long route, 18km, hoping that the lack of major hills would make up for the extra distance. Disembarking from the S-Bahn stop Wulfrath-Aprath after a pleasingly short journey, I was initially unimpressed at the scenery, but after only a few minutes the path turned away from the main road and everything became much quieter. Passing by a large village pond I quickly came out onto a low hill surrounded by farmland, giving me a good view of the landscape, which was low but rolling, featuring scattered woods, broad fields, and the occasional intrusion of modernity like church spires, cranes, high rise flats, and distant spoil heaps. Minus the spoil heaps it was not all that different from Britain, though still with different architecture and a notable lack of cows, sheep and hedgerows.

For the rest of the morning I hiked across varied terrain, crossing fields, through woods, and alongside rivers, every so often popping back into civilisation and crossing villages and towns. Many of the buildings I passed, both isolated farms and in the centres of villages, were all of the same old half timber design, painted a uniform black and white with green shutters and grey-green slates on their sides. Many proved to be extremely old, with dates going back to the 17th century! There was also a surprise 'castle' that had obviously housed a wealthy resident or two in the past.

After eating lunch in a small churchyard I began the second leg of my walk, from this point on almost exclusively shadowing the tiny river Duessel. Most of the time I was walking through trees slightly apart from the river itself, with small marshy riverside meadows and fields separating me from the water. On this leg mills became more common, and after crossing the fantastically picturesque and well-kept old centre of the village of Gruiten I entered the famous Neandertal. Here things were a bit more enclosed, with steeper limestone cliffsides often limiting the view out of the valley. The path is almost a road at points. It crisscrossed the river in broad curves, and the riverside meadows became yellower and more beautiful as the autumn sun sank lower in the sky.

Tired now after many kilometres of walking, I arrived in the more densely wooded and well-frequented part of the Neandertal, near the Neanderthal museum. Here some last surprises awaited me, first some 'wild' horses bred in the 20s to resemble their ice-age forebears, and then a small sculpture trail including a fantastic hidden Anthony Gormley sculpture lying peacefully and almost invisible at the bottom of the Duessel.

All in all a great first hike, and I took a bunch of pictures to prove it!

Bis bald,

Der Tom

 

Teaching in the Kaunertal

Over the summer I had the wonderful opportunity to teach on two week-long interdisciplinary field courses for people training to become biology teachers in Austria (yes, geology is part of the biology curriculum, don't question it, it's just the way it is). The interdisciplinary nature means I was out every day with one (and usually more) expert botanist and zoologist, and each of the three of us tried our best to link our areas of expertise together. This was an enormous amount of fun, firstly because I love identifying animals, insects and plants (birds in particular) and secondly because I learned so much cool new stuff about the natural environment and the way it changes with the landscape. Basically anything that allows me to read the landscape better while hiking around is alright with me!

The course took place in Tirol, right in the middle of the austrian Alps, in the Kaunertal valley. This is a deeply carved u-shaped glacial valley with jagged peaks and hanging valleys surrounding it on every side, including peaks of over 3000m and numerous (though small nowadays) glaciers and remnants of glaciers past. A playground for biologist and geologist alike, with perfectly polished rock outcrops and textbook changes in species types and distributions with elevation, usually right next to each other! Of course, the views are utterly spectacular even if you ignore the wealth of knowledge hidden within them.

My job description was literally to get people excited about rocks, obviously something that comes naturally to me and that I attacked with great pleasure! I am more than pleased that my methods seemed to work too, though I for one will say I'm not as surprised as my teaching counterparts, as I am pretty certain that once you just show people geology, they cannot fail to be enthralled.

The pace of the the 2 weeks was pretty gruelling, and I have the utmost respect for my colleagues who kept it up for one or two weeks more during the summer field trip season, I couldn't have. Getting up for breakfast at 7am (or on one memorable weather-dodging and admittedly totally worth it day, at 6am) was very hard, and sometimes I was working till 10pm or later, though with breaks in between. Still, work isn't so bad if there are interesting things to learn and teach, and all in all it was a very positive experience. I really felt like I could practice my much-neglected field skills and truly feel like a geologist again, using all my knowledge from my many years of study and not just my narrow specialisation.

Naturally there was still enough time to take photos, and oh my there was indeed enough natural beauty to to photograph! The gallery this time is a bloated 20 pictures long but I promise there are some great views and a lot of variety awating people with the patience to click through it all!

Right now I am living in Duesseldorf, which is considerably less mountainous but I've already been on a couple of hikes. When the iron research allows you shall see the results of those here, never fear!

Bis bald,

der Tom.

Highest point in the Wienerwald: Schoepfl Hike

Here's a short account of my (hopefully temporary) farewell hike in the Wienerwald, source of so many blog entries and pleasant hikes over the lifetime of this blog! It had been years since I last climbed to the highest peak in the Wienerwald, the Schoepfl. It isn't too hard to reach with public transport but you do need to go rather early and on a Saturday via bus. Saturday is often ignored for hiking due to the fact that it's the only day off where the shops are open!

Nonetheless I managed to collect together a couple of companions and we set off on a perfect hiking day, warm and intermittently sunny but with plenty of clouds, breezes and fresh dew on the ground to ensure we weren't going to overheat. The hike heads pretty much immediately upward, past some very rural scenery. There are lots of farms in this area and something about it reminds me of Buckinghamshire, perhaps just that there is a lot of grass compared to other parts of the Wienerwald.

The Schoepfl itself however is steep and wooded, projecting up several hundred meters above the surrounding hills. As part of a large single ridge (of hard sandstone, geo-fans!) it really seems to catch the wind very well and it got a lot cooler and windier on the way up. For a few magical seconds we were in a thin misty cloud and the sun and shadows created a crazy barred effect just like on Stuhleck that one time. But this was a lot more short lived and reaching the top of the stepp part we were greeted by a sunny overgrown meadow. We trekked up to the lookout tower for great views and really fierce winds, then dropped down to the shelter of the (closed for the holidays) gasthaus garden for lunch, accompanied by the loud baa-ing of a sheep herd who apparently had learned to beg for attention as if they were dogs...

The weather held as we completed the rest of the walk, crossing broad fields, teeming meadows, and shady woods, everywhere summer in obvious full swing. Towards the end we were greeted with the spectacle of a faraway rain shower, colouring the sky dark and moody. Dry ourselves, we dallied briefly picking raspberries before heading to the true and much longed-for destination of our hike: the village ice cream parlour! Nothing like tea and a massive ice cream bowl to round off a summer hike :-)

Foe-toes can be accessed by clicking on the green link!!

Bis bald,

Der Tom

Quick rainy trip up the Schneealpe in July

It has been a relatively cool summer in Austria, something for which I am of course extremely thankful. It has actually rained a fair amount, and in combination with my own obsession for swing dancing and general social demands, I really haven't managed to do much hiking this year. Still, after it became clear (spoiler alert!) that I would be moving to Duesseldorf in August (where I am writing this), I did want to go check out some Alps before I moved. Luck would have it that one friend was in possession of that most rare of commodities, a car. Even more luck would have it that he really wanted to go hiking! I chose the Schneealpe as our destination, a beautiful limestone plateau right next to the Rax but considerably more difficult to access via public transport.

We picked the day for the hike many weeks in advance so we weren't able to be picky about the weather... The forecast was for rain early on, clearing up throughout the day. We shrugged our shoulders and decided to make the best of it. The ascent starts in a well-sheltered valley and zigzags sharply up the steep side of the plateau. For most of the way we were sheltered from the wind and comparatively warm even though we were getting drenched by the constant rain. As we climbed higher the dramatic rise of the Rax was visible in the distance, completely capped by streaming white clouds.

Just a little bit higher and the protection of the mountainside started to become less. The addition of the wind made everything a lot colder and we fled towards a nearby limestone outcrop. Esconcing ourselves in a deep and narrow crack in the rock we had an early lunch, hoping that the rain might pass. Indeed it did, though the wind remained, and we headed up to the plateau. All thoughts of travelling to the 1800m peak were gone, but we did enjoy the view from a small rise on the rim of the massif. The entire forest below us began steaming with woodsmoke as water evaporated after the rain, sending cloud columns rising into the air to be caught by the fierce wind across the plateau and curled into dramtic fingers.

After half an hour of buffeting by the winds, and seeing fog-like clouds closing on us fast, we decided to head down the quick way, back the way we had come. A very shortened hike but one with some incredible cloud forms over the nearby peaks and from the woodsmoke, and truly exhilarating with all the high winds. As usual, please click on the link to see a small collection of pictures from our small adventure!

Bis bald,

Der Tom