Vienna Part 3, The Finale , Myrafälle & Schönbrunn Palace

The final full day of the trip was Sunday 23rd of September, Michael had arranged a schedule for us starting with us meeting him close to an underground station http://nok.it/EgNwZ from where he would take us to the Myrafälle http://nok.it/FyAJZ in the new Mercedes A-Class he had been loaned for a promotion in Austria, Michael was rightly proud of the car and we all had a great trip in it for our sight seeing and photography trip. Richard particularly wanted to visit a waterfall as he has been experimenting in long exposure photography with his Nokia 808 which in effect 'freezes' the water giving beautiful and interesting effects (well if you know what your doing, and have the necessary filters, a tripod and skill !!) I was also looking for tips and tricks from all the guys as they all excel in photography, and as we had five 808's between us , plus a couple of DSLR cameras, that poor waterfall was going to get blitzed by several hundred mega pixels !! Now Richard and I had arranged to meet Dhruv about halfway to the meeting point, but he was rather late and we couldn't get in touch so we left without him, luckily he caught up within about ten minutes of us arriving at the meeting point where Michael was waiting and off we went.

The fairly short road trip was good, we were chatting and laughing, and no one mentioned Mr Hell missing a gear change at any point, and as we left the city and then pulled off the main road we started driving through countryside that I considered 'Real Austria' , not that Vienna isn't a superb place, but it's a bit like comparing London with the Yorkshire Dales, the area in which the Myrafälle was located was simply stunning and bought back memories of a visit I paid to Austria in the 1970's when at school. Once we got the falls we piled out of the car, the pro's unpacked their camera kits and bags, I had a cigarette, and off we went. Once we'd taken a few shots at the bottom of the falls , we paid an entrance fee (well Richard did, thanks Rich) and set off on a 25 minute climb up the wooded hillside, this took approximately an hour and a half as there was virtually nowhere you could stop that didn't deserve a break to set up the cameras and take a few photos, I really think Mr Dorman was in his element and Druv and Michael weren't far behind, not to be left out I also managed to flatten the battery on my Nokia 808 and took about half my photos with a blue Nokia DC-16 attached to my phone (well that's my excuse anyway)

Link to some of photos in full res and with geo tagging on Flickr

After getting to the top of the falls we were all kinda tired , there was supposed to be a restaurant at the top but the path seemed to go on forever and just as we decided to turn round we turned a corner and a lake appeared and we could see somewhere to get a drink at the other side. So after a quick break, we took the quick route back to the bottom of the waterfall and set off to our next location which was the Schönbrunn Palace http://nok.it/LEZVh where we were meeting another of Michael's friends Markus Gassenbauer ( @3dmg on twitter) who I did not know but the other guys did from both Twitter and Flickr, Markus is a fantastic photographer and is worth a follow, well I certainly do now anyway http://www.flickr.com/people/3dmg/ .

After about an hour wandering round the Palace Grounds it was time to say goodbye to Markus and his family and go for our final meal together at Schilling a traditional Vienna Restaurant http://nok.it/TUYmH where Michael and Dhruv had eaten before, Dhruv had raved about the Wiener Schnitzel, he was not wrong, we all had a great meal, before saying goodbye to Dhruv who had to catch a train for the rest of his European tour. After the meal Richard, Michael & I walked back to the underground and said our final farewells and all that was left was a few drinks in the Hotel bar for Rich and me and that was the end of a great trip, really one of the best weekends I've ever had.

I'm so grateful to all my companions this weekend for making everything so interesting and entertaining and run so smoothly.I also have to say that I've enjoyed writing these posts about Austria more than any other I've attempted in the past as well as thoroughly enjoying using my Nokia 808 both as a phone and a camera, virtually no other piece of my kit was required other than my DC-16, it performed superbly !!

Links to Part 1 & Part 2

Thanks for reading.

Stephen Quin

25/09/2012