家有喜事～～

转眼间，孩子长大，娶老婆了～～

几时轮到他们呢？

lastly… a group photo of the 长辈～～

after staying a night in the old town of cesky krumlov…

we got up early so as to seize the day~~

‘we are on the road again~~~’

i hate waking up early… but i have to admit sometimes u get amazing pictures with the change in the morning lighting

various colours n weather on the way to prague~~

first things first… old town square~~

up to the prague castle~~~

next must-go place : charles bridge

u prob noticed 2 diff lightings, yes i went back to prague town the next morning…

yes… it’s another xmas market~~~

i went up the astronomical clock tower… those ‘dots’ were people gathered to watch the astronomical clock…

for the less-than-a-minute action at the top of the hour~~~

my fave food in europe~~~

~THE END~ of the winter europe trip i mean…

after several days on the luxurious ‘floating’ hotel, it’s time it docked n bid farewell to us~~~

so we parted at linz~~ bye~~~

we spent some time at linz~~~

then it’s time to move on~~~

before hitting prague, stopover at cesky krumlov!!

Český Krumlov is a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, best known for the fine architecture and art of the historic old town and Český Krumlov Castle. Old Český Krumlov is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was given this status along with the historic Prague castle district. ~wikipedia.org~

but it was raining~~~ quite heavily~~~ n i had no umbrella!!!

look carefully n u can prob spot droplets…

check out the view at night~~~ nice hor~~~ but still raining!!!

lastly… a familiar brand in cesky krumlov~~~

next stop : prague, final stop of the winter europe holiday~~

i m seriously lagging in my blogs…

paisei la hahahaha thank you for visiting marybukoh.com tho it didn’t win at the recent SRA…

your viewing is definitely more important than that purplish trophy~~~ ;p

so.. this is melk abbey, austria…

no words from me can fully describe how fabulous this place is~~~

how a cockroach will see the melk abbey square?!

The magnificent baroque building has been undergoing extensive restoration work since 1978, and large-scale adaptations have been carried out for the areas of the school, the guest house, culture, and tourism. In this way Melk Abbey presents itself to visitors today as one of Austria’s highlights and as Europe’s great cultural ensemble.

http://www.stiftmelk.at/englisch/index.html

into the indoor museum that must be guided n doors locked after entering~~~

the coffin that can be used over n over again!!!

room 9

the marble hall~~

The room served as a dining hall for the imperial family and other distinguished guests, as well as a festival hall.

The terrace is the balcony connecting the Marble Hall and the library. From the terrace you have a wonderful view of the Danube, the scenery of the Wachau valley, and the town of Melk.

The library of the Melk abbey consists of a total of twelve rooms containing about 1.888 manuscripts, 750 incunabula (printed works before 1500), 1700 works from the 16th, 4500 from the 17th, and 18.000 from the 18th century; together with the newer books, approximately 100.000 volumes in total. About 16.000 of these are found in this library room. They are organized by topics: beginning with editions of the Bible in row I, theology (rows II to VII), jurisprudence (row VIII), geography and astronomy (row VIIII), history (rows X to XV), and ending with the baroque lexica in row XVI.

THE BEST OF THE BEST!!!!! The high point of the baroque monastery is the church.

really really really v v v nice!!!!

only the time allowed is too short… the guides there really strict~~~

hmmm ’strict’ abbey too~~

next up: cesky krumlov, czech

just thought i could share some general shots so that u can relate to the cruise experience i had~~

part view of the cruise; the view from the cabin~~

the everchanging view from the sundeck or your v own cabin~~

the ‘dunno-what’ road; road signs~~~

a visit to the captain’s room~~ cool!!

totally relaxing~~~

Christmas Markets

Open from Nov 15s or 20s to Dec 23th or 24th, most Viennese Christmas Markets (”Christkindlmarkt”, “Adventmarkt” or simply “Weihnachtsmarkt”) are not so much for shopping as for eating and drinking. From midday until the late hours of the night, people gather at Christmas markets to drink mulled wine, punch, and chat to one another and the occasional stranger.

More of a fairground than a Christmas market, this is Vienna’s largest and busiest incarnation. Located on the large town square, the Wiener Christkindlmarkt is by far the largest and probably best known christmas market in Vienna. Large christmas tree in front of the townhall, skating possibility, adorned trees in the park, often crowded!

[yes, it's not even 6pm]

n the stalls~~~ WOW!!!

i bought none of the above~~~ too fragile n nowhere to display at home~~~

i merely ‘ate n drank’~~~

and the parliament house is almost just next to this xmas market~~

btw one of the famous people from vienna is~~~

Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825, St. Ulrich – June 3, 1899, Vienna) was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music andoperettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as “The Waltz King”, and was largely responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

IMHO,  Johann Strauss’s most famous works is The Blue Danube.

A statue of the Waltz King in Stadtpark, Vienna

NEXT STOP –> Melk, Austria

Belvedere in Italian literally means beautiful view.

It is used as a generic architectural term, and has been used to name many things.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Belvedere is a baroque palace complex built by Prince Eugene of Savoy in the 3rd district of Vienna, south-east of the city centre. It houses the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum.

美景宫（德语：Schloss Belvedere）是位于奥地利首都维也纳的一个巴洛克建筑风格的宫殿。美景宫曾是哈布斯堡家族成员欧根亲王的宫殿。在欧根亲王去世后，美景宫于1752年被卖给玛丽-泰蕾莎。现在的美景宫是奥地利美景宫美术馆的所在地。

extracted from wikipedia.org

This palace is divided into Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere.  I think i was here long long time ago when i was on my 33days graduation tour.

The view of Upper Belvedere from the garden~~~

The view of the garden; n the view of Lower Belvedere from the garden~~~

the most ‘popular’ [molested] statue~~~

i told u… xmas markets were EVERYWHERE~~~ ;p

KunstHausWien (Vienna House of the Arts)

Even an avowed hater of modern art can appreciate the KunstHausWien, Hundertwasser’s (born Friedrich Stowasser in 1928) major contribution to the Viennese art world. In a time when artists often try to shock the public or merely impress other members of the rarefied gallery subculture, Hundertwasser’s manifesto rings out as an utterly reasonable plea: The architecture of KunstHausWien would be a bastion against the dictatorship of the straight line, the ruler and T-square, a bridgehead against the grid system and the chaos of the absurd. Starting with the façade of the building, adapted from its prior life as a furniture factory, there is a Gaudi-in-Barcelona feel to the place. Windows peek out like eyes from curvy, rounded plaster and colorful paint. It’s a Disneyland for grownups! Do not miss the Hundertwasserhaus and the shopping village situated about 300m from KunstHausWien. Very similar to Gaudi.

extracted from wikitravel~~~

as u can see… the architecture is really different…

even the pavement is not even… breaking most if not all the rules that we are so accustomed to…

according to the tour guide, even the floor in some of the apartments are like that!!!

every part seems unique~~~

n if u r curious about the man behind this~~~

we share the same birth date~~~~ only he was born 15/12/1928

just directly opposite the apartments is this ‘village’… ie souvenir shops

and since we cannot go into the apartments…

the next best thing is to go into this building to ‘experience’ the similar design…

this is a souvenir cup n notebook

if u are interested… check out the ‘happening’ toilet too…

btw it’s euro 0.60… automated~~ plse have exact change~~

but i think it’s overrated~~~ hahaha

Christmas Markets

Most Viennese Christmas Markets (”Christkindlmarkt”, “Adventmarkt” or simply “Weihnachtsmarkt”) are not so much for shopping as for eating and drinking. From midday until the late hours of the night, people gather at Christmas markets to drink mulled wine, punch, and chat to one another and the occasional stranger. Entry to all of these markets is free.

• Maria-Theresien-Platz : A relatively new market between the two museums and en route to/from the MuseumsQuartier (MQ). It is easy to maneuver than some and the quality of the goods is better than most.

extracted from wikitravel…

merry xmas~~~

the opera house~~~

Museums

Museumsquartier (The Museum District) is the new cultural district of Vienna since 2001. Though a lot of museums and cultural institutions are situated there, it is not only a place for art. It is also an urban living space and people go there to spend some time, sitting in one of the cafés or perhaps playing boccia. The Leopold Museum and the MUMOK are situated there.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Vienna

sadly… i 走马看花～～ no time to go in at all~~~

somehow when u r on holiday… even the road seems especially nice