Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn, Austria

One more for today... another swap from last year and also a Unesco card with a Europa stamp and gorgeous special cancellations. :) Thank you so much, Marco!

From the 18th century to 1918, Schönbrunn was the residence of the Habsburg emperors. It was designed by the architects Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Nicolaus Pacassi and is full of outstanding examples of decorative art. Together with its gardens, the site of the world’s first zoo in 1752, it is a remarkable Baroque ensemble and a perfect example of Gesamtkunstwerk.

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Wagrain, Austria

Long time no see... I wasn't intending on taking this long to update again but somehow it just happened. Well, there *was* quite a lot going on in June and I've been preoccupied with other things. I'll try to squeeze in an update now before heading off to my aikido class.

This card is from a swap earlier this year. Marco was offering the new Austrian Europa stamp and I just couldn't resist. Marco accidentally sent me a cover with the stamp first but kindly offered to send a postcard as well as that's what we'd agreed on. He did do a lot of swaps for the stamp, though! Anyway.. I was getting frustrated with the cover I sent to him - it was returned to me TWICE by the Royal Mail despite the postage actually being too much! It did finally reach Austria, but I was getting a little annoyed. The same happened shortly afterwards with a letter I sent to dad's sister. I wonder if it happened because of the way I write (or used to, I've changed it a little since then) the return address on the back of the envelope? Oh, the joys of sorting machines. :P ...although I find it a bit strange that the postman didn't notice anything! Or maybe he did but just doesn't care...

Wagrain is a market town in the St. Johann im Pongau District in the Austrian state of Salzburg. It is located in a high valley stretching from the Salzach at Sankt Johann in the west to the Enns river in the east. The municipality includes the Katastralgemeinden Hof, Hofmarkt, Schwaighof and Vorderkleinarl. The population is about 3,020.

The settlement of Wakrein in the Archbishopric of Salzburg was first mentioned in a 1243 deed. Original a mining area, Wagrain in the early 18th century was a centre of Crypto-protestantism within the Catholic country. About 1732/33 Prince-Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian had the Protestant population expelled; most were received by King Frederick William I of Prussia and re-settled the East Prussian province, which had been devastated by the plague.

Today Wagrain mainly depends on tourism. It is nestled in the valley of the Ski Amadé resorts, one of the largest ski resort networks in Europe. In the summer the ski lifts transport bikers to the mountains for the summer mountain biking season.

Wagrain is the original home of Atomic Skis, which was founded in 1955 by Alois Rohrmoser, who bought a wheelwright shop, and expanded its production to include winter sports equipment, such as skis and sleds, using local timber resources and a crew of four craftsmen.

Greetings from Austria

Another 'Greetings from' postcard I ended up receiving two copies of. :P One is from a Facebook swap and the other from the Vacation RR on the Postcrossing forum.

I hadn't realised Austrians drank that much coffee! I do know Finns drink a lot of it as well, and I'm a weird exception who doesn't like the stuff at all. Well, I like coffee-flavour ice cream, cakes etc, I just can't stand the taste of the actual drink.

 ...and the bit about the first ever picture postcard here is pretty neat as well. :)

 

Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, Austria

It feels really weird to be updating at 2am but I've got a day (or night, rather :P) off but can't really go to bed just yet as I'll be doing a 12-hour shift today (Sunday pay, night pay particularly, is quite a bit higher than the pay during the week so it would be silly to turn the extra hours down) so I thought I'd post something here again. I'm starting with this great Unesco card from Austria that I received through a facebook swap with Nina last year.

This card shows a computer animation of how the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps would have looked like. This serial property of 111 small individual sites encompasses the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. Excavations, only conducted in some of the sites, have yielded evidence that provides insight into life in prehistoric times during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Alpine Europe and the way communities interacted with their environment. Fifty-six of the sites are located in Switzerland. The settlements are a unique group of exceptionally well-preserved and culturally rich archaeological sites, which constitute one of the most important sources for the study of early agrarian societies in the region.

Farmers' Market, Austria

A lovely market view I received from the 'Choose a Country' RR earlier this year. It features photos taken by the sender, marcie08, which I think is pretty awesome, I love postcards of markets around the world!



These pictures are from a local farmers' market in Austria, open daily and selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, cheese, meat and fish.. I wish there was something like that where I live, too. My local markets aren't that good, and they're certainly not open every day. I'll have to check when the one in Wolverhampton is open; I want to go there to see if they still sell herbs you could grow on your windowsill. I've done that before and really liked it, even if I'm not very good with plants and usually manage to kill them pretty quickly :(

Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna, Austria

More snowy views, this time from Austria. I'd been wanting a postcard of this particular house for ages and finally got one in a tag earlier this year, yay! It's just so gorgeously colourful and whimsical, what's not to love about it?!



Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment house in Vienna, Austria, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser with architect Joseph Krawina as a co-author. This expressionist landmark of Vienna is located in the Landstraße district on the corner of Kegelgasse and Löwengasse.

The house was built between 1983 and 1985 according to the ideas and concepts of Hundertwasser with architect Univ.-Prof. Joseph Krawina as a co-author and architect Peter Pelikan as a planner. It features undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a divine melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place.

Within the house there are 52 apartments, four offices, 16 private terraces and three communal terraces, and a total of 250 trees and bushes. The Hundertwasser House is one of Vienna's most visited buildings and has become part of Austria's cultural heritage.

autumn in Austria

Ha! The weather reports were wrong, thank goodness, and it didn't snow here. It has actually been reasonably warm - I haven't had to use my hotwater bottle too many times yet :p I haven't been to West Park to take photos yet, I really need to go at some point.. Meanwhile, here's a pretty autumnal postcard to look at. :)


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I have no idea of the exact location of the place on this card, all I know is that it's supposedly a random location somewhere in Austria. ..and such a beautiful place it is, too! I love the colours here, the contrast of the oranges and yellows with the blue of the lake and the mountains (?).



The stamp is a Europa stamp from 2009, that year's theme being 'astronomy'.

Mondsee, Austria

Ok, I say I get behind with this blog and then I dig out old cards to post... :P This one is an official from about three years ago but I really, really like it. It's such a gorgeous view, looks like a perfect holiday destination. :)


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Mondsee ('Moonlake' in English. How cool is that?!) is a lake in the Upper Austrian part of the Salzkammergut and neighbour to the larger Attersee. Its southwestern shore marks the border between the states of Upper Austria and Salzburg, and also between the Northern Limestone Alps in the South and the Sandstone zone of the Northern Alps. The Drachenwand (Dragonwall) at the southern shore of the lake is an impressive sight. In 1864, remains of neolithic pile dwellings were discovered in the lake.



The stamp is from a set of 3 stamps issued in 2007 and shows a Christmas Rose.

Austrian library

I haven't receive just one, but TWO library-themed postcards so far this week! *squee* I just wish this one was a bit clearer about the name of the library and where it's located. ...or maybe it's clear if you speak German, but I don't, so I'm a bit lost. :(


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If I'm correct, this card shows the library in St. Florian's Priory, a monastery in the town of Sankt Florian, Upper Austria, Austria. Or at least it looks very similar. There's more info here. I haven't copied and pasted it here in case I got the place wrong...



Austrian mailboxes like to take a walk in the nature... :D The bigger stamp was issued earlier this year for Publicity Campaign 2010. The stamp on the left is from a set of 5 stamps issued in 2007, depicting flowers. This one here is the Scotch Laburnum.