Eurotrippin'

[Ronald]

These are the pictures of my short, but intense 6-day summervacation.

The first week of July I went to the southern Austrian province of Carinthia, visiting Munich and Salzburg on my way there, and making two excursions to Italy from there.

My route.

The ICE arriving at Utrecht Central Station

The Dome of Cologne from the trainwindow

Passing through Stuttgart

Munich

The ICE arrived at Munich Central Station

Munich Central Station

Looking into Munich Central Station from the entrance. It was quite crowded as you can see.

Right in front of the station

Shopping street leading to the historical centre.

We're getting closer.

Huge fountains

Gate to the inner city

Bavarian style houses.

The City's characteristic cathedral towers appear behind buildings

To hang a basket of flowers outside your window is really Bavarian.

Perhaps there were so many people in town because of the World Cup... I bet that dude won't wear that "France" shirt anymore

Quite tall

One last shot of Munich before I headed back to the railway station.

Salzburg

One thing I noticed about Austrian cities, is that there are parks in almost every city, and that the cities are usually very clean.

Lots of buildings like this one in the centre

Not every European city has impressive churches. I find this one a bit 'lowkey'.

Rush hour in Salzburg

Random streets between the railway station and the city centre (Yes, the station is not in the city centre in Salzburg. It's about a 20 min walk from the station to the centre).

[Ronald]

A map of the area where I stayed. Encircled are the towns I visited.

Lienz, a small town in Eastern Tirol, is next.

Square and park in the city centre

Courtyard of the building above.

Store fronts on one side, seperated from the actual streets by 'stillts'.

Another square, seperated from the other square shown earlier just by one street (the one in the picture above)

Austrian girls ...

Last shot of Lienz. By now we've left the city centre.

[Ronald]

Spittal an der Drau is next.

What I love about Austrian cities is that there are so many plants on the sidewalks.

A nice park right next to the building seen above

The local central square, photographed whilst drinking a coffee

Same square, seen from a different angle

Spittal's streets

Close up of that building on the corner

A gate to the city center.

[Ronald]

Now let's see some Italian cities!

Tolmezzo

It was quiet on the streets, because these pics were taken around 3:30 pm, when most people were enjoying their siesta's.

One last shot of Tolmezzo:

[Snowguy716]

Great pictures. It makes me wish I was back in Austria. Such a wonderful country!

[Recchia]

I really need to go to Europe. It must be nice to just hop on a train and be in another city quickly and cheaply...

[lammius]

Lienz und Spittal an der Drau look magnificent! I wished to visit Austria during a 3 week European whirlwind, but unfortunately we didn't make it there. I need to start learning some new German and planning a vacation.

Ronald, these Austrian & Italian cities look wonderful in the summer. I found it so strange to see palm trees in the alps, but they're there! Did you get any sense of what it's like there in the winter? The skiing must be fantastic!

[Ronald]

Recchia, it took me 3 hours to reach Frankfurt from Utrecht, we hit 300km per hour on the way.

The whole journey took 15 hours though. It went quite slow in the Alps because it went through curvy valleys, but it really shoot through Germany though.

Lammius, there are some incredibly popular skiing resorts in Austria. Thousands of tourists flock to them each winter. I haven't been there once though during the winter, I don't like the cold!

The last city I visited:

Udine

Udine was just too impressive.

Lots of history everywhere.

Italian cities probably have the best streetlife of all Europe, at least that's what I think. Udine reminded me a lot of Venice, which I've visited 3 years ago.

The urban fringe

Random street downtown

Alley leading to the Square of Liberty

The magnificent square itself

An old watersource

More streets

Not all streets had exclusively old buildings, every once in awhile a modern building popped up somewhere.

Another square

What you get when you order an "expresso" in Italy

One very Venice-esque building! Could have been on the Piazza San Marco.

Let's walk up this path and see what views await us on top of the hill

Building on top of the hill

Looks lush and green from above, but it's quite dense and very build-up when you see it from the ground.

[Ronald]

Back on the ground... they could have done more to perserve this piece of art

The local cathedral

Random alley

Found this in a courtyard, just off a shopping street.

Apparently the're holding some kind of play there?

Last pic of my vacation, a streetside cafe...

Hope you enjoyed them!

[Randy@Tacoma]

Ronald, in just shy of a year, I will be standing in some of those spots! I look forward to it!