June 30, 2010

And now the Vienna and Bratislava portion of our recent trip.  After arriving from Budapest on the train we managed to figure out the Vienna subway system and then a short walk brought us to our hotel, Pertschy Hotel.  One interesting note that we didn't figure out until much later in the week, you were supposed to buy a full-fare ticket on the subway, not the half-fare (we thought the full fares were for round trips).  Fortunately the Austrian subway police never caught us and we were in full compliance by the back-end of our trip.  Whew.... The room and hotel were lovely although under some construction which meant no sleeping much past 7:30 in the morning when the construction crews needed to move everything around.  After dropping our stuff off, we hit the road to get a feel for Vienna.  What a lovely town from an architectural standpoint.  Absolutely beautiful buildings with all sorts of interesting facades.  We heard about Figmuller's which was apparently famous for their Wienershnitzel - and given the size of it you can see why.  We also discovered that ordering a beer in a wine garden is just not done.  So we quickly changed to some wine and our waiter was happy.

Tuesday was our day to see how the Habsburg dynasty lived as we toured the Hofburg and surrounding museums.  We watched the practice session for the Royal Lipizzaner stallions which we had to settle for since they only do shows on the weekends.  Then an interesting exhibit and the living quarters for Elizabeth ("Sisi") and Franz Joseph (Austrian Kaiser/Emperor in case you don't follow the Austrian dynasty).  We decided that Sisi was a bit off her rocker, but then being the empress of Austria allows you a fair amount of leeway, especially with things the rest of us would just be labeled crazy for.  One item we did decided to disagree with the historical record on is that Sisi was reported (in the museum) to be 5'8" and weigh 90-100 pounds.  Given that Jo is the same height, dear old Empress Sisi would have to be emaciated to have achieved that weight.  And the pictures of her certainly don't depict that - so there is some historical inconsistencies here, we're just pointing out.  It was kind of eerie though seeing the dress she was wearing when she was stabbed - including the hole (just wait there is a theme here).  The exhibit and rooms certainly helped both Jo and I to understand Austrian history better.  We then headed off to see as many of the remaining churches and museums in the area of the Hofsburg as we could before our feet gave out.  On our way back to the hotel we came across the crypt were all the Habsburgs have been buried which is in the Capuchin Church.  Very interesting to have so many generations together in a wide variety of burial regalia.  Be interesting to have one spot my entire family for several hundred years were all located - wonder if that would be a tourist attraction.  After dinner we found a cafe to enjoy some apfel strudel with vanilla cream.  Very good, although I would personally give the nod to apple pie with ice cream (but having grown up on that, I'll admit I might be biased some). 

The next day (Wednesday for the calendar challenged) we braved the public transportation systems again and headed to Bratislava on the train.  After some challenges finding the right entrance to the Sudbahnhof (just to note, Vienna had everyone of their major train stations torn up - why all at once, you'll have to ask them).  Then a 1 hour ride later we were in Slovakia.  Bratislava is bisected by the Danube with a fairy tale like castle up on the hill overlooking the town.  We had a great day touring all the sites especially enjoying the Primate's palace (no vow of poverty for the church leaders back in the old, old days) and the sites over the town from the castle.  However, we did find that Slovakian was beyond our ability to even attempt and technology failed us as Jo's translation app failed since her Iphone didn't get Internet service there.  For dinner where we managed to find a place serving the one dish Jo really wanted to try - bryndzove halusky (see what I mean about pronouncing the language).  This is goat's cheese with potato dumplings and was delicious.  Then we hiked back to the train station and headed back home.

Thursday dawned bright, sunny, and warm so we hit the Vienna Naschmarkt which is an open air market and enjoyed the walk through the stalls with the wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, and goods for sale (they eat a much wider palette of foods than us Americans do - especially in the meat department!).  We didn't buy anything but did decide to make it our lunch stop later.  Then it was off to the Shronbrunn palace - boy did those Kaiser's like a big house back then.  Very interesting tour of the palace with a great English audio tour to accompany it providing more info. on the Habsburg dynasty.  If you want to read about a truly amazing woman, check out Maria Theresa of Austria.  Had 16 children - yes 16 -, ruled a major portion of Europe, fought a couple of wars, and still found time to worry about building a couple of palaces.  Made us feel a wee bit lazy.  Well after touring the grounds we headed back to the aforementioned market for a spinach and cheese filled roll.  Then it was off for a hike to the Military History Museum of Vienna (told you I hit them all).  This helped fill in some of the pieces of Austria's history (since the history of most countries are told through wars) and contained the car and clothing that the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were in when they were shot thereby starting World War 1.  Again pretty strange to see the bullet holes in the car and coat - but after Sisi's dress we were prepared.  We had to rush to find this and didn't really get to study the display as much as we would have like since they were closing the museum around us - we had to escape through the cafeteria to get out.  For dinner we finally enjoyed some Sacher tort, although not at the Sacher hotel.  Very scrumptious and we might give it a try at making one in our kitchen.

For our last day of vacation we took it easy, slept in a little later and took in the Royal Treasury (a little light on crown jewels in my opinion and little too heavy in old regal clothes) and a butterfly museum.  We then enjoyed a leisurely afternoon sitting on a park bench reading in the sun and just people watching.  We decided we needed to find some Wiener Schnitzel to cap off our time in Vienna so that along with some ice cream topped off our day.   Saturday was our last experience on the trains, although we felt pretty experienced by then, as we headed to the airport and the long flights to get home - always sad to end a vacation, but great to sleep in your own bed again.   All in all a great overall vacation seeing 3 of Europe's wonderful capitals.  Would certainly recommend going to any or all three if you have the chance.

June 27, 2010

We are back from our jaunt to Budapest, Vienna, and Bratislava (Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia for those not into European geography).  So I don't have to write one massive summary, I've decided to break our trip into two parts - Budapest for one and Vienna and Bratislava for the other.  The quick summary for those not wanting to read all the details - great trip, walked too much each day seeing castles, palaces, and cathedrals, ate too much good food.

Jo had a business meeting in Budapest which is what triggered our trip over as we hadn't been planning a trip to Europe this summer.  But with her airfare now free we figured it would be a great time to check off our list a few more of the European capital cities.  We started our trip in Budapest after I joined Jo on Thursday afternoon after the flight from Boston to Heathrow to Budapest.  Flight over was pleasant and got to catch up on a movie that I wouldn't be likely to see otherwise ("When in Rome" - nice, formulaic comedy - but there is a reason the formulas work!).  We spent Thursday afternoon just walking around with Jo pointing some of the sites she had already learned about.  Then it was goulash and Hungarian steak for dinner (a spicy steak).  Both meals were excellent and got us in the spirit for the rest of our stay.  It was then back to the room to watch a little of the World Cup Soccer (Football for anyone from the rest of the world that might see this) where I fell promptly to sleep to catch up from my jet lag.  Friday we were up and out to see the sights.  Spent the day touring Parliament, St. Stephen's church and several of the other local sites all in Pest.  We were on our feet except for a short break for lunch (which happened closer to 2:30 since we were so busy seeing everything) for almost 12 hours.  That evening we enjoyed a concert in St. Stephen's consisting of several classical works in which we got to appreciate the marvelous acoustics in the church.  

As it turned out we decided on Saturday to see if we could actually walk farther than we did on Friday.  Saturday was mostly spent in Buda but we first checked out the local market where we discovered that paprika is made from a pepper.  Didn't know that before we went to Budapest.  Then we hiked to the Citadel for some great vistas of the two cities (or one city with two sides - not sure if they still consider themselves two or one city - probably should have learned that while we were there).  Next up, we toured a World War 2 anti-aircraft installation (hate to miss any WWII opportunities) which had an interesting description of the siege of Budapest by the Soviets near the end of the war.  Then it was down the hill and back up another one to Buda castle.  We toured the castle area enjoying the Hungarian History museum and of course the shear scale of the construction of the castle.  To complete the circuit of Buda we hiked over to Margaret Island to enjoy an outdoor rock concert (that wasn't in our plans, just a nice find) and some people watching as we rested our tired little feet.  After dinner we found the neatest ice cream shop where they made the cones look like flowers.  It was simply the presentation not the gelatto that made us buy two - I promise. 

Sunday we used to catch up on some of the museums we missed in our two days of touring - mostly in Buda castle again.  After touring the labyrinth museum - kind of hooky, but it was interesting to see how much of Buda castle is tunneled out underneath - we did the Military History Museum (again, never want to pass one of those up, stay tuned for Vienna).  This gave us a better appreciation for the history of Hungary and certainly the struggles they have encountered as a country through the ages.  The challenge for any European war museum is they have a lot more years of wars to cover than any US one.  Jo eventually managed to drag me out and after a lunch break at an outdoor cafe we managed to discover the Telephone Museum.  This was obviously not on the tour group schedules as we had to ring a bell and then get let into the museum by a woman who must have gotten the job when Hungary was part of the Soviet block.  She did her best to explain what was in the museum, but she was never more than 10 feet away at any time.  The museum didn't seem to get a lot of visitors (could be because it is tucked away in a separate courtyard without a lot of signs pointing the way - fortunately we have learned to just ask) since the guest book hadn't been signed in 4 days and we were the only visitors while we were there.  Still was an interesting museum especially as it was the actual Budapest telephone exchange up to recently and with the family link to Bell Labs it felt like something we should see.

Monday dawned a little rainy which was fine as we boarded train for Vienna - but that is a story that will wait for another day.

June 13, 2010

The exciting news for this week was the harvesting of a bumper crop of strawberries - probably the biggest single crop we have ever managed (although our annual bean harvest does come close).  Of course, the challenge every home gardener faces is what to do when a crop is ready to harvest since it all comes at once - and usually in quantities beyond what can be consumed by a normal family.  Fortunately with strawberries it is possible to freeze them and turn them into jam.  This allowed us to whittle down the pile although there is still probably that many strawberries left to harvest in the garden.  On top of enjoying fresh strawberries, the lettuce has arrived so we have been munching on salads for the last week with the only challenge being having to remove the stray piece of grass (or miscellaneous other weeds - although now a days it seems most weeds have become part of salads).  But that is a small price to pay to not have to worry about E Coli contamination of our salad greens.  We topped our dinners off with a strawberry/rhubarb cobbler from our four rhubarb plants so, we would have to say, the garden is paying off this year.  Of course, lots of the summer left to challenge our patience and plants.

This weekend we enjoyed an evening out with Sheri and Bruno taking in a play at the Granite Theater and a pizza dinner all in Westerly.  The play was "The Tyranny of Love" which had some great acting and some less than great acting but came out as an enjoyable show with a nice plot twist at the end.  The rest of the weekend has consisted of multiple home patch-and-paint chores.  Although Mother Nature is doing her best to make these as challenging as possible since it started pouring down rain right after lunch on Saturday.  We did manage to harvest the garden - hence the pile of strawberries -, paint the door into the garage (although the damage from the rain to the paint job has yet to be determined), re-stain the porch floor, and make strawberry jam.  Coupling that with a 10 mile run in the morning and our usual gym workout meant we were tired puppies before heading out to dinner.

Nothing too remarkable to report on the work front.  Jo's team implemented their big change-over of a key HR system without too many bumps over last weekend and she was in New York for the week between various meetings she had.  I held down the local fort while completing a couple of meeting reviewing my division's external investments - sounds exciting doesn't it! 

Off to another exciting week....

June 5, 2010

Weather this weekend is mixed with storms and sun alternating through the day, so guess what, time to write my post early for once.  I'll start on our work week since it was a shortened week.  Jo and her group continue on their big roll-out project which is a new human resource portal for the entire company.  They are turning it on this weekend - "going live" as it is said - so she is busy checking in periodically with her team, but they seem to have the brunt of the work to do.  Guess it is nice being the boss.  Only a day trip to New York for Jo this week so we got to see each other more than usual.  Nothing particularly exciting for me this week at work as I continue to define what my new role will be.  I'm going to be leading a set of technology efforts for my division, the key work being to define exactly what that means.  Especially, getting all the other scientists and managers in line organizations to agree that the technology effort I'm working on are worthwhile.  It is going to be a long time before we have all this clearly defined and I feel like I'm really delivering high value back - hope I can be patient (hint, this isn't always my strongest skill).

On the home front, our garden is slowly pushing up new plants but the big news of the week was the strawberries started to come in.  We picked enough for Jo to try out her jam making skills after a several year hiatus.  I must admit there isn't too many things better than warm, freshly made strawberry jam on bread.  The rest of our garden efforts this week consisted of pulling the ever present weeds - they never seem to stop coming.  Our peas and tomatoes are showing their first flowers so we are hopeful for some treats from there.  I have more painting chores to tackle this weekend as I'm repainting the door into the garage and need to start prepping the floor on our 3-season porch for a new staining or prep some of the interior walls to repair some cracks that have appeared (I think our house is slowly falling into a sinkhole and the constant wall cracks are just the first indication - after the Guatemala sink hole, I am a bit concerned and do you really know if all the homeowners in the area didn't see cracks in their walls in the years before?  Makes you think doesn't it).

We are heading out for dinner with our friends Sheri and Bruno tomorrow to celebrate Sheri's birthday.  Heading to Watch Hill, RI which is a lovely coastal town with great views of the Sound/ocean.  Then it is back to work for an entire week.