(Cameron & Me)
I woke up this morning to rain on my window; reminding me of the intimate romance of the city of Innsbruck. Such a colourful, lively and inviting city. Nights at the ballet theatre with snow covered roads and lamp posts, being surrounded by mountains, walking two minutes to the ski slopes and catching the gondola up the mountain for a germknödel and cappuccino with a breaktaking view..
Photo taken with Canon SLR
Lover the Label One Piece Swimsuit / Zara Glasses
Getting in the mood for Summer with soft salty beach hair, freckles, luminous sunlight and the turquoise hues of the ocean.
Sending a few pictures from the tropical backdrop of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef. It is places like this that make me so proud to be Australian. One of the most beautiful places I have been to Australia so far, the Whitsunday Islands make me appreciate just how lucky I am to call this country home.
I love day dreaming on the beach, with the sand between my toes and the sun kissing my cheeks. With an array of vivid blues, yellows, pinks and oranges, I understand why Hamilton Island is one of the most admired holiday destinations in Australia.
Photos taken on my iPhone
Off to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays for yacht week, yay! I will try to post as many pictures as I can throughout the week 🙂
– Little Black Bambi X x
Wow. If I was overwhelmed by the pure size of the mountains from our bedroom window, I was blown away by the size of Stubaier Gletscher. Even the bus ride was magical..
After skiing endless kilometres of fresh powder in the morning, we enjoyed our bretzels, biscuits and cafe macchiatos the way the locals did – at 3600 metres above sea level on Gamsgarten’s cosy outdoor lounge chairs.
After cloudless weather and more skiing, we drove back to Innsbruck for a well deserved glass of red wine alongside Bavarian sausages and sauerkraut .
Stubai has 25 lifts, alpine huts, bars and restaurants scattered across the 110 kilometres of mountain terrain.
One of the many characteristics of Japan that I personally love, is their love of nature. This love of nature has resulted in a refined appreciation of the beauty of nature in landscapes, miniature gardens hakoniwa, miniature trees bonsai, flower arrangement ikebana, the tea ceremony chanoyu, short poems called haiku and even the art of cookery.
Today we were able to visit one of the Japanese exchange students that we made friends with in Australia and she cooked a beautiful Japanese banquet in her mum and dad’s home. Her mum was the arranger of this beautiful ikebana.
Ikebana (flower arrangement) was developed in the 15th century. The underlying principles of ikebana can be seen here, indicated by the three main branches (they symbolise Heaven, Man & Earth). The stem representing Heaven is the ‘primary stem,’ centre of the entire arrangement and for this the strongest branch is selected. Next to this is the ‘secondary branch/stem,’ which represents Man. It is placed in such a manner as to give the effect of growing sideways and forward from the centre line. It should be three-quarters of the height of the ‘primary stem’ and inclined toward it. The ‘tertiary branch/stem’ symbolises Earth. This is the shortest and is placed to the front or slightly to the opposite side of the roots of the first two. All stems are fastened securely in the vase to give the effect of growing from one stem.
In this particular ikebana, additional flowers have been added to fill out the beautiful arrangement, however they have still kept the correct position of the three principal stems, which is of paramount importance.
Today it was time to explore a new mountain! We can’t believe how many ski resorts are included on our Tyrollean ski pass. After stopping by Baguette (for ‘breakfast pizza’ and coffees), we were off to Axamer Lizum. With a variety of steep, long runs, Axamer Lizum is a skier’s haven. There was light snowfall throughout the day and a lot of powder off piste. We finished off with the toughest run of the day, which involved 1000 metres of moguls.
When we got back to Innsbruck, the sun came out, so we went for a wander through Aldstadt (Old Town) and Maria-Theresian Strasse before a late dinner at Stiftskeller.
Maria-Theresian Strasse
The view from our window on the way home.
The most adorable restaurant on the ski mountain, Patscherkofel would have to be the little wooden cabin and restaurant Gaston’s. Surrounded by adorable floral curtains and traditionally patterned crockery, we had the most hearty winter pasta and Tyrolean noodle soup.
This morning I woke up at sunrise to freshly brewed coffee and snow covered windowsills. As I crawled to the edge of my pillow, my surroundings took my breath away. The Austrian Alps majestically towered all around us.
We didn’t want to waste a second of daylight in this centuries old, magical city. We hastily put our snow gear on before venturing out, in order to maximise exploring time before skiing at Patcherkofel. We fell in love with the crisp, refreshing air and the leafless trees in the park. We admired the colourful buildings across from Old Town. We were fascinated by the way that the colourful buildings almost looked squished together. The grey sky simply highlighted their bright hues.
The view of the buildings across from Old Town
We almost skipped along the cobblestone streets, still in disbelief that this city would be our home for the next six months. It wasn’t long before the smell of fresh croissants and espressos drew us into the local bakery, Baguette.
Delicious creamy coffee from Baguette
Little Black Bambi X x
Little Black Bambi 