Wake_up in Vienna 15/08/2010

The aim was to catch the sunset and water-boarders at Wake_up at Danube. The sunset was bland so I won't bother posting any photos of that but it was cool to see water boarding; never seen that before.

Some more info on the link; the page is in German.
http://wakeboardlift.at/willkommen

Heiligenstadt in Vienna 15/08/2010

Heiligenstadt is not far from the city centre. We cycled along the river and walked up the hill. Vienna has great cycle lanes! There are great panorama views over Vienna up on the hill and you can enjoy a glass of wine at one of the Heurigers. Or perhaps a spritzer if you are continuing the cycling. We went to Weingut Hajzsan.

Some links:

http://www.wien.info/en/shopping-wining-dining/wine/heurige-3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuriger

http://www.wien.gv.at/english/leisure/bike/

Rax Mountain in Austria

Reichenau is around a 90km drive from Vienna. You can also get the train there. The Rax mountain is a fairly easy place to do a bit of hiking for the inexperienced. There are frequent cable cars going up to about 1.5km height and then you can hike to Ottohaus for lunch or refreshments. Views are spectacular depending on how low the clouds are. Proper clothing and hiking boots is recommended.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rax

http://region.austria.info/at/guide/152785sy,en,OEWE/objectId,RGN110620at,_site,uk,_area,provinces-regions/home.html

A few shots from Rax 14/08/2010

Belvedere, Vienna

The original Gustav Klimt painting- The Kiss is in Belvedere in Vienna. It's well worth a visit, such a beautiful painting! We had a pleasant morning and suddenly the sky turned dark and dramatic. I didn't mind as I got some shots and we made it inside before the rain started lashing down.

Link to Belvedere:
http://www.belvedere.at/jart/prj3/belvedere/main.jart?rel=en

Here's one capture:

Karlskirche, Vienna

Karlskirche is a beautiful church in Vienna. It's currently going through some restoration but the front is done. The clouds were lovely and made a nice background when just shooting part of the church to avoid the tourists sitting on the steps and walking around. There are classical concerts in the evenings in the church; I can particularly recommend the Vivaldi "Four Seasons".

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/austria/vienna-karlskirche.htm

Der Stadtpark in Vienna

I've been on holiday in Vienna. The below statue is located in der Stadtpark where I was strolling around on Wednesday.

More information about the park on these links:
http://www.wien.gv.at/umwelt/parks/anlagen/stadtpark.html
http://www.suf.at/wien/ringstr/stadtpark.htm

Rose d'un Bum

The real name is Willow Herb but the nick name for the flower in Finland is "Rentun Ruusu" which could translate as "Rose of a bum". They can be found in any ditch so if you ever receive a bouquet of these you can say that you got roses from a bum.

Two different takes:

Seen its best days



On the way out

Around 10PM in Flatland

The archipelago in Finland is beautiful. It's rocky and shallow so you need to know the buoys and drive the boat accordingly. Finns have their summer cottages on islands and there are plenty of them too. Finland has nearly 188,000 lakes but I have always preferred the coast and the sea.
The photograph below would have been better if I had used a tripod but try to balance that in a moving motorboat bumping off the waves... I didn't even bother bringing the tripod with me on the boat trip.

A lovely tune to go with my photo can be found on the below youtube link.
Lasse Mårtensson - Myrskyluodon Maija
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuLkrDZq7OU&feature=related

Tourist information:
http://www.visitfinland.com/web/guest/fishing/waters/coast-and-archipelago/gulf-of-othnia;jsessionid=E620ED8FF3327090D7A24DD99870AF65.liferay011

Bumble bees

There are plenty of bumble bees in my parent's garden. Peacefully they gather nectar for hours. For some reason they all get stuck on the ugliest flowers when I would prefer them to sit for ages on bright blue, red or yellow flowers. I guess they go for the best quality nectar/pollen? They will collect nectar from pretty flowers too but they do it so quickly that I just can't keep up with my camera. I think I have to start thinking of buying a macro lense to get sharper photographs of close-ups.

First person to let me know what the name of the below flower is will get a photo! Biology is not one of my stronger points... :-)

Porvoo 18/07/2010

I've been on a 2 week holiday in Finland so I haven't been active on the blog. The weather was great and I visited places I've been to before but saw them with new eyes.

Below a few photos from Porvoo, a pretty town 50km east of Helsinki.

http://www.porvoo.fi/