Melissa's Photo Blog: vacation

Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

May 25 - 145/365

6/18/10

Canon PowerShot SD600

Another day of nothing but travel as we made our way from Frankfurt, Germany back to Baltimore, Maryland via Philadelphia. Pictured here is my passport and our ticket stubs for the trip from Germany to Philadelphia. We had a great time in Germany and Austria, but there is still nothing like home sweet home!

May 24 - 144/365

18-55mm lens @ 20mm, f/8, 1/160, ISO 200

Berlin - the capital of Germany and infamous for its struggle in the Cold War. The modern city was actually very nice - a pleasant surprise after all the stories we remembered hearing about Berlin when the wall was in existence. We stopped to tour the requisite sights, including the Brandenburg gate, the Parliament building, and even a great museum of German history. This museum was the best possible ending to our travels since it covered all of Germany's history which we had been learning in bits and pieces along the way. It helped put all of the historical events and stories we had learned into one big picture. Of course no visit to Germany would be complete without visiting one of the remnant pieces of the Berlin wall. At this particular part of the wall, which you can see decorated with Graffiti in the background, there was a guy dressed up as a military guard stamping cards with all of the stamps that you would have had to get to be able to cross the wall during the Cold War. It was touristy, but we thought it was a pretty cool souvenir from such a dramatic part of German history.

May 23 - 143/365

18-55mm lens @ 20mm, f/11, 1/320, ISO 200

What an unusual sight, huh? I honestly have no idea where these ladies were going or why they were dressed the way they were, but we spotted them on our long walk through the gardens of Potsdam. Postdam is a small town just outside of Berlin and is most famous for its majestic palaces and lush gardens. We spent part of our afternoon wandering the gardens and stopping to visit the palaces, although unfortunately we were not able to tour either of the palaces because the wait was far too long to get into each of them. But the palaces and gardens were beautiful and these ladies added to the historic feel of the park. From here, it was on to our last destination in Germany - the city of Berlin.

May 22 - 142/365

18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15, ISO 800

Our second to last stop in the country of Germany was the city of Dresden. Close to the Czech Republic border, it was the most damaged city in all of Germany after World War II. As a result, most of the city has been completely rebuilt. We thought it was going to be pretty modern, and it was, but many of the buildings were rebuilt in with old-world style, still giving the city a historic feeling. This city was also the location of one of the best-known Lutheran churches in Germany, the Frauenkirche.

May 21 - 141/365

18-55mm lens @ 40mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200

Another image of Rothenburg. This image better captures the old world feeling of the town. Like I said, one of my favorite towns in all of Germany. :-)

May 20 - 140/365

18-55mm lens @ 39mm, f/5, 1/20, ISO 800

So I decided not to post any pictures from our one night/day in Nuremburg because our first night in the town of Rothenburg was much more memorable. Rothenburg was one of my favorite cities in all of Germany. It immediately transported you back to the middle ages with nothing but cobblestone streets, an old stone wall, and old buildings. But one of the most fun experiences we had was joining the midnight watchman's tour. The midnight watchman, pictured here, told funny stories about life in the middle ages and about the town of Rothenburg, with bits of humor mixed in. It was a very touristy experience, but so much fun that I didn't care. Highly recommended!

May 19 - 139/365

18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/9, 1/200, ISO 200

The city in this photo was just a stopping point on our long drive from Vienna to Nuremberg. The town, called Regensburg, was apparently one of the best preserved medieval towns in a country that was quite destroyed by World War II bombs. This town was largely untouched and a charming spot for us to enjoy a picnic lunch.

May 18 - 138/365

6/16/10

18-55mm lens @ 33mm, f/10, 1/200, ISO 200

Our second day in Vienna was spent touring three of its amazing palaces - the Hofbug, Schönbrunn, and Belvedere. The Hofburg was the regular home of the Hapsburg royalty, and the Schönbrunn just outside of the downtown area was their summer home (away from the stench of the city in the summer heat). This photo was taken at the last palace we visited, the Belvedere, which was the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Eugene was initially rejected from the French court of Louis XIV because he was "short and ugly", so he instead offered his military service to the Austrian Hapsburgs where he went on to become one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history. This photo is of the view Prince Eugene enjoyed of the city of Vienna from the Belvedere... not bad, huh? :-)

May 17 - 137/365

18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/5, 1/25, ISO 800

After one night in "Sound of Music" country, we made the long drive from Obertraun to Austria's most famous location, Vienna. We had been anticipating the beauty of Vienna and were surprised at the enormous size of the city and the surprising modernity of it. There were indeed many elaborate baroque style buildings, and of course the famous Hofburg palace which we toured the following day, but still it was not the jolt back in history that we had suspected. Still, we enjoyed touring the elaborately decorated palaces of Emperor Franz Josef and his troubled wife, Sisi, and sipping coffee in Vienna's high ceiling plus cafes. Today's image is of one of the churches that we stopped in to see in Vienna, Augustiner Kirche, a great example of the amazing Gothic architecture that was so prevalent in both Germany and Austria. It was also the site for many royal weddings, including the wedding of Franz Josef and Sisi, and the French Emperor Napolean to the Austrian Princess Marie Lousie. I especially loved this church because of the beautiful golden chandeliers.

May 16 - 136/365

18-55mm lens @ 32mm, f/5, 1/40, ISO 200

"The hills are alive....." Welcome to Salzkammergut, the Lake Region of Austria, also fondly called "Sound of Music" country since it is the region that best represents the beautiful countryside featured in the movie. Since my husband is NOT a big fan of musicals (in fact, he almost abhors them), we did not spend time touring the "Sound of Music" sights, but we did stay one night in the lake region. This image is of a town called Hallstatt, and the town we stayed the night in, Obertraun, was just 5 minutes away across the lake. Despite the gloomy weather that was continuing to plague us, we enjoyed the beautiful views of the alpine villages set on the lake with the majestic mountains jutting up in the background. These towns were also well known for serving fish freshly caught in the lake, so we welcomed the opportunity to take a break from our pork-focused diet. Hallstatt is also known for its large salt mines which has been a huge source of income for the town for thousands of years, but unfortunately we arrived in town too late to take a tour of the mines. Still, we enjoyed the serenity and beauty of the Salzkammergut.

May 14 - 134/365

18-55mm lens @ 43mm, f/7.1, 1/80, ISO 200

Day 2 in Munich! What a fun city. We had some great experiences in our brief 2-days in this Bavarian city, famous for its massive beer halls and men wandering the streets in lederhosen [yes - we saw lots of them dressed this way!]. It is hard to find one picture to capture all the fun experiences we had here and the sights we saw, so instead I chose an image taken from the top of a tower looking out toward city hall in the Marienplatz.

May 13 - 133/365

6/11/10

18-55mm lens @ 29mm, f/7.1, 1/80, ISO 200

Germany has so many amazing things to see and great experiences to be had. Castles. Beer. Sausages. Mountains. Wine. The list goes on and on. But it is hard for me to imagine stepping foot into Germany without spending some time visiting its dark side.... the era of Nazi control and World War II. On our way from Innsbruck, Austria to Munich, Germany, we stopped to visit the Dachau concentration camp just outside the city of Munich. While Dachau is not as infamous as the camps that participated in the mass extermination of Jews, such as Auschwitz in Poland, Dachau was the very first concentration camp and the only camp to be operational for the entire duration of WWII. My husband and I have both visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., but as moving as that experience was, it was nothing compared to the feeling of touring the isolation cells, walking through reconstructed barracks where the laborers wasted away, and seeing the crematoriums where the masses of people which were worked and starved to death were cremated. The museum was packed with history from the rise of the Nazi political regime to the liberation of the camp by the Allies, and it will definitely be an experience we will never forget.

May 12 - 132/365

18-55mm lens @ 34mm, f/4.5, 1/30, ISO 500

Ooh la la.... oh wait, that's French, and now we are in Austria. But regardless, this image is of one of the most historic chocolate cakes. The Sacher torte was created by 16-year-old Franz Sacher in 1832 on a short-notice demand from Prince Clemens Lothar Wenzel Metternich of Austria. The young chef quickly whipped up the now infamous Sacher torte which quickly became a dessert commanded by Austrian royalty, including the Empress Maria Theresia of Austria. Needless to say, being the chocoholic that I am, I had to have my very own piece of this historic chocolate cake. While I can't say that it was the best piece of chocolate cake I have ever had, it was still fun to eat a little piece of Austrian history in the town of Innsbruck, Austria. :-)

May 11 - 131/365

18-55mm lens @ 30mm, f/10, 1/160, ISO 200

This was definitely one of my most favorite days in Germany. 1) It was the first completely nice day we had. The sun was shining and it actually felt a little warm outside after days of overcast skies and rain. 2) We got our first glimpse of the Alps, the most magnificent mountain range I have ever seen and with crystal clear water below the most beautiful shade of turquoise blue - you don't expect to see that in a lake. 3) Today was "Mad" King Ludwig castle day. Well, not officially, but for us it was. We were able to tour three of King Ludwig of Bavaria's castles, one of which is the most famous castle in all of Germany, Neuschwanstein. Ludwig was King of Bavaria and LOOOOVED to spend money and build castles. In fact, he spent so much money (which he borrowed and didn't actually have) that his family was forced to declare him legally insane so that they could regain control of his accounts and keep him from spending any more money. His sudden death days after he called off his engagement was shrouded in mystery as he was found dead in a lake with his physician, and no one to this day knows if it was murder or suicide. Craaaaazy! His death left all but one of his castles unfinished inside, but you can still tour the finished parts. The castle pictured above, called Hoenschwangau, was the castle that King Ludwig spent his childhood in with his family. While it wasn't the most magnificent castle we saw that day, I loved the surrounding scenery with the lake and the mountains in this photo the best.

May 9 - 129/365

6/7/10

18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/6, ISO 800

The word "Germany" brings certain items/images to mind.... sausage, sauerkraut, castles, cuckoo clocks.... and of course, beer. LOTS of beer. At this point in our trip, we hadn't tried much beer. We had been sampling more wine than beer since we were in a region known for their wine. Not to mention that we hadn't been able to enjoy any biergartens since the weather was cold and wet and not good for sitting outside. So for our second dinner in the town of Baden-Baden in the Black Forest region of Germany, we asked our waiter which beer to try, unsure of which kind to try first. The next thing we knew, our young German waiter [who spoke good English] brought us a tray of beer "samples", which he ultimately did not charge us for. We tried Pilsners, Marzens, Dunkels, Hefewizens, IPAs..... probably one or two others that I can't remember. We loved them all. Of course we had our favorites, with the unfiltered Hefewizens being our #1 favorite throughout our trip. But the best part was the experience of talking to the waiter, being treated to a sampling of every local beer they had to offer, and enjoying a great meal of pretzels, sausages, sauerkraut, and other traditional German foods after a great day in the baths of Baden-Baden.

May 8 - 128/365

18-55mm lens @ 55mm, f/8, 1/125, ISO 200

Nurburgring.... the king of all race tracks. So my husband tells me, because he is the car fanatic and I am the chocolate/shopping fanatic. :-) This is the most dangerous race track in the world, earning it the nickname "The Green Hell" and serving as the major benchmark for testing the performance of newly manufactured cars. Nurburgring was also one of the most anticipated attractions in Germany for my husband, who would have done anything to take a fast car around this track for a few laps. Unfortunately, that experience was not meant to happen for us that day for a number of logistical reasons that I won't bother explaining here. But he did get to drive a Lotus to tour the track that afternoon, where we got a personalized tour of the track up and close, watching lots of cars that were practicing for an upcoming "24 hours" race. It was amazing to see these cars whip around some of the turns on this track, trying to go as fast as possible but also follow certain "rules" that earned them points for staying within lines, hugging curves a certain way, etc [don't ask me.... I don't entirely get it :-P]. It was quite an experience to see, but I made sure to remind my husband of the entire afternoon I spent with him at the racetrack when I was ready to do some shopping in the next town. :-)

May 7 - 127/365

18-55mm lens @ 55mm, f/7.1, 1/100, ISO 200

We had spent the past 2 days touring the Rhine Valley in western Germany. After leaving the town of Bacharach, we drove ~1hr north west to another river valley area known as the Mosel Valley. The Mosel had been described as a "sleepier version" of the Rhine. But we went to the region for just one night with 2 attractions in mind - Burg Eltz [another wonderfully preserved medieval castle] and the Nurburgring race track [see tomorrows photo for more on that sight]. I had a tough time choosing one photo for the day, but I ultimately chose this one for a few reasons. First, it gives you a great birds-eye view of the town we stayed the night in, Cochem, and the castle that overlooked the town and the Mosel River below. Beautiful countryside, dotted with vineyard plots growing grapes for the famous German Riesling wine. Second, this image also gives you an idea of the weather we were encountering during almost our entire trip. We had expected to tour Germany and Austria in sunshine with temperatures close to 70F. Well, some kind of freak system had settled over almost all of Europe for a few weeks, and we had almost 3 full weeks of fog, drizzle, rain, and temps around 45F-50F. Not what we had expected.... or prepared for! So this also made taking outdoor photos quite a challenge, and there is a lot of post processing done on many of the outdoor photos to reduce the glare from the fog. But the castle, the Mosel, and the wine were still amazing and quite enjoyable!

May 6 - 126/365

18-55mm lens @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/15, ISO 800

Since I will be probably showing you lots of photos of the outside of castles we saw in Germany, I thought it might be fun to show you the inside of one for once. Usually I don't get to take too many photos of castle and palace interiors because they just won't let you, but today we were allowed to take photos in one of the castles we visited, Burg Rheinfels. This particular image is of the bedroom of the Duchess of the castle, decorated in 19th century decor.

I also just want to quickly mention one point about my shooting process for the photos I'm going to be posting from our vacation. I have been doing most of my shooting in Manual or Aperture priority mode over the past few months, during which I have been teaching myself about my camera and how to optimize each photo I take. And as much as I wish I could have continued shooting in that carefully planned manner during my trip, the truth is it just isn't possible. Or at least, not very efficient when we are touring multiple castles/museums and walking miles each day, plus taking tons of photos.... it would unfortunately take me way too long to take each photo and my husband would probably keep going without me. :-P So for almost every shot taken on my vacation, I was shooting in "Program" mode, adjusting minor settings like aperture or ISO when absolutely necessary and doing the remaining editing in the RAW files here at home. I'm still recording the shot details under each photo in case you want to know the nitty gritty, but just be aware that I didn't specifically choose each of those settings like I usually do.

May 3 - 123/365

5/3/10

28-135mm lens @ 60mm, f/4.5, 1/8, ISO 800

I am packed and ready to go! Tomorrow afternoon my husband and I board a plane for Frankfurt, Germany. We've been planning this trip for months and have a ton of adventures awaiting us! However, being in Europe for 3 weeks will mean no posting until I get home and sort through all my photos. I have no doubt I will be taking more than my share of photos while touring Germany and Austria, but obviously they won't get posted until much later. So happy travels and "bis später"! [see you later!]

April 23 - 113/365

4/26/10

28-135mm lens @ 130mm, f/5.6, 1/8, ISO 400

The countdown to our trip to Germany and Austria is on! Just a little over a week before we head overseas, provided there is no more volcanic chaos.... So we have started getting some of the last minute details ready for the trip. And one of the most important details for an overseas trip? Money. I found this nice stash of Euros that we had never exchanged back into US Dollars after our trip to Italy/Greece last year, so it will definitely be helpful this time around, too. Kind of looks like funny money, doesn't it? So much more colorful than US Dollars!

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