Vienna Trip

I was invited to give a seminar the the Forschungsinstituts für Supply Chain Management (Supply Chain Management Research Institute) in the Vienna University of Economics and Business.  I had them schedule it on a Monday so that we could travel up and make a weekend of it.

It was a short trip.  We took the train up Friday afternoon, had all day Saturday, and then some time on Sunday before Sue and the kids took the train home Sunday afternoon.  And if you read the prior post, you know that all of this was a couple of days after (we know now) Grace broke her toe.  So, we were a little delayed getting out on Friday (for Graz to Vienna, the train runs hourly and you just buy a ticket for any time that day), with me running to four places to look for crutches.  

As you can see, Grace's crutches are more like braces.  I couldn't find *any* "swing style" crutches, and especially not any for kids.  And, I don't know if you can see this on Grace's face, but walking pretty much tired her out.  Also notice that she only has on one shoe.  When outside, Grace wore a house slipper on her left foot.  Anyway, Friday was all about getting there and getting some dinner before turning in.

Henry with his favorite:  a Moose!

Saturday we had a lot of choices and decided that animals and dinosaurs were a good choice on a rainy day.  So, we headed to the Natural History Museum.  I was glad the kids were into this as natural history museums are amongst my favorite kind.  And the museum in Vienna is not only very complete, it is housed in this building with beautiful architecture, vaulted ceilings, frescos and the like.  A work of art in and of itself.

Russ was thrilled to find a Cretan Agrimi in the museum's collection!

The highlight of the museum is this very life-like dinosaur that thrills young and old ... well, me anyway!  I'll insert this video clip, which will give a feel for it.

After the museum we went and checked out the finish line for the next day's Marathon festival.  The highlight of the festival was the half-marathon "chase rase" that featured current female marathon world-record holder, Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain, who would start before former male marathon world-record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who was supposed to chase her down.  The athletes themselves determined that Paula's head start would be based on the difference between their two personal bests in the half-marathon; so, 7 minutes and 58 seconds.  It wasn't Paula's day (her worst half marathon ever), as Haile passed her at about the 10-mile mark, eventually finishing a few minutes before her.  We watched this all on TV the next day, but found out later that the course ran about 4 blocks from our hotel!

After Sue and the kids left, I had half a day to myself and decided to go back to the Schönbrunn Palace, a summer retreat for the Austrian rulers of the 1800's.  One often forgets that the Habsburgs (Austrian rulers from 1278-1918) ruled so much of Europe and that their family had a role in many historical events (Marie Antoinette, of French revolution beheading fame, was one of eight Hapsburg daughters married off for political alliances; Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo starting WWI).  Anyway, my thought as I was there ... what do these rich people think when they build these grand palaces?  Didn't it strike anyone that this was such an extravagant way to live?  Anyway ...

We assume we will be back to Vienna before we depart.  There is much, much more to see in this city. And the 2.5-hour train ride is quite nice through the mountains most of the way.

What's that on Grace's foot?!?

Grace is very proud of the German homework books that she's prepared for Sue, Russ and Henry.  See?  But what's that on Grace's foot you ask?  A cast!

The Wednesday evening before our trip to Vienna (next post), Grace fell off a footstool backwards and really hurt her toe.  It was so swollen the next day that we couldn't figure out how to get her down our stairs, to school on the tram, etc.  By Friday, she could hop on it pretty well and we had friends that said they'd bring us some crutches to her school.  We got her to school.

We didn't take her to the doctor because we thought, "it's a toe; they'll probably just buddy tape it."  Anyway, we got on the train to Vienna Friday afternoon with brand new crutches (our friends forgot to bring them into school) and we had a weekend in Vienna where Grace was pretty limited in getting around (next post).

By the time we returned, it was one of those things ... even if they didn't do anything, we just wanted to know ... broke or not broke.  Verdict:  hairline fracture of her big toe.  Cast for three weeks.  And as you can see, the cast doesn't cover her toe and extends just short of her knee.   Me thinks this is to just slow her down so that she doesn't do any more damage!

Grace is getting along fine now that the swelling is down.  She uses the crutches when she goes out to help her go up and down stairs or on/off the trams.  And this event has made us realize how many stairs are at Grace's school (German lessons in the basement, girls' restroom on the first floor, and her classroom on the second floor -- all without an elevator!).  But if Grace is on flat terrain she doesn't need the crutches.  As her mobility has increased, we are glad for the cast.

A parting picture of her German teacher's cast note:
Slow Down! :-)

Russ

 

München Trip (Legoland for Henry!)

When we told the kids we were going to spend a year in Europe, we told them that they could each pick a trip.  Grace immediately knew, and expressed, that her trip would be to Paris to see the Eifel Tower.  Henry, however, was a little more difficult.  He never quite came out and said exactly what his trip would be, so we had to help him along a bit.  It wasn't a big jump to think that he'd like Legoland (the boy LOVES to build things!).  And because Legoland is closed during the winter, that put his trip off until this spring.

And by now, we know that the kids love to travel by train.  So, Legoland Germany ended up winning out over Legoland Denmark.  We left on the Tuesday of Easter Week (the week before Easter) for a 6-hour train ride to Munich (by the way, all German speakers know Munich as München), where we would make our base camp at a very nice and comfortable hotel (Hotel Andra if you go!  Also, if you go, there is a very nice Italian restaurant with the best grilled veggie pizza a block away!).

The weather, which usually cooperates so well for us on trips (see past trips to Barcelona, France, Slovenia, etc.), kept us guessing on this trip.  We ended up having one nice day of weather Wednesday, the day after we arrived) and it wasn't one of the days that we reserved a rental car (Thursday and Saturday).  But at least we spent that at the huge park in Munich, the Englisher Garten, where the kids happily explored the park, playing "Pooh Sticks" and finding every playground (there are many!).  We even rented a paddle boat and toodled around the lake ("See" in German).  It was a great day to be outside, especially after a day of train travel.

Our children are the two tiny folks by the bridge ... playing "Pooh Sticks"

Playing at one of the many playgrounds ... why don't they have cool playground equipment like this in the US, anyway?

So, Thursday dawns with light rain.  We have the rental car reserved and have two destinations to choose from:  Legoland and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (think Disney World's castle).  The weather report said rain all day and the next, but clearing on Saturday, so we put off Legoland.  We had to promise Henry we'd find a toy store on the way to the castle so that he could buy some Legos, just to keep him from being totally dejected (and the fact that we found a toy store in a little town off the highway goes to show you how well we've acclimated :-)

Visiting the Neuschwanstein Castle was one thing that Sue really wanted to do while in Germany.  It is south of Munich (in Bavaria) and one of King Ludwig's castles, with construction started in the mid 1800's.  It is just so quintessential Bavaria that even though we were warned of long lines, we wanted to go.  And you always imagine you'll have a view like this ...

not like this ...

But I'd say that the kids still liked it and were good sports hiking around to the bridge that overlooks the castle.

Friday, as forecasted, was a day of almost continuous rain.  But we had a good list of indoor rainy day items from the BMW museum (vroom, vroom) to an aquarium to a hands on science museum (the first two located at the Olympic Village -- we realized Munich is our third Olympic City this year!).  Of course, we forgot to factor in that this Friday happened to be Good Friday, which meant that the science museum was closed (as was our favorite restaurant!).  But we headed out to the BMW museum.  We instead went to this humongous BMW showroom that's next door first and ended up staying there (it was free, except for the food, which was amusement park prices!).  Henry especially liked the cars, and as you can see, the motorcycles as well.

After lunch we walked over to the aquarium, but it was packed!  So, we had a pretty relaxing afternoon and ventured out in the evening to the city center for food.  My one regret on this trip is that we didn't spend more time in the city center to get a better feel for the city, even if my one impression was that it looked touristy.

Ok, so if you've been following along, you know that the next day is Saturday.  This is D-Day for Legoland as we were booked on a Sunday morning training back to Graz.  So, did we get the sunny weather that was forecasted?  In one word, "not a chance!"  And not only was it raining, it was cold.  We are talking rainy, damp and lower 40's.  Brrrr, especially when you are NOT dressed for it.  But, as you can see for yourself, Henry was not phased by this!  Legoland was just everything Henry dreamed about!  He could just not stop hopping around from one place to the next, pointing out all the neat creations with Legos.

Henry upon arriving -- and before getting too wet!

And one of the things that we told the kids about was "Driving School."  It turns out that Henry wasn't old enough for the 1-hour driving school, so he settled for the shorter version (which means he didn't get an official-looking driver's license with his picture and name on it -- but he still carried it around all day with a smile on his face).

As I mentioned, Grace's class was 15 minutes of picture taking, 15 minutes of instruction (in German and she said she understood all of it!), and 15 minutes of driving on a really elaborate course (I should have taken a picture of it -- it even had a car wash you could drive through in addition to traffic lights and a roundabout!).  Both kids did very well and said it was one of their highlights (Dad's highlight was sneaking away for a few rides on the more physically challenging rides).

We rode some rides, saw Legos being made, visiting many Lego creations, and constantly negotiated how many Legos they could buy.  When you combine that with finding a nice tapas restaurant on the way back to Munich, it was a great day (and a long one, both kids didn't go to sleep until after 10p!).

Sunday was Easter morning and I think I may have blew our cover when I was more shocked in the morning that it had snowed overnight than upon hearing the news that the Easter Bunny managed to find us in our hotel room in Munich.  That's right, snow in April.  Sue said that she was reminded of being in MN!

Doesn't look like much here, but on the grass it was 1-2 cm of pretty snow!

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  The train ride home was enjoyable, with lots of room to ourselves (we used two cabins ... one for rest/reading and one for games/movies -- probably not good train etiquette!).  We came home, scrounged for dinner as the stores were all closed for the holiday, got the kids the baths that we didn't quite manage to make happen while away, and relaxed for the evening.  We're only home for four days and then it's off to Vienna on Friday!

Friends from Auburn Visit

We were really lucky to have two of our dearest friends from Auburn visit us during their spring break.  Claire and Darrell go way back to our early years at Auburn (which is unbelievably almost 20 years ago!) and were our most loyal Cookie Night folks while in Auburn.  And we even ended up naming a cookie after their daughter Elaine, but that's another story.

As it turns out, Claire and Darrell are not worldly travelers.  But Claire was asked to sit on the dissertation committee of a student in Vasu, Finland.  And Claire and Darrell must have thought, we'll just stop on by to see Sue and Russ while we are over there.  Of course Finland to Austria is no small distance (Europe isn't that small!), but it's true that once you've flown over the Atlantic, nothing seems too far.

They spent the wekend in Vienna before taking the train down to Graz to spend the week with us.  A lot of it was spent just checking out the city.  Sue and kids had them over most afternoons and all but one night, we had dinners together.  They were able to spend a fair amount of time hanging out.  As you can see below, Henry and Grace were able to coax them into playing games with them, which it seems everyone enjoyed.  

Claire, especially, really wanted to go on this outing to hike up to the ruins of Gösting.  The construction started in the 11th Century.  It is on top of this REALLY steep hill.  I'm not much for remembering altitude and pitch and all that of my hikes, but there was this really steep hike in Blacksburg that I one time measured to be 500' gained in 0.5 miles.  Well, the hike to Gösting is 600' in 0.5 miles and there is a flat section in between.  The first quarter mile must be 400' of the 600'.  It is not to be taken quickly, but Claire, Darrell and I made it up (the kids were in school and Sue had something to do).

We had just rotten weather for our climb :-)

An overlook before the ruins ... apparently where you go to get out of arranged marriages.

I'm not sure what impression of Austrians they came away with (hanging out with us doesn't tell you much about Austrians), but we sure enjoyed having them here to share in our adventure!

Russ

Thermal Park at Loipersdorf

Therme Loipersdorf:  A pretty big and fun place!

We did something today we've been talking about for a long time ... we went to the "thermal park" at Loipersdorf (Therme Loipersdorf).  I'm calling it a thermal park because it is a water park that is fed by hot springs below the ground.  The one we visited in Loipersdorf was east of Graz, almost all the way to Hungary (we had an idea to take a quick trip over, but we were having so much fun at the park, we ran out of time!).

Not having a waterproof camera, we don't have any pics.  The park has a variety of fun things to do, including:  water slides, water slides where you use rafts, indoor pools, outdoor pools (the air was cold, but the spring-fed water was warm!), not-so-lazy streams in the pools, a kiddie area with sand at the bottom of the entire pool (Henry's favorite!), another kiddie play area, a really hot pool, etc.  And this was during the winter, during the summer they also have a wave pool and some other outside features.

The kids loved it and we had a good time.  Our day was enhanced in that a friend brought her son and the kids played well together.  It was a long day that started with a trip out to the airport to pick up a rental car, but I'm really glad we went.

Russ