Traveling: March 2011

Monday, 14 March 2011

Vienna Fall 2010 - Part 1

Vienna

Friday - October 8th 2010

Claudia was attending a conference in Vienna and so we decided that I follow her to spend the weekend together in Austria's capital city. We stayed in a nice hotel called Vienna International Rainers Hotel. The hotel was just a few minutes by tram away from the inner city.

Our Room

Mini Bar

After I picked her up, we were on our way to the hotel, where we arrived in the late afternoon. We checked in, dropped off our lugagge and the we took the tram to the inner city. There we just walked around and had some glasses of Sturm, a special Austrian alcoholic beverage.

Kärntner Straße

Stepahnsplatz

After dinner at a small pub we returned to our hotel to watch football at the hotel bar. Unfortunately the hotel was occupied by our German neighbours and so we had to watch the German game.

Sunday, 13 March 2011

Vienna Fall 2010 - Part 2

Vienna

Saturday - October 9th 2010

We started our day with a wonderful breakfast with rolls, cheese, eggs, fruits and cereals. Then we grabbed our stuff and checked out before we were on our way to the city. Our first stop was at Starbucks and later we did some sightseeing and shopping.

Hofburg Palace

City Hall

Burgtheater

Parliament

Museum of Natural History

In the afternoon we were on our way back home, but we stopped at Restaurant Schillinger, a wonderful vegetarian restaurant in Großmugl, for an early dinner.

BBQ Platter

Friday, 11 March 2011

Scandinavia 2010 - Part 1

Arriving In Scandinavia

Sunday - August 29th 2010

My girlfriend Claudia attended a conference in Gotenburg and afterwards I followed her. My Austrian Airlines flight left Salzburg in the morning and via Vienna I arrived in Gothenburg in the early afternoon. There Claudia picked me up at the airport and we took the bus to the train station. After a four hours train ride we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark's capital city.

Copenhagen was very expensive compared to Austria and so we chose a budget hotel, but we were surprised how nice and modern it was and enjoyed our stay there a lot. The hotel was called WakeUp Copenhagen and was conveniently located near the train station and the inner city.

WakeUp Copenhagen Hotel

We checked in and got our room, which was really fine. Although the room was small, it offered a bathroom, a TV and enough space for our luggage.

Our Room

Bathroom

Since it was already evening, we were hungry and walked into the city to find a nice restaurant. We tried a Japanese sushi restaurant, but it wasn't very good. Since dinner was disappointing, we had fries and a beer at the Hard Rock Cafe, before we returned to the hotel.

Copenhagen

Hard Rock Cafe Copenhagen

Thursday, 10 March 2011

Scandinavia 2010 - Part 2

Sightseeing And Tivoli Gardens

Monday - August 30th 2010

Our first full day in Copenhagen. We got up early and since our hotel didn't offer breakfast, we went to a local bakery for a cup of coffee and a choco croissant.

Copenhagen

A Choco Croissant for Breakfast

Afterwards we walked to Nyhavn, because we wanted to do a boat tour through the canals of Copenhagen. On the way we passed some beautyful buildings and stopped at Castle Rosenborg to watch the guards. and to spend some time in the beautiful park of the castle

Castle Rosenborg

Castle Rosenborg Garden

Europe made of Flowers

Nyhavn is a wonderful place with old buildings, ships, bars and restaurants. We purchased our tickets and soon the canal boat tour started. The route covered the entire harbour from Fisketorvet in the south to the Fortress Trekroner in the north. The roundtrip took approximately 150 minutes. Since the weather was really nice, the sun was shining and it was quite warm, we got to see a lot. The boat tour was great, totally worth the money and shouldn't be missed during a visit to Copenhagen.

Nyhavn

Copenhagen - Boat Tour

Christianshavn - Boat Tour

Copenhagen - Boat Tour

Trekroner - Boat Tour

Copenhagen - Boat Tour

Copenhagen Opera - Boat Tour

Copenhagen - Boat Tour

Nyhavn - Boat Tour

In the afternoon after the tour we visited Christiania. Christiania was a strange, but special place. Unfortunately it wasn’t allowed to take any pictures. I think that was due to the fact, that people were selling drugs there. Coming from a country where even "light" drugs like cannabis are forbidden, we were a little bit shocked to see that in the public. We just walked around that interesting place and had a coffee. Afterwards we went to a small pizza restaurant and then we returned to the hotel, because it started to rain.

Christiania

Pizza

In the evening the weather was getting better again and so it was time for Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli is a beautiful amusement park and we enjoyed every minute there, although we only rode one attraction, a very high carrousel. The park looked really great after sunset when everything was illuminated. The park offered some nice restaurants and live entertainment, which we really liked. Two bands were playing that evening and the guests enjoyed them and were dancing and clapping to their music. We spent a few hours there, before we visited the Hard Rock Cafe just outside the park again.