I focused on Vienna and its Christmas markets on my recent trip to Austria, but also took day-trips to explore Graz and Semmering Railway. I also spent a day in Linz, which was probably a bit of an overkill for the overall trip. Don’t get me wrong – Linz is…
I ended my favorite sights vignette of Vienna several years ago with a promise to take hundreds of pictures on my next trip to the city. Such a trip came about recently – and I fulfilled that promise to a certain degree. I now have a reasonable amount of good…
Graz’s recognition on the World Heritage list is primarily due to the treasure trove of its architecture in the historic center. It is literally one of those towns whose streets you want to explore over and over again. I started my acquaintance with the town at Schloss Eggenberg, located some…
Recognized as a masterpiece of civil engineering, Semmering Railway is a 41-km-long stretch of tracks across Alpine landscape. I ended up traversing it twice in both directions on my recent trip to Austria. The way from Vienna to Graz lies over the same tracks, with the speedy train only slowing…
Schönbrunn Palace and Gardens, on the World Heritage list as an outstanding example of Baroque architecture and design, should have been #40 on my chronological tracker of visited sites. On the first visit to Vienna, in 2005, it was initially part of the itinerary. But after spending a day exploring…
What is so special about Christmas markets, one would reasonably ask, that an otherwise rational man would travel across six time zones and brave freezing weather for a whole week just to see them. Don’t they mean crowds and trinkets, for which aforementioned rational man has no particular affection? Don’t…
I like climbing elevated viewpoints for a bird’s-eye look over town. It is not even entirely about photography, although I take my share of pictures from above. I just love the views. The brilliant expanse of rooftops does not always translate into an eye-catching wide-angle shot, but when it does,…
Once upon a time, before digital cameras and for the first couple of years after converting to digital, our approach to travel photography was: Let’s take a lot of pictures of ourselves in front of interesting sights, and buy plenty of postcards depicting those sights in their resplendent beauty. The…