Tag Archives: city tour

Atlanta Midtown Shooting

This afternoon I did a Atlanta Midtown tour with my camera. I startet at trainstation North Avenue, walked W Peachtree St NW – Ponce de Leon Ave NE to Fox Theater. Then I continued walking down all Peachtree St NE, took a break at Starbucks, passed Margaret Mitchell House, till 14th. Finally I walked through Piedmont Park and took 36 back to Emory (Clifton Road). Enjoy my pics!

Atlanta Midtown Sky
Atlanta Midtown Sky

More of Montréal!

Mount Royal Park

My last day in Montréal was a lot of walking around. I started at Rue St-Denis, walked along Avenue Du Mont-Royal up to the observation platform in park Mont-Royal. After enjoying the skyline, I coninued walking to Université de Montréal where Maria and I had a short lunch break.

From there, I took the metro back downtown where I tried to see a few more sight, the Notre Dame Basilica in particular. Unfortunately, it was already closed. Finally I ended up at Juliette Et Chocolate and enjoyed a great brownie with a hot chocolate, grandmother style.

Brownie and Hot Chocolate Grandmother Style at Juliette Et Chocolate
Brownie and Hot Chocolate Grandmother Style at Juliette Et Chocolate

Toronto – The Tour

Today, on Sunday, we were explored Toronto. We were walking all the time – no public transportation. We startet at Queen St W after breakfast at Second Cup. At the Campbell House we turned into University Ave. We walked along University Ave till the Ontario Legislature. After Passing the park behing Ontario Legislature we took a break at Victoria University. Now, we strolled down Yonge St to the Toronto Eaton Centre – with a short break at Starbucks. We did some shopping at the Eaton Centre.

Happy girls after shopping 🙂

After having lunch there we headed directly to the CN Tower. The CN Tower took us about 2.5 hours. The elevators are fast but you have to queue a lot. Especially the elevator to the Sky Pod is a bottleneck. But it was worth it! We had an amazing view from the observation decks!

North View from CN Tower

Back on the ground floor we just went back to our hostel where we parked our car for the day. Then we returned home to Montréal. We left Toronto around 7.30pm and arrived in Montréal at about 3am.

Chicago

Last weekend I’ve been to Chicago to attend the Austria Science Talk 2008. Maria and I already arrived on Friday morning. We met at the airport and went to the City center to the Allerton Hotel where we got a pretty amazing rate over hotwire.com. After checkin we walked along N Michigan Ave. I was overruled an so we spent some time shopping at the Water Tower Place. As recommended in the tourist guide, we went for pizza at Giordanos. After lunch we took the bus to Millennium Park to see “The Bean” / Cloud Gate. It was already time to go home and prepare for the evening.

Cloud Gate / “The Bean”

We enjoyed the show Dirty Dancing at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. It was a neat experience! A very American show! And pretty cheesy too. We spent the end of this freezing evening at a Starbucks around the corner with some hot chocolate.

Dirty Dancing at The Cadillac Palace Theater

On Satruday, after a short breakfast, we went straight to the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel. After a small welcome reception, the presentations started. It was nice to hear about Austria. At about one we had lunch. Maria and I went for a short walk before the afternoon program, the world café, started. For the end of the afternoon program, drinks were served. The evening program took place at the University of Chicago. It was a small panel discussion about the US presidential election. Afterwards we enjoyed dinner and Austrian wine.

Before we went out, Maria and I visited the John Hankok Tower. We spent about an hour at the observation deck. It was amazing. It was impressive!

South View from John Hancock Tower

Not it was time for drinks. We met with some other Austrians from the Science Talk and had several good conversations in a nice bar.

Chicago Skyline, John Hancock Tower from Lake Michigan

On Sunday, our last day in Chicago, we went for a boat tour after breakfast. The boat brought us to Lake Michigan where we were able to see the whole skyline of Chicago. After Lake Michigan we went along the Chicago River. We were lucky, because right after the boat tour which was about two hours, it started to rain. But we didn’t mind – we went for a hot chocolate at Starbucks.

T. Rex at Field Museum of National History

It was still raining when we hit the road to the Field Museum of National History to see the largest complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. This was actually the last thing we did before we picked up our luggage back at the hotel and left for the airport. We were quite lucky to catch our planes because we had troubles with the subway. We were waiting about half an hour and additionally we had rail replacement bus service for the last couple of stations. We checked in 5 minutes before last checkin. At the airport we had a quick final coffee and then left for Montréal and Atlanta.

It was an awesome weekend. Chicago is a great city! Here are the pics. I’m still working on the video. Check the news on the main page. I’ll post it there when it is available.

Atlanta Sightseeing Tour

Last Saturday ISSP (International Student and Scholar Programs) offered a great sightseeing tour. We visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, the Government Buildings and Martin Luther King Memorial. And we saw a lot of other sights on the bus tour: Coca Cola World, Georgia Aquarium, Martaret Mitchell’s House, CNN Headquater, Olympic Village at Georgia Tech and the Turner Field Baseball Stadion. Watch the pictures!

Atlanta Skyline & ISSP City Tour
Atlanta Skyline & ISSP City Tour

Vienna Sightseeing Tour

Rooftop Lounge
Rooftop Lounge

On Thursday my grandfather and I went to Vienna for sightseeing. Particularly, we were interested in the guided tour at the Hofburg Vienna Imperial Palace, which was offered because of the 50 year anniversary of the congress center. The tour was stunning because it took us to parts of the palace which are normally closed to the general public. Another chance to see nearly the same would be the Wiener Kaffeesiederball which of course would give you a much more festive impression of the former imperial place. At a much different price point and without stories though… Further, we climbed the 343 stairs up the south tower of St. Stephen’s Cathedral which rewarded us with great view especially over the first district. After that we had brief stops, mainly for photos at the Votivkirche, Burg Theater, Parliament and Schönbrunn Imperial Palace. The weather was very much in the photographers favor! Blue skies. No clouds. Here are the pictures!

Hofburg Imperial Palace
Hofburg Imperial Palace
Hofburg Imperial Palace
Hofburg Imperial Palace
Schönbrunn Imperial Palace
Schönbrunn Imperial Palace

Prague, The First Day

Our first sightseeing day in Prague started at 9 am at Wenceslas Square next to the museum. We walked across the sqare and then to more streets to get to the Estates Theater, where once the debut performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni took place. Our next stop was at the Old Town Square where we watched to the hourly play of the astronomical clock. Then we walked through the old town to Charles Bridge. Before we went up the tower, Eugen showed us the oldest part of the bridge.

After passing the bridge we walked along the river Vltava to the bridge Most Legií where we got back to the old town at the National Theatre. Now it was time for lunch. We had it in the Beerhouse of the restaurant “U medvídkù” (www.umedvidku.cz). After our break we walked again through the old town and through the Lesser Town, where we visited St. Nicholas Church, up to the Prague Castle. There, we viewed St. Vitus’s Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica and the Golden Lane with the Daliborka Tower. Still, we haven’t finished the tour! We took the tram and funicular up to Petřín, where we enjoyed the excellent view over Prague at the lookout tower. Afterwards we visited the mirror labyrinth. After this exhausting – but awesome – day, we had a grate dinner at Šárka’s place.

Trip to Vienna: Linz Texas Exhibition

Roof of St. Stephen’s Cathedral

Yesterday a few friends and I went to see the exhibition Linz Texas A City Relates at the Austrian Museum of Architecture in Vienna. After some traditional Austrian lunch at Siebensternbräu we walked up the stairs at the South Tower of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The view from up there is fantastic; you can see pretty much all over Vienna. Here are the pictures! At about 3pm we started the tour through the Schönbrunn Zoo. Overall, just another lovely and culinary day in Vienna!

Berlin IV – Potsdam

Sanssouci (© Peter Holler)

We spent the last day of our Berlin trip in Potsdam at the Palace Sanssouci, where we had quite a few guided tours. We’ve seen the kitchen, the wine cellar, the main castle and the orangery. The orangery probably was the most impressive one.

Orangerie (© Peter Holler)
Berlin Victory Column (© Peter Holler)
Berlin Victory Column (© Peter Holler)

After all the guided tours we walked around in the lovely gardens. At about four o’clock we went back to Berlin, where the girls went shopping at the famous Kurfürstendamm and Peter and I went to see the Berlin Victory Column and had dinner. For departure, we met at 7.45pm in the hostel and went together to the train station Berlin Zoologischer Garten. We left Berlin at 8.56pm with the train EN 429 Spree-Donau-Kurier. Good night!

Berlin III

Our third day started pretty relaxed at 9.30am. We walked over to the  nearby Imperial Palace Charlottenburg where we participated in an audio tour which lasted around 90 minutes. Afterwards we strolled through the thoroughly maintained gardens which we exited at the northern end and continued our journey from the train station “Jungfernheide”.

Charlottenburg Palace
Charlottenburg Palace

On our way to the KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens, Department Store of The West), we took a picture of an Ampelmännchen (little traffic light man), which is an iconic ambassador of Berlin! It became the symbol for the Ostalgie.

Me representing a red "Ampelmännchen" (© Elisabeth Girkinger)
Me representing a red “Ampelmännchen” (© Elisabeth Girkinger)

Unfortunately, the KaDeWe was closed because of the public holiday Pfingstmontag. To the very disappointment of my female co-travelers we just took a few more photos. Anyway… after a decent lunch and some ice cream at the Sony Center, which was just a few stops down the road with the subway, nobody cared anymore :). Luckily, there was a hotspot! I was so glad to have access to the world wide web!

Christina, Elisabeth and The DDR Museum
Christina, Elisabeth and The DDR Museum

After this quite extensive break (because of the hotspot), we visited the DDR Museum which is next to the cathedral. Although it presents serious matter its concept is very entertaining and engaging; it’s fun to visit. After spending about one and a half hour there, we walked along the Spree, Monbijoustraße and Oranienburger Straße to the Hackeschen Höfe (Wikipedia, German available only; official site). After visiting the courtyards full of local shops and boutiques we had coffee at the Ampelmann Café and– luckily again–internet access!

Sony Center and BahnTower at Night
Sony Center and BahnTower at Night

After a short refreshing break back at our hotel we went back to the Sony Center and had dinner together at the Australian restaurant Corroboree. Afterwards we enjoyed a cocktail across the square at Alex. Peter and I had just enough time to capture the impressions with our cameras before we caught the last subway back to our hotel. Elisabeth, Peter and I went out again to have beer and wine at the pub next door where Peter and I were yesterday. It ended up being a very long night…