While it does seem like awfully chilly and gloomy day in January, the warm glow from a hot dog stand in Vienna, Austria seems to be the most toasty and possibly tasty place in sight. This shot comes from StrudelMonkey out of the Gadling Flickr pool.
Photo of the Day (2/1/07)
Simply titled, A Cold January Weekend in Vienna, there is really not much else to say about this powerful shot of… a cold January weekend in Vienna.
Love it!
Congrats to Strudelmonkey for landing yet another great composition on our Photo of the Day. Keep ’em coming!
Global Warming: 10 Vanishing Wonders
Winter tends to bring more articles about global warming because there is less of it; winter, that is.
Last Monday we referenced a National Geographic Adventure article about the changing face of Greenland as a result of global warming. Yesterday I came across a similar article about a similar theme. But instead of focusing on a singular place, 10 Wonders of the Vanishing World educates us about ten places around the globe which Observer Science Editor Robin McKie tells us “we can no longer take for granted.” Since we love to travel, he also tells us how to get there (before, of course, they disappear).
This list of endangered places is both iconic and sobering…
The snows of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania – expected to disappear if current trends continue
Skiing in Kitzbuhel, Austria – won’t be possible in 20 years
The wildebeest migration in east Africa – unlikely if the grassy plains turn to desert
Glacier National Park, United States – expected to be glacier free by 2030
The Maldives, Indian Ocean – may disappear entirely under water
Sure, there are naysayers out there who will argue that current trends won’t continue. And, I wish I could believe them. But in the meantime, I have a few more adventures to cross off my list of things to see before either I turn to dust, or they do.
Dasparkhotel: Construction Site Living
I’ve stayed in some pretty crappy hotels in the past, but fortunately I’ve yet to wake up in an abandoned drain pipe. Yet. But now I can, with the help of Austrian artist Andreas Strauss, who has refurbished several “incredibly robust” drain pipes and converted them into hotel rooms — nice ones at that.
Dasparkhotel — just outside of Linz, Austria, on the Danube river — is an extremely simplistic, insanely budget (they’re on a “pay as you wish” scale) accommodation option for someone looking for a unique way to spend the night in Central Europe. You’ll have to wait until May, however; the hotel is closed for the winter season, which began in October.
Reservations for the Spring/Summer season can be made online by visiting their site, though I’m really not sure if this is something that is popular enough to need advanced reservations, or if the pipes sit empty for days on end. It’s really tough to tell.
Regardless, crashing in one of these large, concrete cylinders is sure to produce a good story to tell friends and family. “Mom, I woke up this morning in a drain pipe!”
Finally, Europe Has Its Own Natural Disaster
As a journalist, I find weather stories pathetic. It’s mainly the use of all the tragic words I despise: devastating, gushing, torn into homes, etc. But people love them. There is nothing like a natural catastrophe that gets the readership numbers up. Now, with the high winds “blasting” across Europe, killing 45 people, European papers have stuff to write about.
Call me cynical, but I have always suspected that Europeans felt slightly inferior in the “natural catastrophe” realm. I mean, the occasional flood or hailstorm pales in comparison to all the weather events going on in the US: hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes…
But now, that’s over! Europe finally has its own storm WITH A NAME – Kyrill. And, it has swept across most of Northern and Western Europe, heading east now. The funny thing is, Americans probably haven’t even heard of it yet. Well, give the PR weather machine time, Europeans are new at this.
And speaking of which, here in Prague the winds hit above 100mph yesterday and are still going strong today. It’s actually really nice to listen to the wind outside, rather than watching calm, gray skies for months.
Travel warning: check for airline and train service cancellations!