Austria

After hiking part of the way up Grosser Priel in the dark and the rain the first day (or night, rather), and in the daylight the second day (not the original plan but...), we slept in Welser Hutte, waking up to this spectacular scene of clouds lying low on what are by no means low mountains. My friends climbed to the summit on this day, although I had to give up rather quickly for safety reasons, as I'm no expert, so Welser Hutte was again a refuge for me. We climbed down immediately afterwards, in better weather and in daylight.

took this on my way up Grosser Priel, approaching Welser Hutte, just visible to the left at the top. This was already high enough so that we were above the treeline and in the snow.

This was a pub at the trailhead of Ulrichsberg Schoneben, where I unexpectedly found myself on an unplanned third trip to Austria. The reason was that me and one of my friends were driving around looking for a place to walk her dog, and found ourselves at the border crossing with our passports in the car, so we figured we'd walk the dog in Austria.

Austria, famously, has ample tourist facilities, especially for hiking, so obviously there was a map at the trailhead.

I'm guessing this travel centre was a hotel and such, but I didn't investigate. The most important thing was that I got the name of the town on it! I never planned to go to Austria on this trip, so I wanted to note the place names.

Here's the first photo I took at the start of our hike, which was originally supposed to be a dog walking trip!

Here's the second shot I took. The trail was actually not a proper dirt trail, as it has paved with tarmac, but we saw relatively few cars.

More hiking signs.....

I just shot this because I liked how it looked, although now I think I have some better shots.....

I don't remember whether I shot this at the end of the hike, or in the car on the way back to Nova Pec. In any case, I really like this one.

Like the previous shot, this could have been from the car or on foot. I really don't remember.

I actually didn't arrive in Hauptbahnof, as the Eurocity trains from Prague arrive at Meidling, but because it was late at night, and international train travel is increasingly losing its novelty for me, I forgot to take a picture. In addition, it was dark, so by the time I got to Hauptbahnhof I had to use my cameraphone.

Vienna is actually a city of over 1.7 million people, so it is large enough to support a subway, or untergrundbahn. The Vienna untergrundbahn is unimaginatively called the U-Bahn. This is the Hauptbahnhof station. All of the current U-Bahn lines were constructed in 1976, except for lines U4 and U6, which were built in 1898. This is line U1, with this part of the station being opened in 1978, so it's a little bit surprising how dark and dank it looks. It's perfectly functional, though, and not vandalized nor abnormally dirty.

Here's one of the U-Bahn trains arriving. My cameraphone can't take action shots in the dark very well, though, so it blurred beyond recognition.

This was a very good cup of Daniel Moser coffee that I had the next morning at Stadt Boden, a coffeehouse in the city centre of Wien.

This was my breakfast of eggs and beans (more British than Austrian), which was better than it sounds.

The Vienna transit authority (which I don't know much about) operates a fleet of trolleybuses that can operate on diesel power when they leave electrified areas. The raise or lower the pantograph when they're at a stop, just as they do in Marianske Lazne. I don't know anything about the manufacturer of the buses.

This name would make you think this place promotes Austrian industry, but actually they sell artwork.