Vienna Highlights

Life for us in Vienna became different after the Madduxes left. My title on the trip became less “tourist,” and more “housewife and supporter of science.” Staying the next 3-4 weeks in Vienna meant that we had to learn how to become temporary residents. I spent most mornings shopping for and making lunch for Scott and myself. Then I would take lunch to the museum where we would eat together. Many of my afternoons were spent trying to catch up my blog, shopping, or on an occasional excursion to a museum, or reading in a park or garden. In addition, once a week or so, I would load up all our dirty clothes in my pack and make the 30 minute trek by metro and walking to the wash center to do our laundry. All these daily/weekly activities took up a majority of my time during the weekdays; therefore, I don’t have too many exciting things to report from the last three weeks. However there have been several highlights worth sharing.

Making new friends at church takes the number one highlight slot. We were blessed to meet up with a Bob and Raija Lojek who live in Vienna on our first Sunday, August 2. They are also friends with Jerry and Sara Steele who are close friends of ours in Iowa. Through Facebook, Raija was sweet enough to welcome us to Vienna and invite us to their church on Sunday. We happily accepted their invitation and ended up enjoying bible class and worship there for the next three weeks. Church was always followed by lunch and lively conversation that turned into coffee which usually turned into dinner. They showed us some great places to eat including a great sushi place called Natsu. We ate with them there twice, and went on our own several times as well. We had a blast getting to know them as huge sushi fans, runners, and wonderful people! We had quite a lot in common and many travel stories to share. Getting to spend time with them has been one of the brightest parts of our European travels.

Highlight number two would have to be spending the next Saturday, August 8, at Schoenbrunn Palace with Scott. In my previous blog update I have already explained why I love this particular site and you have already seen pics from my visit. However, Scott was not able to come with us on our last visit, and he didn’t want to miss seeing one of his favorite sites in Vienna. As always we had a great time touring the opulent rooms of the apartments, and strolling though the gardens. I have included a couple pics here.

Highlight three was the next weekend starting on Friday, August 14. Friday was a short day for Scott because the Natural History Museum was doing some fumigation in some of their working areas. This means that he could only work a half day, but the all the exhibits in the museum would still be open. After lunch Scott and I spent the rest of the day re-exploring the exhibits at the Natural History Museum. We had such a great time that afternoon. We took several goofy pictures that I have included. It was nice to just get to play with him all afternoon. If anyone reading this blog gets the opportunity to go to Vienna you must see this museum. I think it has something for everyone even if you’re not into nature. The building itself is worth seeing. Even if it didn’t have excellent exhibits, which it does, it is worth seeing. The architecture and interior decoration are impressive! (yay Franz Joseph and Baroque architecture!)

We spent the next day, Saturday, Aug 15 at the Art History Museum. The building that houses this art collection is a twin of the Natural History Museum, and they face one another with a lovely courtyard in the middle. Overall that area is one of my favorites in Vienna. We spent the whole afternoon looking at the history of Dutch and Italian art. As you may know by now, I am the art fanatic, Scott is not. However, he was sweet enough to go with me, and also to go with an open mind. We had a great time, and he discovered that he likes Dutch artists, while my preference is for Italian ones (duh). Scott is more Rembrandt while I am more Caravaggio.

The following Monday, August 17, while everyone back at Strawberry Hill Elementary in Anamosa, Iowa was beginning a new school year, we took a day trip to Brno in the Czech Republic. Scott had a few important skulls to measure there. There isn’t much to report about this trip. It was just a work trip, and we didn’t get to see anything spectacular. As soon as Scott was done with his work we hopped back on a train to Vienna and were “home” by dinner time. The next weekend would be our last in Europe, but probably our most intense for traveling. Somehow we would have to go to Bucharest, Romania, and Thessalonica, Greece (yes, the one in the Bible), and back to Vienna in order to catch our flight back to Iowa on August 30…wish us luck (I think we’ll need all we can get)!

More pics:

Sushi at Natsu with Bob and Raija

I like this picture I took of a rose in the gardens at Schoenbrunn Palace

Scott wit a cool skeleton of a dinosaur at the Natural History Museum.

Tiny Arctic Tressa at the Natural History Museum.

Vienna -- Week 1

We arrived in Vienna late on Monday, July 27. Both of us were relieved to finally be here! Four years ago when Scott was working on his masters we were here together for our first over seas data collection trip. Scott was here for 5 weeks. I joined him for the last two since I had to finish my school year first. We both fell in love with the city then, so coming back and getting to spend the next 4 weeks here was almost like coming home. We were also glad to see Scott's parents, Jana and Dave, along with Caroline, Scott's little sister, and Scott's Aunt Sandy. They left Moscow to meet us here in Vienna for a little "vay-cay" with the fam. They had never been to Vienna, so we were excited to show them some of our favorite museums and food. Unfortunately, Scott missed most of the site seeing this week for his work at the Natural History Museum. However, Scott is used to making such sacrifices for science, and he always joined us for dinner and festivities after work.

What makes Vienna so great you ask? Well...For any of you who don't know, Vienna used to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Vienna was where the Hapsburgs lived and ruled for 6 centuries. This means there is an overwhelming amount to learn and see, loads of art, history, and music. In addition, the historic center of Vienna was constructed or reconstructed during the Baroque period which means that it's also a charming. Add clean, safe, and not as expensive as other EU countries to the list and you have one great place to be! Every day I am surrounded by beauty and culture.

We started out on Tuesday morning with the Vienna essentials in the Hofburg Palace complex which is where they lived in the winter. They had a whole different, better one for the summer. You'll see some of that later. Within the Hofburg complex, we toured their silver collection (it's impressive!), the Sisi museum and the royal apartments. Pfew...we were tired.

Wednesday brought a new experience for me in Vienna. We took a bus tour of the Danube Vally. It took all day, and also included boat time on the Danube. This was really a winner for everyone. It was relaxing, interesting and beautiful. What more could you ask for? First we drove through the rolling hills of the Austrian countryside. There were trees and vineyards as far as the eye could see. Only an occasional castle or other beautiful historic building would interrupt the natural landscape. After a couple hours we arrived at the docking point for our boat tour. The boat was a decent size complete with cafe, and bathrooms. It was a little warm, but beautiful outside, so we enjoyed the tour from the top deck where we could watch the scenery go by as we sipped on various drinks and snacks. (The picture I included here was taken on the boat. I hope you will ignore the random guy standing up in my pic, and just look the the scenery. There is a castle above the guy's head.) When the boat again docked we got back on the bus and headed to lunch at our next tour site in Melk. In Melk we toured a Baroque monastery, and then we headed for home...er...I mean Vienna and our hotel rooms (Freudian slip).

Thursday brought a tour of the magnificent Schonbrunn Palace! This is where the Hapsburgs spent the summers. Oh, Schonbrunn is one of my favorite places... amazing Baroque architecture and interior decoration, lavishly furnished, extensive Baroque palace gardens that include a maze, monumental fountain, and a zoo! I have been there a total of 3 times, once in 2005 and twice on this trip (I went back with Scott)! We couldn't take pictures inside, but I've taken plenty on the grounds outside. There is also a small cafe on the edge of the grounds where I had a great melange (roughly an Austrian cappuccino), and apple strudel! I don't have a picture of it because I hadn't had breakfast that morning, so I ate it too fast. When we were done here we stopped there again for ice cream. *wistful sigh*

Friday brought another bus tour and another new Viennese experience. (Mom, I hope you read this because you will appreciate this part more than anyone else) This time our tour was only a half day through the woods. These were the same woods that inspired composers such as Beethoven and Mozart! However, the most interesting part of this tour was visiting an old gypsum mine. It was so much cooler down in the mine that they gave us blankets on our way in to keep us warm. We learned all kinds of things about how it flooded while they were mining gypsum, so they closed it, and then how they opened it back up just for visitors, and then how the Germans took it over during the war. The coolest part for me wasn't any of these things. The coolest part is that they filmed parts of the movie "The Three Musketeers" in that mine! They even left the movie boat down there (that I have a very bad picture of but can't resist including)! When that movie came out when I was in high school I went to see it in the theater 7 times! I had a huge crush on Kiefer Sutherland back then when he had his gut. You may be laughing now, or you may be disgusted at my taste in movies or men at that time, but it was true.

Saturday was our one day to site-see with Scott, so we went to his favorite site the Treasury Museum. This is an amazing museum! The Hapsburgs had loads of treasure. Some of these include: the crown jewels (of course), the largest cut emerald in the world, the "holy grail," and supposed relics from Christ's crucifixion! It was fun to go back.

Too soon after we finished at the Treasury, the Madduxes and Aunt Sandy had to fly back to Moscow, and Scott and I were left to finish out our trip on our own. We had a great time showing them why we like Vienna so much!

Extra pics that wouldn't fit right in the text:

Our tour boat: Prince Eugen

The castle above "that guy's" head

Me and my melange on the boat

Left to right: Aunt Sandy Vinzant, Caroline Maddux, Jana Maddux on the boat

Dave Maddux on the boat

In front of the Schonbrunn Palace gardens

Dave and Jana at Schonbrunn

A little traditional Viennese Sacher Torte and melange

Berlin

In order to talk about Berlin, I must mostly talk about our adventure getting there. Berlin was hard to schedule in the first place, and by this point in the trip we had already rescheduled with them. Geographically there was no good time to go, and there was only one skull there. We only needed 1/5 of the time it would take to get there for Scott to collect the data he needed. However, this skull was important, so we figured this particular weekend after Florence (July 23-26) was our one shot.

Here was our plan:
We had booked a night train on Thursday from Florence to Munich in 2nd class because 1st was full when we made our reservations. This meant that we would be sharing a 6 person sleeping car with 4 strangers -- not ideal but at least we had beds. The night train was scheduled to arrive in Munich in the 6:00 a.m. hour, and then we would catch a train to Berlin in the 7:00 hour. We would arrive in Berlin just in time to take a taxi straight to the museum and measure the skull before they closed that day (Friday). Then we would spend a relaxing weekend in Berlin before heading to Vienna on Sunday which would take most of the day on another train. Scott's family was also scheduled to be in Vienna Sunday night, so we could spend our first week in Vienna with them.

Here is what actually happened:
We arrived at the Florence train station a couple hours ahead of time. About an hour before our train was scheduled to leave they posted a 20 minute delay for our train. Then, twenty minutes before our train was supposed to leave they removed the delay, so now our train should be leaving on time, but there was no platform number posted for the train, so we didn't know where it was. I asked a train station employee about it, and I was told that the train had not arrived and they didn't know when or on what track it would. THIS WAS THE SAME ANSWER I GOT 2 MINUTES BEFORE OUR TRAIN WAS SCHEDULED TO LEAVE! THE BOARD SHOWED NO TRAIN DELAY, BUT NO ONE KNEW WHERE OUR TRAIN WAS! HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?!
...I probably don't need to tell you that I was panicking. They finally posted the platform number as we watched the train pulling in. *exasperated sigh*

Anyway, Scott and I got on the train carrying 6 bags and one briefcase since we are, basically, hauling around a portable lab. We found that we were sharing our compartment with 4 tall very nice Danish college aged people. They spoke English well, and were just as interested in sleeping as we were. The train employee in charge of our car came around and took our tickets and our passports so she wouldn't have to wake us up in the night, and explained we would get them back at 5:30 when she came around to get us up for our arrival in Munich around 6:00 a.m. *pause* Well, that was the good part. Scott then had to whip out his mad Tetris skills to try to fit our luggage into our tiny closet of a sleeping compartment that somehow slept six people, four of them Danish giants (comparatively), that was already full of their luggage! Finally we got settled and got to know our bunk mates a little bit. While this was going on the train started to move. I looked at my watch in surprise when I realized that we had left an hour late! Already this is bad -- our "layover" time in Munich is about half an hour, so unless this train can make-up a lot of time on the way we will miss our next train. All we can do at this point is hope for the best, so we all go to sleep.

I woke up somewhere in the 2:00 hour to a loud creaking and disconnecting noise, and then silence, stillness, and darkness. On a train, these are not good things. I expect trains to move, and make noise when they do so, and the darkness meant that we were not stopped at a train station. However, I know from former travel experiences and Rick Steves that not all parts of the train always go to the final destination, so we might have been "dropped" somewhere waiting for another train to pick us up. In the meantime, there is no power, so there is no air conditioning. It is getting hotter and hotter which means sweatier and smellier. During this time I considered my situation. I am now possibly trapped in a tiny box with 5 other people without air or power in the middle of Europe with no idea if or when another train will come to "rescue" us... On that note I tried to go back to sleep. Eventually, we did start moving again, and the air came back on, but even in my half awake half asleep state that I was in for the next several hours, I knew something was not right.

At 5:30 someones travel alarm went off. It was about 30 minutes before we were supposed to get to Munich but there was no sign of the lady with our tickets and passports. I assumed at that point that we were late, but I didn't know how late. While I waited for my answer the train stopped a lot in random places, and when we did so there was shouting in a language I couldn't understand, and lots of banging noises. Finally, around 7:00 a.m. our "lady" comes by to give us our stuff back and let us know that the train had broken down and we will be arriving in Munich 3 hours late. This means we have missed our train to Berlin, and we wouldn't make it there before the museum closed for the weekend.

When we arrived in Munich tired and disheveled, we paid for new reservations since they could not change the original ones, and got on a train to Berlin before lunch. Fortunately, while we were on the train Scott was able to get a hold of the museum on the phone, and let them know what was going on. They said he could come on Monday morning, so he could still get his data. However, that meant that we had to sacrifice a day with Scott's family in Vienna. The pictures I included above are actually taken on the train we took from Berlin to Vienna, but I thought you might be interested in seeing how we have been dragging our worldly possessions with us from country to country, and to show you how much we had to stuff into our sleeping compartment.

Once we got there we liked Berlin, and were able to get out and see some of the sites. Enjoy the pics of the fun part. Monday we measured the one skull he needed first thing in the morning, and by lunch time we were on a train to Vienna. The down side is that we were on that train for almost 11 hours...but what can you do?

Saturday we toured the Charlottenburg Palace.
Scott took this picture of me in the gardens there.
Scott's museum was also in this complex.

Charlonttenburg Gardens

The Charlottenburg Place and gardens

Scott and me in the Charlottenburg Place gardens

Sunday we spent seeing some of the major land marks of Berlin. Here I am standing by a piece of the Berlin Wall. We also went to an art museum that we both really enjoyed. I got to see some old Italian art by Botticelli and newer Italian art by Caravaggio. We also discovered that Scott like Dutch painters.

My Florence

After we said good-bye to Mel and Joe Thursday morning, Scott and I headed out to do some site-seeing. Scott has never been to Florence, so I knew exactly what I wanted him to see. We started by walking down along the Arno, saw the Ponte Vechio and took some pictures. Then we headed toward the Piti Palace. I have been waiting to take Scott to the Boboli Gardens that are a part of this amazing Florentine palace for almost 9 years!

When I was at Harding University in Florence (HUF) in 2000, we toured the Piti Palace and its Boboli Gardens. Back then, I was blown away by the beauty of the gardens. I decided that it would have been a great place for someone to ask me to marry them. I even took a picture at the particular spot I liked with a space left in the picture for whoever would be my future husband. I knew it wouldn't happen of course; that did not become my expectation, I just thought it was a romantic place for something like that to happen. I was overjoyed when Scott asked me to marry him two years later at his apartment in College Station, Texas. I have wonderful memories of that moment and I wouldn't change them for the world, however, since he turned out to be the man of my dreams I hope you can understand why I would want him to see the Boboli Gardens -- the setting for the proposal of my dreams. It was double special because our 5 year anniversary was less than a month behind us. As I requested of him, when we reached a spot that, as best I could tell, was the spot from my picture Scott asked me to marry him again, and I gladly said yes again! Yes, I requested it. I didn't expect him to know just how much I wanted him to say those words to me in that spot. Now I have a new romantic memory of the Boboli Gardens.

After our romantic moment we walked around some more and enjoyed the general splendor. It happened to also be hot as well as sunny, so soon we headed back into town to find some lunch and some shade! On our way, we ran across the "Piggy" Market where Scott also got to rub the nose of the boar.

After lunch it was just too hot to go anywhere else outside, so we found an Internet cafe, and effectively killed the afternoon. After our final Florentine meal we headed to the train station to catch our night train to Berlin. If we had only known then what an adventure that would be...

Scott and me in the Boboli Gardens at the spot where
he asked me to marry him again!

Boboli Gardens: those trees are so cool!

Scott rubbing the nose of the boar at the "Piggy" Market in Florence

Italy Part 2: Ventimiglia and Firenze

After passing the relaxing weekend in Genova we took a truly ghetto train early in the morning to Ventimiglia on Monday. Before this trip I didn't even know this place existed; it's in no guidebooks to my knowledge. The only reason we were going was for science...and the BEACH!

"The Beach" pretty much sums up what we did that day. I felt bad for Scott because he had a really hard time getting to and from the fossil he was scheduled for that day. While he was hauling equipment and measuring a skull, we ate some more fantastic food(I had pumpkin filled pasta. It was excellent!), then we rented an umbrella and three chairs and laid out by the ocean all day! Now you could be thinking, "three chairs and one umbrella. Tressa that's not enough shade for everyone." You would be correct. This is how it worked: Joe and I are very white and pasty, so we cowered under the umbrella contorting our bodies in order to stay in the shade. We also both had on high SPF sunscreen. Mel, on the other hand, is Italian and Portuguese. She is not pasty, and grew up on the beach in Florida. She laid out in the sun all day, and she liked it! Now I'm not saying I didn't like lying around on the beach all day, but without the umbrella I would have roasted alive. Mel just got a little more beautiful!

When Scott was finished he was able to join us on the beach for awhile. We then had some more great seafood at a restaurant very close to the beach. Scott and I shared a seafood pizza! After this we got back on the ghetto train to Genova, and packed for Firenze (Florence)!

We got up early again on Tuesday to catch our train to Florence. We had to change trains in Pisa which Mel and Joe wanted to see, so Scott and I headed for Florence on our own. We arrived at the museum around lunch time, and I resumed my roll as "killer of time" until is was time for me to pick up Mel and Joe from the train station.

When Scott was done we all met for dinner where I ate some great pizza and finished off my meal with some lemoncello...mmmm.

While Florence is one of my favorite cities, and is full of great sites, for me the time here passed much like Genova. This particular time was my third time in Florence, my second time just on this trip, so it was more about time with friends than the city itself. I hope you will excuse my lack of city description. I did, however, take them to see the Duomo, Ponte Vechio, Piazza Vechio (where my favorite statue is), and Santa Croce. All are full of medieval Italian art! Love it!!!! We ended our last day with Mel and Joe at Piazzalle Michelangello where you can find the best view of Florence ever! The next day Mel and Joe took and early train to Naples while Scott and I had the day to site-see before we took a night train to Berlin. Enjoy the pics!

My favorite statue in Florence, Apollo victorious over Medusa!
I don't know why, but I could stare at it all day!

Rubbing the nose of the boar at the "piggy" market with Mel
Does this mean we are destined to return to Florence together?

Mel and me at Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence

Scott eating "lunch" in Ventimigilia

Joe is so silly :)

Italy Part 1: Genova

We arrived in Genova, Italy on Friday evening, July 17 along with one of my college roommates, Melanie Horst and her husband Joe. (Happy Anniversary Amy & Kent, and also Sharon & Steve!) Why Genova you ask? Well, we used it as a “home base” to get to a fossil that was actually in the small coastal city of Ventimiglia on Monday. If you are ever headed to the Italian coast, Genova is not so much of a destination. It turns out that many tourists use Genova to either access smaller costal cities, like we were, or to take a cruise. Genova is still one of the most important ports in Italy, and not just for crusies, but also for shipping and other everyday commerce. This means that, while it does have some site-seeing, and a historical center of town, it is an average work-a-day Italian city. It’s still awfully pretty for an “average Joe” Italian coastal city isn’t it.

Our hotel in Genova was the nicest we’ve had on the trip, and I’m not sure it will be surpassed. The interior was modern and chic, and was one of only a few hotels where we had air conditioning. We also had a great bed with our choice of pillow firmness!

As far as big sites go, there isn't much to report. We toured the historical light house, and a palace during our stay. This part of the trip was more about getting caught up with good friends, goofing around, and enjoying the general splendor of an old city with more history than the United States of America.

The part of Italy that I enjoy the most is the food! My favorite meal in Genova was on our second day. We ate dinner outside at a cafe on the water. Not only was it beautiful, but the seafood was great! Mel and I both ordered a big bowl of muscels pictured here. They were as delicious as they were beautiful!