weekend at neusidler lake

nina's aunt has a little house right at the lakeside of the
neusiedler lake, and we were invited to stay there for a few
days.

after this pretty long winter, we enjoyed the warm temperatures
outside, the water, and doing nothing.

 

we borrowed two bikes and rode along the lake to podersdorf,
where a surfing tournament had taken place the days before.
so not much visitors were left, only a few that stayed until
sunday to enjoy the lake too. later, after returning to the
house, we hopped on a little rubber dhingy with an outboard
motor.

hmmm... a house at the lake, that's really a great thing. we
enjoyed the time staying there, and nina even stayed a few
days later, since she took some days off. unfortunately i
couldn't do the same.

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schoenbrunn zoo with the family

my brother, his wife, and my nephew came to visit me in vienna,
and planned to go to schoenbrunn zoo, since my nephew wanted to
see elephants, crocodiles, hippopotami, and giraffes in real
life. those animals he asked specifically for, the rest was bo-
nus. so we grabbed our camera gear and went on an educational
family photo-safari trip.

  

since it was the first warm weekend day in this year, tons of
people had the same idea as we had. additionally there was also
the vienna city-marathon today, so even more people going out-
side. but still, we enjoyed all the animals. my nephew got to
see the meerkats[02-04], giraffes[06-07,09], koalas[10-11], the
hippos[12-13], not so real cats[14-16], but also real cats[21-
25], seals[26], and the all-time super-cute red pandas[28-29].

 

some reptiles[30], flamingos[31], sea creatures[32-34], and tur-
tles[36] followed. after a short ice and ice-coffee break[37-38],
we headed back to the elephant house where there was feeding
time. to get their treat, the elephants had to perform loads of
little tricks, which was nice to watch.

 

after several hours at the zoo, my nephew got quite the animal
overload. too much new beings, each of them a new experience.
so we went home, watched the pictures taken during our trip,
and went to bed early, since we all were pretty tired. yet,
a fun day for all of us.

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eastern in tirol

easter time we decided to spend in tirol with ninsti's family.
so while eating, eating, drinking, eating, searching easter
presents, eating, eating, and a little bit of eating, it was
finally time for a little walking. so we drove to the nearby
reintaler lake, did one lap, and agreed that this is enough of
phyical training.

 

although the days before it had just snowed quite a bit, there
were flowers and blossoms here and there. great atmosphere, al-
most like in autumn.

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a visit to zoo schoenbrunn

there was an article online about the new enclosures for the
absolutely cute nude mole rat in the desert house in schoen-
brunn, right next to the zoo. 

since you get admission discount with an annual season ticket
for the zoo, it was a good opportunity to renew our zoo card
for schoenbrunn. the price is pretty ok, considering we are to
the zoo quite often.

 

so i enjoyed watching the nude mole rats[052-054] (and it is
pretty hard to get unblurred pictures, since it's pretty dark
in the tunnel their enclosure is located in). and although nina
didn't think they are cute before seeing them in real life, she
then decided that they actually are really cute.

also fun were those fishes[035-051] that nibble your dead skin.
furthermore there were some reptiles[001-005,008], cacti[009-
010,018-028], and also birds[013,015-017].

afterwards we thought why not go the zoo as we have our new sea-
son ticket, and there was still a little time left until the zoo
closes. so we focused on the big cats, like cheetahs[055-065],
panthers[066-085], and tigers[086-110].

 

today we were lucky, as most of them chose a good place to see
them and take pictures.

 

cute kitties!

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a weekend trip to graz

this weekend nina and i paid a visit to my brother, his wife and
my nephew in graz. since it's christmas time, we went to the the
christmas market[01-06] on the schlossberg[07]. Additionally the
ride with the "Schlossbergbahn"[08] was for free this day, so we
decided to not walk up the hill by foot, and rather enjoy the
view from the funicular.

 

later my hephew enjoyed rides in a little funpark[13-24], and
afterwards we all enjoyed hot beverages in the cafe[25-29] situ-
ated in the Kunsthaus Graz, aka the "Bubble".

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