instant snow

This is the song that we sang while we walked around Vienna and Oberammagau. "I love the snow, I love the snow, I love the snow (got a cookie in my pocket!)". We loved the snow, and we did have a cookie in our pockets. Such are the joys of a deliciously chilly European winter and stolen baked goods. 

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salzburg photo diary

Churches on every street // The interior of Salzburg's cathedral, awe-inspiring // Walking in a winter wonderland // The view down the river // Decoration on the Cathedral's doors, restored and replaced after the bombings during World War 2 // Sunset over the old fortress // A view of the fortress from below // Cityscape

 

I really liked Salzburg. And not just because I got to indulge my childhood dreams of visiting Sound of Music fans (and singing "How do you solve a problem like Maria" really loudly). There was something very calm and collected about the city. It is small and therefore manageable, but because it has a few universities, a thriving tourist industry and also a sense of local Austrian culture it never felt claustrophobic or cluttered. Shopping on the main street was diverse and yielded fantastic results - handmade chocolate with crystallised violets and that mango coat I was obsessed with 4 months ago ! - there was so much to see, including trips out of the city to the lakes and the salt mines, the people were friendly, the history was fascinating and, perhaps most importantly, the food was nothing short of fantastic. We had a couple of really great meals - classic Austrian food done really well. I downloaded the Wallpaper guide before I left and it was extremely well-edited. We followed it like a bible (literally, it could find you even without internet, so that's a big plus) and one of the restaurants it suggested ended up being a perfect meal, long and never-ending, with lots of wine and delicious food. I can't wait to get back to Salzburg again, so long, farewell!

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vienna photo diary

Snow-covered Belvedere Palace // Traditional, original, delicious Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher // The staircases at Schonbrunn completely blanketed in snow // A beautiful Chagall painting at the Albertina // Vienna does palaces pretty well, this one is the Hofburg // Early morning demonstration at the Spanish Riding School // Snow, glorious snow! // The view from the top of St Stefansdom Cathedral 

Vienna had that kind of elegant, stately beauty that makes your heart truly ache. It's not a beauty you can beautify or dress up, it's not the kind of beauty you can replicate, it's not the kind of beauty you can even quite describe... It's something about a stately, self-possessed elegance that comes from history and legacy. Not all cities have this. I'm not even sure that Paris has it. But Vienna certainly does. It make my heart ache, really, truly ache, to stand at the top of Stefansdom and look out over the city, dusted lightly with snow, stretching out into the confines of the grey sky.

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snow!!!!!!!

"This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!" thought Lucy, going still further in and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. "I wonder is that more mothballs?" she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold. "This is very queer," she said, and went on a step or two further. Next moment she found that what was rubbing against her face and hands was no longer soft fur but something hard and rough and even prickly. "Why, it is just like branches of trees!" exclaimed Lucy. And then she saw that there was a light ahead of her; not a few inches away where the back of the wardrobe ought to have been, but a long way off. Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air."

 C.S Lewis, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe

 

You call that snow? (You call that a knife??? Aussie joke) There was real snow, winter wonderland snow, the kind of snow that a girl from Australia can only ever dream about. I want to say that I was cool, that I was calm and collected and acted like the grown up that I supposedly am. I want to say that I didn't make snowmen and throw snowballs and yell out "Mr Tumnus" really loudly and make a make-shift sled out of a thrown away cardboard box and take a million pictures and get really wet making snow angels. I want to say that I was like that. I really, really do.

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At the gallery

We have been to some incredible exhibitions in Vienna - including the impeccably curated jubilee Klimt exhibition at the Belvedere, where they had placed Egon Schiele and Klimt's work side by side alongside ephemera from Klimt's life (the original bill for the Kiss!) and portraits of the artist as a young man, though you sadly could not take any photos - but this was my favourite. It was at the Albertina, one of Vienna's loveliest galleries in the centre of town, right next to the Hofburg, and we wandered over there after a morning listening to the Boys Choir at the palace chapel. They have a permanent exhibition called Monet Bis Picasso, showcasing the private collection of one family that was donated to the gallery. It was an amazing grouping of late 19th century early 20th century art, the kind that is so stunning to think that it once hung in someone's home. There was a beautiful Brancusi statue of a bird, a really beautiful Monet study of roses, and a lot of wonderful impressionist works by Signac, Degas and Pissaro. My favourite was a picture of winter by Edward Munch, a melange of grey and blue and brown with no end. The attendant told us that - even though it was a Sunday - we came on a peculiarly quiet day, and that they have been packed to capacity for weeks with people lining up to see the amazing pieces. Well, it was peculiarly cold, and I was grateful for that cosy feeling you get of being rugged up and toasty inside a warm gallery while it is bone-chillingly cold outside. It was nice to sit on the chairs and look at these works, to sit on the chairs and look at people wandering by and looking at these works, to sit on the chairs and be surrounded by art. 

Monet Bis Picasso, Albertina Gallery Augustinerstraße 1, Vienna

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Guten Morgen!

For me a good morning begins at breakfast. It might have muesli and yoghurt and fruit, it might have coffee or hot chocolate, it might have freshly squeezed orange juice or carrot and ginger vitamin press, it might have soft-boiled eggs and ham off the bone, it might have bagels and croissants, it might have home-made marmalade, it might have english breakfast tea, it might have salty butter, it might have toast and jam, it might have pastries to finish, it might have newspapers from around the world. For me, the perfect breakfast is all of those things. At the Hotel Daniel in Vienna.

Hotel Daniel, Landstraßer Gürtel 5, Vienna

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