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Up to Dachstein massif
Austria – day 3 – Dachstein massif adventure. Who would not want to see the world from the bird’s perspective? And if you can let a cable car take you as high as possible in the Dachstein massif so that you can see its awesome views from above, you may even experience that perspective for a while. Well, let me pause here… as to get up there is just a part of the success. The other one is having luck regarding weather because on a cloudy and misty day, you cannot see much, and unfortunately that was our case. The trip was planned, the tickets were reserved and that gave…
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On trail round Rittisberg
Austria – day 2 – late afternoon. When we were coming back from Silberkarklamm to Schladming, there was still enough time to make one more stop along the way. Thus we found ourselves on the Rittisberg mountain, which we reached by a cable car from Ramsau am Dachstein. From the upper station, we just followed quite an easy scenic trail around the mountain, with a game for children to make them enjoy the walk, some nice views for adults… …and several environmental art-in-nature exhibits, such as these: You can find more info about the exhibits and their creators on the Landart Rittisberg website. The thoughts on the exhibits – what…
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Flower, ribbon and crate
Getting back to playing with simple still life compositions… their light and shadows… shapes and colours… Sometimes a small difference makes a huge impact.
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Through Silberkarklamm
Austria – day 2 – hiking through the Silberkarklamm, which is a mountain pass featuring a wild brook meandering between the rocks. The path following the brook leads you up to the hut Silberkarhütte, wooden stairs are supporting your steps in some parts. You have to pay a fee to enter the pass and if there are more people, you need to be patient, especially at the beginning when everybody starts climbing the first stairs. Later the line spreads and you can enjoy the atmosphere much better. We visited the pass on Monday morning and there were not many people except our group, I guess on weekends and afternoons the…
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Up to Hofpürglhütte
Back to Austria – day 1, when we were taken to Filzmoos and then a bit further to Almsee. That one is a very small lake, much smaller than we expected, but there is an interesting building on the way to it. It is the Chapel of Maria am Steineggl and surprisingly it’s quite new, having been consecrated in 2016. Above the door, the words are: “In der lebendigen Natur geschieht nichts das nicht in Verbindung mit dem Ganzen steht” which could be translated to English as “Nothing happens in living nature that is not connected with the whole“. Thought-provoking, isn’t it? I was prepared to be looking for it in some…
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Having visited Schladming
Many years ago, at the time of my university studies, I used to have a friend in Austria. Then our ways parted and that meant the end of traveling to the country for me. Yet I had so many nice memories of the places we visited and eventually they resulted in vacation plans for this year. My husband and I enjoyed a week’s stay in Schladming area in Styria, where one can go hiking in the mountains with their many faces depending on weather and surroundings, as well as experience the peacefulness of the town. Actually, the experience made me start a new category here on the blog. The category…
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Power poles
I find it refreshing … to look for beauty where it is not obvious, … to look for beauty that is not exactly beautiful but it is interesting,… to look for beauty that has inherent significance. Shooting power poles may not sound exiting but see the shapes and atmosphere…
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Poisonous beauty
Once I bought small lupin plants to add them to my flower bed, they are such lovely flowers. But soon I found out that they are not only lovely-looking but also quickly-spreading and deep-rooting. If you don’t keep them at bay, they shamelessly displace other more modest plants. The other day I read an interesting and actually quite alarming article describing how mountain meadows in the national park Giant Mountains (Krkonoše) get overgrown with lupins preventing the smaller original plants from thriving and rendering the hay worthless because of their poisonous properties. Would you believe that only 100 grams of lupin seeds can poison a sheep? If I just imagine…
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Kladruby monastery
The Benedictine monastery in Kladruby has not been actively used as a monastery for more than 200 years. Sadly enough, it resulted in gradual destruction of the historically important construction that came into existence in 12th century, and is only slowly repaired nowadays. The most impressive part of the monastery has undoubtedly been the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which was rebuilt by the architect Jan Blažej Santini-Aichel in the baroque-gothic style at the beginning of 18th century. Santiny became an appreciated architect in his lifetime and his work is highly valued till nowadays. Just see, among all other modifications, Santiny replaced previous two romanesque towers in…
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By the pond in Kladruby
My husband drives a lot and some time ago he sent me as a surprise a quick photo of just a water reflection of a building he had just been passing by. I surprised him as well as I recognized which building it was. How could I not? I love the old monastery in Kladruby in all of its shapes and colours. A few weeks later we went for a trip there and I could see the whole scenery, including the old dilapidated house by the pond under the monastery wall. What an interesting view! The monastery is not actively used any more but you can visit guided tours, which…
