A WALK IN THE PARK

Vienna, Schoenbrunn Palace Park

Into the Maze

Shelter

Growing

REDISCOVERED II

Finally it was snowing...

Landscape, Untitled #4 

Landscape (detail), Untitled #5 

Landscape, Untitled #6

WINTER IMPRESSIONS

Not much snow here around Vienna but a lot of ice…

Strictly not recommended...

Gone with the wind...

Winter on a solitary beach...

Some haiku, anybody?

Waitung for the next season...

KRAMPUS

Every year around December 6 there are runnings strange creatures through the towns and villages of Austria...

Here is what Wikipedia says about this custom: 

The central and eastern Alps of Europe are rich in folklore traditions dating back to Pagan (pre-Christian) times, with surviving elements amalgamated from Germanic, Celtic, Gaulish, Slavic and Raetian culture.

Ancient customs survived in the rural parts of Austria, Switzerland and Bavaria.  In the Alps, the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and paganism has been an ambivalent one. While some customs survived only in the remote valleys inaccessible to the church's influence, other customs were actively assimilated over the centuries. In light of the dwindling rural population of the Alps, many customs have evolved into more modern interpretations.

The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen). In the Alpine regions, the Krampus is a mythical horned figure represented as accompanying Saint Nicholas. Krampus acts as an anti–Saint Nicholas, who, instead of giving gifts to good children, gives warnings and punishments to the bad children. Traditionally, young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly in the evening of December 5, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and whips and bells.

This are some pictures from today's Krampus event in my hometown Moedling...

BIRDS OF PREY

Bold Eagle

Eagle Owl

Goshawk

The eagle has landed...

Falconry at Castle Rosenburg, Lower Austria

DYING TWICE A DAY...

I was looking for event to test a new lens, the Sigma 120-400mm (and for something that my 5-year old boy would enjoy too ;-) and discovered by pure chance an advertising for the reenact of the Battle of Austerlitz from 1805 at a castle in the Waldviertel Region of Lower Austria. Arriving there we where in the middle of the training of attacks and counterattacks, of dramatic dying sequences and unsystematic marches in the inner bailey. The performance itself then was far more realistic (aside of the fact that there where only about 50 or say soldiers compared with the 72,000 French soldiers and the 85,000 soldiers of the Russian and Austrian Army at the real battle). 

In contemplation of the battle...

Then the battle started. And it became noise and the "battlefield" was soon filled with smoke...

The first casualties...

Then the battle was over. The smoke cleared away. And the KIA's stood up, saluted and marched away to the camp to get some refreshment. Three hours later there was the repetition of the battle...