JJ lennak: Austria

Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts

Semmering Railway, Austria

Today we went to the world's first world heritage railway (out of 2 World heritage railways in the world), Semmering Railway. First we went to Semmering station, the main station of Semmering railway. The train would stop here only once every hour so it stopped at every stations along the route! It sounded quite unpleasant trip but we had no choice so we took the train and leisurely rode to the last station, Mürzzuschlag station and continued our return trip on the same train back to our start point. The whole journey took about 2 hours. The view from the train was not quite different from the view we usual saw around here so I killed time practicing calculation with dad and mom!

Departed from this station!

World heritage!

Inside the train

Graz, Austria

Left our car at this P&R

Arriving by car last night to be ready for our trip today. This morning we had breakfast at the hotel and left the hotel at 10 am. We parked our car at Ost Graz station, P & R station. The train would stop at this station only every hour so we took tram instead to Graz old town. The famous clock tower was up hill so we had to climb up the hill (with stairs) to the tower. The clock tower was a very large and very European style! We took a lot of pictures there and walked around before went down and headed to the cafe on the river which we could see from the hill. After that we went to strange shape building museum. In the evening, we went to the Christmas market at the City Hall, dad enjoyed hot wine as usual! Then went to the department store in downtown, the view from the roof floor of the department store was very beautiful, nice place to enjoy view of Graz too!

Climbed this hill to
the clock tower

Clock tower

Interesting museum building

Tram

Cafe on the river

Christmas Market in Graz

Inside the church

Night view

City hall at night

Interesting mark,
don't know what it is?!

Hallstatt, Austria

At 10am we left home for the world most beautiful lake in Hallstatt, Austria. We arrived there around 12:30. It was a very beautiful place but most of the shops were closed because it was Sunday so we just walked around, enjoyed the nice view from everywhere. Without a plan, we walked to the church on the hill and found a room full of of skeleton inside!!! It seemed that there was not enough grave in the old time so they dug some up and put them inside this church. I felt so scared when I first saw them but dad told me that it was not a scary thing but just human body. Then, around 2pm, we took the boat trip around the lake which took us about 10minutes. It was very quiet today, not many tourists. We stopped the coffee shop while we walked back to our car and had coffee and cake which mom said that this was the most delicious cake she had ever tasted while in Europe! After that we drove back home. Our dinner today was frozen foie gras we bought from Kafer the other day and again mom was so happy with it!

Hallstatt from boat

Another view of Hallstatt

Very nice view but so cold!

Nice reflection

All skeleton

My favorite view

Hallstatt downtown

Crystal World factory Swarovski, Austria

Museum inside that small hill

We had our breakfast in the hotel restaurant on the same table as yesterday but still full from yesterday food! After breakfast, I went to the Kids Club while dad and mom packed the bags and then all of us went out for a little walk around the hotel. It was so beautiful and I think it is as beautiful as Switzerland but closer to our home and much cheaper. If you visit Germany, try here too! We checked out at 12 o'clock check-out and went for a walk again before we left here.

Very good place!

When we returned to the hotel, friends from Kids Club were playing in the hotel Play ground so I joined them again for a while. All of them were so friendly and cute. After that we left for the Crystal World factory Swarovski which took us about 30 minutes by car. The museum was so wonderful and worth visiting with a lot of beautiful rooms full of Swarovski crytals everywhere. When I went to the souvenir shop, we met the kind japanse lady who gave us the way to the nice restaurant while we were walking in the town on Friday! What a coincidence! We said thank you to her again and we asked here for help for our souvenir which were key chain for mom and Christmas tree crytals for our decoration! After that we went outside the maze in the playground! It was fun and beautiful here!

Giant ring!

The entrance

Here is the museum

Maze

Glittering sign

Another glittering things

Glittering room

Innsbruck, Austria

While I was eating my breakfast in the restaurant this morning, the waitress called "Princess". Although I didnt know the reason but I was so happy!! We walked around the old town after breakfast to the church, Goldenes Dachl, souvenir shops and enjoyed the view of the Alps and Innsbruck from the top of the city tower. It looked like Switzerland, very beautiful. Then we went to Ambras Castle by car, we did not tour inside the castle but the garden was beautiful and there was some peacock. I had never seen peacock this close before! As a special treat for dad's birthday we checked in 5-star hotel in Tirol for today, very luxury with superb view. Air was also so good! The hotel was gorgeous! The check in time was from 3:00pm and we were at the hotel right at 3:00pm! The room was clean and twice the size of the room in the hotel we stayed yesterday with veranda and smooth as silk fluffy bathrobe for all of us including me, five-star indeed! We played in the pool until we got tired and I changed and went to joined the Kids Club at 5:00pm while Mom and Dad enjoyed their time in the sauna in the basement of the hotel. Dinner at the hotel around 7:30pm with a surprise birthday cake for dad after a meal but I was so tired after a lot of fun today so I slept after the first half of our dinner!

View from the hotel in Innsbruck

Beautiful town

Goldenes Dachl from city tower

Main street

Garden in Ambras Castle

Ambras Castle

Peacock we found in the castle

This hotel for dad's birthday treat!

Birthday dinner at the hotel

Innsbruck, Austria

The white horse restaurant

We left home in the evening today for Innsbruck! This trip was for dad's birthday so mom drove all along, 1 and half hour from home to the hotel in Innsbruck. The evening view along the road from Munich was so beautiful. Checked in and walked around the Old town around the Goldenes Dachl. While we were busy looking at the map finding the place for our dinner today, a very kind Japanese lady called us and offered to help us with the way. She lives here in this town so she recommended us a good restaurant for our dinner today, the white horse restaurant. Schnitzel and local cuisine, fruity wine was very good. We would never have found this restaurant if it was not recommended by someone local because it was not in the main street and not much sign for tourists. We went back to the hotel by walk passed through the old town after a meal, so full!

Wachau Cultural Landscape, Austria

We went to Wachau Cultural Landscape today. First we toured Stift Melk Abbey. The entrance was renovated to be quite new so dad was a bit disappointed but the library and the church were gorgeous. We drove along the Danube river then walked into the small town nearby, Weissen Partenkirchen. After visiting the church, we joined the harvest festival in the square near the church and had 2 sets of French fries while mom bought some small grape that used to make wine. People there was so kind and everyone was so happy. Dad had wine tasting and bought back quite a lot of local wines from the store on the way to the parking lot. Mom had to drive back to Munich because dad had too much wine already!

Courtyard of the Stift Melk

Fantastic!

Harvest festival

Gorgeous Library

They called me princess!

I got free grape after this shot!

Dad bought a lot of wine from here

Lovely town

The Belvedere Palace, Vienna, Austria

The Belvedere Palace！

We woke up so early this morning, had breakfast at the hotel at 7:30am and left the hotel at 8:30am! We parked our car at Liesing station for P & R. The parking fee for 24hrs was 3 euro and dad bought one day train ticket for himself and mom which costed only 5.7 euros total. First stop was the Belvedere Palace. We walked around the palace and got inside the museum to see the famous painting of Gustav Klimt. Then we took tram to the center of Vienna. There was a festival in front of City Hall, so we had light meals overe there and walked to the Houses of Parliament and then the Hofburg Imperial Palace. We were a bit disappointed about the palace because there was a sport events in the palace so we could not have a picture of the palace without tents and people and advertising sign! But it turned out to be fun for me, I had tried a lot of sports like rock climbing, bowling. Then we took tram again to Opera hall, had a coffee break at the original Sacher cafe. After that we visited St. Stephen's Cathedral Piazza, joint a tour to the underground of the Cathedral that was full of skeleton. Mom was a scared to see that unexpectedly! While we was in front of the Cathedral, deciding where to go next, people dressed up like Mozart tried to sell dad a ticket for the concert tonight at Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and dad was trying to say no with an excuse that Julina was so sleepy already but I did say to him right away "No! I am not!" so dad had more talk with the guy and ended up bought a ticket for tonight concert. Concert time was from 8:15pm to 10:00pm so we had to wait around there for the concert time. I was sleepy finally and we moved to Starbucks which had a good couch in the basement for a 2 hours nap. The concert hall was so gorgeous with beautiful sound! I got bored a little but woke up again when somebody sang opera! or when there was a song liked. We arrived the hotel around 11:30pm and I was so sleepy along the way. It was a long fun day!