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Showing posts with the label Graz

My Amazing Ride - 2021

Pismo Beach Pier, California Traveling during the pandemic was  quite different from my previous last minute trips with no hotel reservations and lots of taken for granted expectations. There are health disclosures to fill, vaccination cards to show immigration, covid tests to take, and in some cases, travel insurance and confirmed paid hotel reservations to show the border police. Thankfully the airports were quiet at the beginning of my European trip in June but by the time I got home in July from Paris, travelers were back in droves that it took me close to three hours to get to my gate. The same was true in December when I returned from Costa Rica. LAX was full of Christmas travelers, it was hard to find any seat at the gates let alone, breathing space. Enough whining! After all, I visited 7 countries in 2021 plus the Arctic Circle, Interior Alaska and Las Vegas and had reunions with my close friends in Michigan, Amsterdam and Vienna. It was an amazing year of travel! April. After

Graz, the City of Design

  Graz is the second largest city in Austria. Just two and a half hour by train from Vienna, it's the perfect long weekend getaway. With loads of history, architectural diversity and lots of terrace cafés, this UNESCO City of Design has plenty to offer and will easily keep you longer than planned. The Kunsthaus or art museum has been called many things - the friendly alien, whale and porcupine. It looks like a giant pickle to me from this angle. The rooftop of the Kunsthaus that gave it the nickname, friendly alien. View of the red rooftops of the old town with the Rathaus in the center, taken from the Schlossberg. Old town Graz is a Unesco designated World Heritage Site. How to get up to Schlossberg (Castle Hill)? There are 206 steps to climb to the Schlossberg. Thank goodness there are other choices to reach the top. There’s a lift at the bottom of this hill and a funicular just down the street. The funicular fare is included with the day transport pass and the lift fare is €1.30