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.