Singular Scene

Vienna

July 11, 2016 by Dee

The whole reason I hatched this plan to go to Europe was to attend WordCamp Europe in Vienna and so the middle week of my travels centred around the gradual arrival of old and new friends as we all converged on the Museum Quarter to live and breathe WordPress for a few days.

Happily a bunch of my teammates from XWP were also attending so we took the opportunity to have some hang time as a team, to vision cast and to do crazy things like cycle through the Wachau Valley in the rain (the worst effects of which were mediated by the fact we stopped at several wineries on the way…).

Vienna is beautiful I felt very little like a tourist as there wasn’t a lot of time for sightseeing. Most of the images below are from a walking tour we did on our second day, and a spontaneous trip to visit the St Stephen’s Cathedral where we took a trip up the tower for some aerial views and a visit to the catacombs for subterranean ones (no pictures allowed there, sadly). The highlight of the experience in Austria for me was catching up with friends, old and new and having the opportunity to share my experience as a meetup organiser with such a receptive audience.

Happily I’ll be back there for a day on my way back to Frankfurt and my journey home, will play the full tourist then!

XWP team rainy bike ride through the Wachau Valley, Vienna

Durnstein on the banks of the Rhine

Stift Dürnstein (Abbey Church of Dürnstein)

The swollen Rhine

The Rhine

Castle Durnstein Ruins presiding over the town

The XWP cycle team

Maria at the Shore Church

Old Jewish Quarter Vienna

Kirch am Hopf

Am Hof

Marian Column over Am Hof

Cornelia, our Guide, an absolute hoot.

Rathaus (city hall), Vienna

Vienna parliament

Volksgarten Vienna

Theseustempel

Hofburg Imperial Palace and Heroes’ Square

Hofburg Palace Gate

Love the affected pose on this statue of Mozart

Mozart Memorial Statue in the Vienna Burggarten

Hofburg Palace

The Palmenhaus

Vienna Secession Building

The Leopold Museum where my WordCamp Europe talk took place.

Inside St. Stephen’s Cathedral

Faith, Hope and Love banners inside St Stephen’s Cathedral

Interior St. Stephen’s Cathedral

Stained glass St. Stephen’s Cathedral

St. Stephen’s Cathedral

From the tower St. Stephen’s Cathedral

View from the tower From the tower St. Stephen’s Cathedral

St Stephen’s Cathedral

Seen in Austria

St. Peter’s Church

Banner in Museum’s Quartier for our event

WordCamp Europe 2016 begins

Me in Action – you can hear the talk here if you’re interested.

Feedback from my talk at the conference

Priceless moment in the News Corp boys’ talk.

On the edge of the Daube

Festival on the Danube

Sunset over the Danube

Český Krumlov

July 8, 2016 by Dee

I guess for any Antipodean or American whose [colonial] national history is ridiculously short compared to the histories of Europe there’s an aesthetic about these historic places that’s really compelling. The sights I’ve seen have left me pretty much agape for the majority of my time in the Czech Republic. (Keep your eyes peeled for the Polish and Hungarian photos too… my jaw has been dropped most of this last section of my trip).

An offhand comment from a friend about this medieval city south of Prague set me off on a google quest to find it and here it is, Český Krumlov a UNESCO World Heritage site in the crook of the Vltava River (yep the same one that bisects Prague). And as the pictures attest, it is divine.

I had the good fortune (completely coincidentally) to be there the weekend of the Five Petalled Rose Celebrations, an annual event to celebrate the Renaissance Period (my favourite) so the town, bathed in gorgeous sunny weather (except on the two occasions when there were thunderstorms and horizontal rain), delightful costumes, and an abundance of period foods, events and stalls. I couldn’t have picked a better time to go… Hence the massive amount of pictures.

Truth to tell, I couldn’t have been more glad I had the chance to go visit.

Scenes on the Vltava River

The Castle Tower rising 86m above the Vltava River

Tower of St. Jošt Church in Český Krumlov

The Castle Tower

The Main Town Square

St Vitus Church, Cesky Krumlov

Inside St Vitus’ Church

Castle Walls

Castle Gardens

Castle Walls

Townscape

Castle Tower

Cesky Krumlov

Castle Walls

Tower of St Jost Church

Market Stalls

Tower of St Jost Church

Entertainers!

Sunset over the Brewery Eggenberg (mmmm beeer)

Spectators at the Tournament

The Tournament Parade

Prague

July 8, 2016 by Dee

Prague has a cityscape that fairy tales are made of. Given the number of people who were clearly not from the local area, it seems everyone has heard and come to check it out.

I walked all over Prague, through the old town, along the Vltava river, up into the grounds of the castle and back to the delightful apartment I was staying in. It was hot, crowded and utterly gorgeous.

One of the highlights, and the tower from which the elevated images in the gallery below were taken was the Klementium a group of historical buildings the centrepiece of which is the baroque library hall, an image of which I’d seen online and which had captivated me. It was top of my list to visit and I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, you can’t take photos inside the Klementium, so the image below is one found courtesy of Bruno Delzant.

I had two days there, I could have walked the town twice but on day two, opted instead for a quiet spot on the banks of Shooters Island, in the middle of the Vltava River where I drank a beer or two, read a book and generally soaked up the delicious atmosphere.

Prague is beautiful, there is way too much to be seen than can be done in a couple of days!

Vltava River with the Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge with Church of St Nicholas’ dome in the background

Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge

Crawling babies sculpture by artist David Cerny

Klementium Baroque Library Hall – Image by Bruno Delzant

Prague Rooftops

Twin towers of the Tyn Cathedral

Prague Rooftops

Klementium map

Old Town Square

Old Town Square

Street Architecture

Klaus Synagogue, Prague

Charles River

From Letná Hill

Vltava River from From Letná Hill

Vltava River Bridges

Monument to Julius Zeyer, 1841-1901, Czech writer, playwright and Romantic poet, 1931, by Josef Mauder, in Chotkovy Sady or the Chotek Gardens

Prague Castle

Ball Games Hall (Míčovna)

Cathedral of Sts. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert

Gargoyle – Cathedral of Sts. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert

Cathedral of Sts. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert

St. George’s Basilica

Steak, Potatoes and so many onions

Duck with Dumplings of all sorts. Protein and Carbs

Berlin

June 18, 2016 by Dee

Berlin has been the first city I explored on my own and it’s been an interesting experience. I chose to stay in Friedrichshain slightly out of the centre of town, and in the former Eastern part of Berlin. There’s a lot about the area that felt like Newtown in Sydney, very diverse, a little bit scrappy but it was easy to find my way around from.

I walked. Everywhere. From the first evening when I walked down to the river to check out the Oberbaum Bridge (enlarge the photo for the questionable art installation/performance in front of it) and the East Side Gallery to a 4 hour walking tour of Berlin’s highlights I ended the day footsore and happy to have seen as much as I did in so short a time.

It’s a city with a long and fascinating history.

And questionable weather as you can see from the pics.

The East German Ampelmännchen (traffic light men)

Oberbaum Bridge it links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall

East Side Gallery

View from the train

Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) Museum Island, Berlin

Gardens at Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) Museum Island, Berlin

Rebuilding a replica of City Palace, Berlin

Dome of the Neue Synagoge

Fernsehturm de Berlín

Neue Wache (translation New Guardhouse) a memorial to all victims of war and tyrrany

After German reunification, the Neue Wache was again rededicated in 1993, as the “Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship.” At the personal suggestion of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the GDR memorial piece was removed and replaced by an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz’s sculpture Mother with her Dead Son. The pietà-style sculpture is directly placed under the oculus, and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolizing the suffering of civilians during World War II.