Botanical Garden, Vienna

One of my favorite parts of my recent trip to Vienna was the free botanical garden, next to the Belvedere Palace and grounds.  Here are a few highlights.  

You can walk into the bamboo grove on boardwalks.  So, apparently, can the bamboo.  

Huge lotus blossoms:

A saguaro and California poppies to make me feel at home.  In German, the saguaro is called "Riesenkaktus." Because my German is soooo great, I looked at the sign and thought, "Travelling Cactus?" Wouldn't that be a more appropriate name for jumping cholla or something?

Turns out I was confusing "riesen" with "reisen." A saguaro is not a traveling cactus, but a giant cactus. Makes more sense but isn't as charming.

An interesting-looking wollemi pine, which was thought to be extinct until a ranger found one in a national park in Australia in 1994!

 

Branč castle ruins, Slovakia

Sometimes Europe amazes me.  

Friends and I were on the way to see two different Slovakian castles when we spied this on a hill in the distance and decided to go.  Might as well see three in one day, right?  Which is approximately three more castles than you can visit in one day in most places in America.  

Stezka Českem:

Just a three-day backpacking trip on the Czech Trail, from Sedlo Pindula to Odrý.  

Nový Jičin's Square

 I think Nový Jičin has one of the prettiest squares in the area:

Waterfall in the Czech Republic

We had a few very warm days a couple of weeks ago, and here's where we spent one of them.  It made all the difference.

Satinský vodopady

Watching Snails

 This pretty little guy provided the entertainment for my hiking picnic the other day.  He wandered here, wandered there.  So...it wasn't very fast entertainment, but still.  

Spring flowers...turning to summer

 The Czech Republic is beautiful: