YB in IN
01-12-2006, 05:21 PM
Hey ya'll. I finally gotten a bit decompressed now from the trip and the scramble to get some school stuff in order, so here are some of my pictures from my Austrian Adventure.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089275-M.jpg
Here is the High Altar at Stefan's Dome. This is a gothic cathedral close to the main museum district and a lot of the higher end shopping in town.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089328-M.jpg
Here are my two roomates walking away from a huge monument to Maria Teresia. Around her are advisers and generals. This is located close to the Helden Platz.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089338-M.jpg
Here is a rather famous balcony right on the Helden Platz. This was the old Imperial Palace of the Hapsburgs. The balcony is where Hitler delivered his speech after the Anschluss.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089396-M.jpg
Here is a picture of one of the trials of Hercules. There are four statues of him right outside of the Helden Platz, and right by the Spanish Riding School.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089477-M.jpg
A shot looking down a pedestrian street. Versace, Gucci, and others were to be found in this area.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089497-M.jpg
This is the old Rathaus (courthouse) lit up at night. I was in this area over New Year's Eve and they had stages and screens set up with a concert going on. It was cool because at midnight they switched over the the Staatsoper where they showed a live waltz that was going on for the New Year Ball. Very fun.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089513-M.jpg
Here is one of the frescoes inside Karlskirche. I'm not sure that I was actually supposed to take a picture or not, but I did anyway. This was sort of a cool place to visit because they are doing some restorations within the church. Normally that would suck, but because they have a lot of scaffolding up, if you go later in the day after the workers have left, you can get a real up close and personal look at the art.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089519-M.jpg
Here is a rare picture of the three of us roomates all at once. This was inside Karlskirche. A nice guy from Cali with his son took this for us, and then we took a picture of them.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089552-M.jpg
Strauss. This is a monument to Strauss in one of the larger parks in the city. He wasn't originally gold. About twenty years or so ago someone snuck in during the middle of the night and painted him. It's sort of just stuck.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089544-M.jpg
Here is a crossover of cultures. The lovely gal in this picture is my roomate's girlfriend Satako. It was at her apartment that we stayed at while we were in Vienna. We were all sleeping in this one room. I'm drinking Jack well on my way to getting blitzed for the evening (sort of our M.O. for the trip), and fanning rice for the sushi that we were soon to eat. Did I mention that Satako is from Japan, and that she makes some damn good sushi? Well I just did.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089597-M.jpg
Here is probably what was my favorite thing that we saw the whole trip. We saw some awesome paintings from Klimt, Schiele, and others, but the real sould of Vienna comes from the men that are memorialized here. These are the graves of Beethoven, Schubert, and a memorial to Mozart since he was buried in a mass grave. This is at Austrian equivalent of Arlington. All of the great Austrians are buried here. Around the corner from these musical giants are others such as the Strauss family, and Arnold Schoenberg, but for me, these three are what really gave us so much of what we have now for music.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089571-M.jpg
Paying my respects.
So after we had been in Vienna for a few days we took a road trip. We rented a car for three days and headed over towards the German border to Salzburg and the Salzkammergut region. The Salzkammergut region is the oldest continually inhabited region in the world. This is due to the salt that is readialy avaliable in the mountains surrounding it. Here is a view over looking Salzburg at night.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089615-M.jpg
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089630-M.jpg
Token motorcycle content.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089639-M.jpg
Here is my other roomate Jeff posing with the snowman we made up on the mountain above Salzburg. It was a group effort.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089648-M.jpg
This was the view from the balcony of the B&B that we stayed at in Obersee, which is right next to Halstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089668-M.jpg
Here is a picture of Halstatt. Yep, those are the Alps everywhere in the background.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089678-M.jpg
This is some black and white action of the mountains around Halstatt. This was taken at about 10 AM when the sun was starting to come over the mountains.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089706-M.jpg
The steeple is of the Catholic Church in Halstatt. It's from like 1200 or so.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089750-M.jpg
This is a picture of the Dachstein. It's one of the tallest mountains in Austria. The really cool thing though is the glacier. It's hard to really get an idea of how huge it is unless you where there. There is also a pretty decent little Gasthof right behind me where I took this picture. It was some good eats.
Well that's about it for the pictures that I took while I was in Austria and Vienna. We had a hell of a good time. It was a great way to spend two weeks of my Christmas vacation. Will I go back? Hell yes. People treated us like rock stars when we busted out singing opera or lieder (German Art Songs) in bars. Catch me around a campfire sometime and I'll tell you some more stories of the other adventures that we had.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089275-M.jpg
Here is the High Altar at Stefan's Dome. This is a gothic cathedral close to the main museum district and a lot of the higher end shopping in town.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089328-M.jpg
Here are my two roomates walking away from a huge monument to Maria Teresia. Around her are advisers and generals. This is located close to the Helden Platz.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089338-M.jpg
Here is a rather famous balcony right on the Helden Platz. This was the old Imperial Palace of the Hapsburgs. The balcony is where Hitler delivered his speech after the Anschluss.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089396-M.jpg
Here is a picture of one of the trials of Hercules. There are four statues of him right outside of the Helden Platz, and right by the Spanish Riding School.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089477-M.jpg
A shot looking down a pedestrian street. Versace, Gucci, and others were to be found in this area.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089497-M.jpg
This is the old Rathaus (courthouse) lit up at night. I was in this area over New Year's Eve and they had stages and screens set up with a concert going on. It was cool because at midnight they switched over the the Staatsoper where they showed a live waltz that was going on for the New Year Ball. Very fun.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089513-M.jpg
Here is one of the frescoes inside Karlskirche. I'm not sure that I was actually supposed to take a picture or not, but I did anyway. This was sort of a cool place to visit because they are doing some restorations within the church. Normally that would suck, but because they have a lot of scaffolding up, if you go later in the day after the workers have left, you can get a real up close and personal look at the art.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089519-M.jpg
Here is a rare picture of the three of us roomates all at once. This was inside Karlskirche. A nice guy from Cali with his son took this for us, and then we took a picture of them.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089552-M.jpg
Strauss. This is a monument to Strauss in one of the larger parks in the city. He wasn't originally gold. About twenty years or so ago someone snuck in during the middle of the night and painted him. It's sort of just stuck.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089544-M.jpg
Here is a crossover of cultures. The lovely gal in this picture is my roomate's girlfriend Satako. It was at her apartment that we stayed at while we were in Vienna. We were all sleeping in this one room. I'm drinking Jack well on my way to getting blitzed for the evening (sort of our M.O. for the trip), and fanning rice for the sushi that we were soon to eat. Did I mention that Satako is from Japan, and that she makes some damn good sushi? Well I just did.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089597-M.jpg
Here is probably what was my favorite thing that we saw the whole trip. We saw some awesome paintings from Klimt, Schiele, and others, but the real sould of Vienna comes from the men that are memorialized here. These are the graves of Beethoven, Schubert, and a memorial to Mozart since he was buried in a mass grave. This is at Austrian equivalent of Arlington. All of the great Austrians are buried here. Around the corner from these musical giants are others such as the Strauss family, and Arnold Schoenberg, but for me, these three are what really gave us so much of what we have now for music.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089571-M.jpg
Paying my respects.
So after we had been in Vienna for a few days we took a road trip. We rented a car for three days and headed over towards the German border to Salzburg and the Salzkammergut region. The Salzkammergut region is the oldest continually inhabited region in the world. This is due to the salt that is readialy avaliable in the mountains surrounding it. Here is a view over looking Salzburg at night.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089615-M.jpg
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089630-M.jpg
Token motorcycle content.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089639-M.jpg
Here is my other roomate Jeff posing with the snowman we made up on the mountain above Salzburg. It was a group effort.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089648-M.jpg
This was the view from the balcony of the B&B that we stayed at in Obersee, which is right next to Halstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089668-M.jpg
Here is a picture of Halstatt. Yep, those are the Alps everywhere in the background.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089678-M.jpg
This is some black and white action of the mountains around Halstatt. This was taken at about 10 AM when the sun was starting to come over the mountains.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089706-M.jpg
The steeple is of the Catholic Church in Halstatt. It's from like 1200 or so.
http://GarthEppley.smugmug.com/photos/52089750-M.jpg
This is a picture of the Dachstein. It's one of the tallest mountains in Austria. The really cool thing though is the glacier. It's hard to really get an idea of how huge it is unless you where there. There is also a pretty decent little Gasthof right behind me where I took this picture. It was some good eats.
Well that's about it for the pictures that I took while I was in Austria and Vienna. We had a hell of a good time. It was a great way to spend two weeks of my Christmas vacation. Will I go back? Hell yes. People treated us like rock stars when we busted out singing opera or lieder (German Art Songs) in bars. Catch me around a campfire sometime and I'll tell you some more stories of the other adventures that we had.