Prost!

I traveled for work last week to attend training in Vienna, Austria.  It was an exhausting, very long trip filled with working during the day and part of some of the evenings.  I did get to do a few fun things.  Here's a recap of the non-work stuff.

We stayed up when we got there and visited the Schonbrunn Palace but everyone refers to it as a castle.  I would call it a museum before I would call it a castle.  It is one of the most popular attractions to go see, so I didn't want to miss it.  I had forgotten how much I dislike the Rococo period.  We took a self-guided tour, the kind where you hold up the recording to your ear after you punch in the number of the room you are looking at to hear a voice tell you about who's bedroom you're in.  

My observations:  you have to walk through many bedrooms to get to the dining room or even outside.  You walked from room to room, but there were no hallways.  How awkward would that be?  Don't mind me, brother, I'm just going outside...  Also, Maria Theresa had some ugly kids.  Lots of ugly kids.

We walked through the main part of the gardens and hiked up the hill to the Gloriette.  That was my favorite part (and it was free).  My recommendation to the common visitor, unless you are very cultural, live for visiting museums, and love the Rococo period, skip the tour and head for the gardens.  And wear walking shoes or don't bitch about your feet hurting.  It's your choice.

The view of the gardens from the back of the "Castle"

We could have walked through the tree covered trails.  Would be a great place to run.

Water fountain

Side view of the fountain

The view from the back of the fountain.

The city view from the Gloriette

There was a restaurant in the Gloriette. Glad we didn't eat there because I would never be able to choose.

The back of the "Castle"

Enough of the cultural stuff.

How often do you see a phone booth?

For dinner the first night, I had no idea what I was ordering.  Trying to find something to drink in a foreign country is not a challenge I enjoyed.  So I often settled for "still water" as opposed to sparkling "moving" water.  I know, how boring.  But YOU try to find something on a menu you can't understand.  Even the English menus left much to be desired.

I wanted something like a sprite and the waiter recommended Almdudler.  It tastes like gingerale and it was good.  The only ice I saw all week was when my coworkers ordered bottled tea.  There would be like 3 cubes in the glass, maybe.  These little glasses were common.  I consider them the size of an American juice glass.  This is how much water you get if you order tap water too (if your waiter/waitress understands what "tap" water means).  I don't know how they stay hydrated. Oh yea, they know how to decipher the beer/wine menus.

Almdudler was like gingerale

My coworkers dish--meat, sour kraut, bread.  Can't remember what they call this.

My other coworkers dish--salmon on pasta with leek sauce.  Wish I had gotten this!

Chicken smothered in a mushroom sauce--it was very good although greasy

My dessert--some kind of dumpling

Plum jelly was inside the dumplings covered with buttered bread crumbs--it was OK

Monday evening we had a group dinner planned.  I have to say this was my favorite part of the trip.  My Viennese coworkers were so entertaining and helpful with food and drink suggestions and I personally enjoyed their company.  We went to a "bier garten".  I learned their way of saying cheers is "Prost"!
 

My schnitzel, cold potato salad, and Murauer beer.  Loved it all!!!

My coworkers pork medallions look of Brazilian influence to me, yummy

My dessert:  hot plum liquor with cream.  AMAZING!

Various desserts.  The bottom one is broken up pancakes.

Ice cream with hot raspberry sauce is called "hot love" --snicker--

Tuesday we visited St. Stephen's Cathedral.  There was a service being held (on a Tuesday--I have no idea what service it was?).  I was surprised that we could still walk in and look around.  The building was beautiful.

What we saw when walking in and looking back

Very large organ

 

I didn't notice the clock until after dinner

We walked around to find a place to eat.  Saw this line up of horse drawn carriages outside the Cathedral.

Saw this beautiful display at a store that was closed.  So many shops close early.  The only shopping I could do was at the airport on my trip home.  So sad.

It was probably best they were closed, at least for my wallet's sake

We found a pizzeria.  Because who doesn't like Italian food?  I spotted the misters on the umbrellas and thought maybe it would literally be a cool place to eat.  Italian was one kind of food we could all agree upon.  We went to Ristorante Fratelli.

My dish

I had fresh pasta ravioli's filled with meat.  I have no idea what kind of meat it was.  I think they spelled it "meet" on the menu and I wasn't about to ask our waiter what kind of meat it would be.  We saw "rocket" as an ingredient several times on the menu and asked him.  He probably muttered "stupid Americans" in Italian, for all I know.  Language was a barrier that night.  But pointing at the menu helped.  I had a lovely large bottle of still water.  I would have killed for a nice glass of red wine.  Ha.

The sauce was a cream mushroom sauce and it was divine.  Honestly, I like my pasta done just a little more than al dente, especially fresh pasta, and this was cooked perfectly al dente so I was hoping for less toothiness.  But the sauce made the ravioli so wonderful, I got over it quickly.  This was a great dish, but I was still hungry when I was done licking my plate as there were only 5 or 6 ravioli's.  Luckily we went for dessert.  

The tall display of cones was mesmerizing, and the case was filled with wondrous delights

Wednesday evening brought another group dinner.  We went to an amusement park called Prater.  Unfortunately we did not have time to walk around the amusement park.  I wanted to see the arcades and look at the pinball machines.  I hear there were a couple of arcades with machines there.  But we had a long business dinner, so it wasn't meant to be.  Fortunately we showed up 20 minutes early and got to see in person the tallest swing I've ever seen located very close to the restaurant at which we were dining.  Who isn't up for a little adventure? 

Looks sooooooooo tall!

 Fortunately we had time to take a ride.  I am so glad we had time to do this.

I was ready for a nice breeze

Going up!

I'm the one with legs straight out, I don't know why

I have a Volken death grip on the chains

This was the only view of the countryside I got besides the flight when we took off.  There were a lot of trees, but I didn't see the rolling countryside that I expected.  That is probably because I was pretty much stuck in the city, maybe.  Except for the attractions we visited, we really could have been in any large city in the USA.  Only we had better food in my opinion.  I love Austrian food!  I just need a local with me to help decide what to order.

Old fashioned carousel drawn by horses at Prater

We tried to go to Schweizerhaus but they were completely full, so we went to a restaurant next door that had the same kitchen, Luftburg.  If you look here my coworker ordered the pork/ham on the main page.  It looked amazing but he was on the opposite end of the table so I couldn't get a picture (I died a little inside at the realization of this fact).  But, he shared part of his pig with me!  I LOVED EVERY BITE.  The skin was crunchy and tasty.  It melted in my mouth like bacon fat should.  The meat was so tender and juicy, just like perfectly cooked ham should taste.  I ate it with shredded horseradish and German mustard.  They also serve it with cabbage (they called it coleslaw, but looked like dry cabbage to me, I didn't get any of it but wished I was sitting right next to the local who was willing to share).  

Awesome pork

Mascarpone lemon vodka ice cream with kiwi fruit.  BEST DESSERT EVER!

I drank a local beer called Raschhofer.  It reminded me of a pale ale, but I have no idea what it really was, or which kind of Raschhofer I had.  My coworker suggested a Budweiser.  I just couldn't do it.  I just couldn't.

Nice beer to sip on a patio while being eaten alive by mosquitoes

I have a few more pics, but I believe I have reached my attachment limit.  Or computer squirrels are swallowing my pics as I try to upload them.  I will include in a future post. 

Various thoughts on my trip:

Ever look at Yelp for a restaurant and all the reviews are in German?  Yea, real helpful.  At least the star rating is a universal symbol.  Not that I could actually find the restaurant anyway.

Sweating my balls off in the back of a taxi was something I endured commonly.  Why drivers don't consider the people in the back are SUFFERING HEAT STROKE, I will never understand.  But a little juice glass of water later, and all is well, no?

Fortunately, I had a window seat on the way back.  I was supposed to have one on the way there, but they reassigned my seat 3 times, and I had an aisle going over.  On the way home, we flew over different continents and I could actually see land.  Over Greenland, I saw snow!

I saw sunflower fields on the way to the Vienna airport.  They were so gorgeous.

Staples are brass colored there.  They would probably think our silver staples are weird.

Traveling in coach sucks.  There is no other way to put it.  It's brutal.  My whole schedule was messed up the entire week because I did not sleep the entire way there (or back), and then I forced myself to stay up so that I would acclimate once in Vienna (and at home once I got back).  

Girlfriends who want to travel Europe when you retire:  have fun.  It's not for me, and honestly I never thought it would be.  I'd rather tent camp without an airbed-on-stilts than fly over the big pond.  My back would feel the same.  My total travel time back on Friday from the time I left the hotel to the time I arrived home was 18 hours in duration, and I caught an earlier flight for my last leg home. 

Prost to being home!