Seefeld in Tirol

This was another perfect mini-retirement for 4 days. For me, four days is the optimal time periode for this kind of a short trip. It’s long enough to free your mind, to explore and to relax. But it’s also not too long so that it is easy to find back into your daily work routine I’m looking forward to the next one.

The Olympiaregion Seefeld has already twice hosted the Winter Olympics for the disciplines of cross-country skiing and Nordic Combined. The Games were first opened with the Olympic Fire in Innsbruck in 1964. The second time was 1976. It is a nice little town which has a lot to offer.

We stayed at the Hotel Hocheder which was located perfectly near the city center, the ski slopes and the Olympic Sports and Congress Center. The shot below is from the 5-star hotel Klosterbräu which is right in the center of Seefeld.

Nearby is the Wildsee with nice trails to walk:

Seefeld Trip Details

The historic town Mittenwald is also quite near. It takes you about 15 min by car.

Mittenwald Trip Details

London – HDR Shots

The Royal Albert Hall. Made from a single RAW.

Piccadilly Circus at Night. Made from a single RAW. 

Foto Praxis Extra 01/08 (HDR Edition)

Fotopraxis HDR Magazine

In the new Foto Praxis Extra Magazine (01/08) you can see one of my HDR landscape pictures. It is a special edition which covers everything about HDR like all the software tools you need or Photoshop tricks to get the best results. 

They published a landscape picture I took a few months ago. It shows the Rheintal valley near Buchs in St. Gallen. HDR was perfect for this situation because of the bright sky/clouds and dark mountains in the background. You can download the picture from photocase.

There is also a small digital edition which covers some of the articles. You can download it here.

Diano Marina – Nice – Monaco – San Remo (Part 3)

The third stop was Monaco, a small but well known country located along the French Riviera. It is one of six microstates in Europe (the other five are Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, San Marino and Vatican City).

Monaco, HDR

It is the world’s most densely populated country with a population of just 32’410 and an area of 1.96 square kilometers (second place is Macau and third Hong Kong). It is also a tax haven because there is no income tax for individuals.

Monte Carlo is the wealthiest of Monaco’s areas and probably the best known for it’s casino. The permanent population is about 3000.

Monaco is one of the most expensive places on earth but despite of this fact we enjoyed a Banana Split in front of the casino (it was about 12 Euros).

Casino Monte Carlo, HDR

To gain residency in Monaco you need to live there for six months a year and you also need a bank certificate from one of Monaco’s banks showing a deposit of 400’000 Euros.

Casino Monte Carlo, HDR

Property costs are now higher than in London. A studio for one person and no special view is about one million euros. The square meter is about 27000 Euros (based on abcnews)!

Monaco Trip Details

KwaZulu-Natal South Coast

During our visit of South Africa last year we used the Southern Explorer for planing some of the tours. It’s a guide which is published by the Southern Explorer Association as a free service to visitors to KwaZulu-Natal. The Association has chosen the rare Samango Monkey (Cercopithecus Mitis) as a mascot and logo. It is a shy but also a highly social animal.

We decided to go the tour 3 which is the spectacular Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve. It’s about 22km inland from Port Shepstone and a popular weekend getaway or day-excursion destination. Self-guided trails reveal an array of antelope and birds. High sandstone cliffs dominate the 24km long gorge carved out by the Umzimkulwana River.

Some other impressions of the trip follow.

Sebence Paradise Garden

Hluhluwe / Imfolozi Park

View from our Muntulu Bush Lodge

HDR Views from Palfries (1715m)

Heading towards the Palfries Berggasthaus I took this shot at about 1715m above sea level. The valley is still covered with thick fog. Click on the picture for a larger version.

The next picture shows the back side of the Alvier which was the goal of one of our last hiking tours.

The Palfries Berggasthaus is a nice place to take a rest and they serve great food! It’s not really cheap but the view and quality is well worth it.

Diano Marina – Nice – Monaco – San Remo (Part 2)

The second stop on our 4 day trip was Nice, a city in southern France between Marseille and Genoa. It’s the leading resort on the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur) and one of europe’s most fashionable winter retreats. We visited the famous Promenade des Anglais, the flower market and had a relaxing time at the beach.

 Nice / Nizza

On the following picture you can see the Port of Nice with the speed ferry to Corsica and in the back the Monument aux morts and the famous La Prom. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Although I’m not that history interested I think it is still good to know some cornerstones when you travel. It helps to build a better understanding of the culture, the food, the architecture and of course the language. For example was Nice founded by the Greeks of Massilia (Marseille) about 350 BC and has it’s name in honor of a victory over the neighbouring Ligurians (Nike is the Greek goddess of vicory). 200 years later the Romans took control. The popularity of the city grew during the Victorian period when the Englishmen made it their main winter retreat.

The La Promenade des Anglais (“Walk of the English”) was proposed by rich Englishmen in the 18th century. At that time the coast was just borded by a deserted band of beach covered by large pebbles. Houses were well away from the sea. The promenade was first called the Camin dei Anglès (the English Way) by the Niçois in their native dialect Nissart. After the annexation of Nice by France in 1860 it was rechristened La Promenade des Anglais, replacing it’s former Nissart name with it’s french translation (source: Wikipedia).

Nice Trip Details

Diano Marina – Nice – Monaco – San Remo (Part 1)

During the last short trip or – as Tim Ferris would call it – mini retirement we visited the famous Côte d’Azur and Riviera of Flowers. The first stop was Diano Marina where we stayed 3 nights at the Piccolo hotel.

Diano Marina

The Gulf of Diana is one of the most important tourist areas in the Riviera of Flowers and Liguria. The name Diano Marina derives from the ancient devotion to the Roman Goddess Diana. The small town has a 3.5 km long sand beach with lots of bars, restaurants, night clubs, shops and hotels. It is located 90 km southwest of Genoa and it’s population is about 7’000. It borders the following comunes: Diano Castello, Imperia and San Bartolomeo al Mare. For a better overview check out the KMZ file I’ve created.

During these months (September, October) it is not so packed with tourists and the beaches are almost empty. Probably the best time to book a relaxing Riviera trip. On sunny days it’s still warm enough to enjoy a swim.

As you can see on the next picture the first day was a bit cloudy but – to see the positive aspect – I think cloudy skies are more interesting on pictures than just clear blue ones. With some experimentation you can get all the details of the sky without overexposure. In such situations I always use the spot metering to get the right exposure.

Diano Marina, HDR

A storm was coming but the lightning at the horizon was still far away so we took a couple of pictures this afternoon.

Diano Marina Beach, HDR

The next morning most of the clouds were gone and the sunrise beneath the thick cloud wall was amazing.

Ocean, HDR

If you are interested you can download the following KMZ File to watch some of the GPS tracks I recorded in Diano Marina.

Diano Marina Trip Details

There will be also some more pictures in the gallery (the next days).

Furkajoch to Portlahorn (2011m)

A very convenient hiking trip is from the Furkajoch via “Blauer See” or “Sünser See” to the Portlahorn. The views and the landscape is very impressive. It is a perfect half day trip and it makes you feel better in the afternoon because you have done something for your health. The air is very clean and fresh in this height and the temperature in autumn is perfect.On the way back you have the opportunity to hike to the Portlakopf as well, which is about 20 minutes longer. It took us 4 hours with a longer rest on the Portlahorn (all in all about 6km). The best starting point is about 500m after the Furkajoch where some parking opportunities are. From there you walk to the Portlaalp and then you can follow the signs.

The following HDR picture shows the “Blauer See”. I think they call it that way because the lake reflects the blue sky.

The profile shows that you are making about 400 meters altitude difference which is not much on a distance of 3 km.

 There was a small pond on the summit of the Portlahorn with a few dragon flies.

Furkajoch to Portlahorn (2011m) Trip Details

Mittelalter Spectaculum Hohenems

It was the first time this event took place in Hohenems, Vorarlberg. I think it was a smaller version of the original spectaculum in Germany because I didn’t see any horses let alone some knights on horses. They promised everything but we got nothing except some gold coins . No it was not that bad.

Drummer in HDR

It was more or less a medieval market with lots of fantasy products like dragons or faries, food stalls, sword & shield stalls and a vast variety of unusual goods.

They had some fakir shows in the afternoon which was not for the fainthearted. With an iron hook in his eyes a man was pulling a woman over the stage…stay tuned to see these pictures in my gallery.

Shooter in HDR

They also had some nice one-on-one and group combats in the late afternoon where I took these pictures. They are HDR versions of my RAW files.

Group in HDR

It was a group from the czech republic I think. They did an enjoyable show…