Guten Tag! I write this while sitting on the night train from Vienna to Berlin. For train travel, this is quite luxurious … we have our own bathroom and shower in the room! Granted, the room is postage stamp sized … and, per my usual Europe trips, there is quite a lot of baggage with us. Laura and I managed to get our suitcases stowed in the upper berth area or under the bed, so we can kind of maneuver in the two square feet available. I am taking the top berth, remains to be seen how that will turn out. We have toyed with staying on the train and not getting off in Berlin, because the final destination is Moscow, which sounds exotic. But most likely, we will be departing in Berlin. I believe we may post an instructive video about using the train shower, once we reach an area with wifi.

Last night and today was my first chance to really see some of Vienna… because before that it was all about work and trying to get across the entire city by cab, as I was staying in a hotel 45 minutes away from Messe Vien where HP Discover was happening. Another complication, my hotel is two months old, and no cabbie believed there was a hotel located there. I have had multiple conversations (and my German is non-existent) trying to explain where the hotel is … one was quite humourous where the guy finally said ‘know it, know it!’. I did not take the subway much because it took about 15-20 minutes to walk there.

I finally sampled local beer and the famous gluhwein – that is hot mulled wine — served in a mug that you can keep, and then carry around with you all day – awesome! The Viennese are really into Christmas and there are lights and decorations everywhere, not to mention the random stalls serving gluhwein and other hot drinks. Oh, and of course the Christmas markets of which there are many. We visited a couple, one at Shonbrunn Palace (down the street from our hotel) and the other was in the museums area right near the Hofberg Palace. Yes, I did purchase some Christmas ornaments… and had the privilege of carrying those around all day too. Are you sensing a theme yet? Shonbrunn Palace is fascinating – we went through the grand tour and observed the lifestyles of the rich and famous of the 17th-20th centuries. Pretty decent world if you’re last name was Hapsburg … did you know they were in power for 600 years? Holy Roman Emperors Bat Man! We took a tram ride around the ‘ring’ this is the main area of Vienna, but due to the gloomy skies, a bit tricky to observe much. And, we wandered around the Hofberg a bit, but did not view anything …

Vienna is hopping – there are people everywhere, and nobody seems to mind that it is grey and freezing cold. It is so grey as to be nearly dark … and that was at about noon, when I remarked on how it seemed to be getting even darker. We had what the weather forecast termed ‘snow grains’ or ‘frozen mist’ for the first part of the day – so, hats and gloves are on. Yours truly invested in footwear, but not glove-wear – and by the end of the day I was frozen solid – and required more gluhwein to get my blood circulating again. But I have the BEST shoes, gore-tex booties by Ecco – they are the bomb, my feet were always warm – I highly recommend them. I am now on a mission to find gloves that actually block the wind and cold.

<Momentary aside, we’re in the Czech Republic! I’ve never been (in fact, as a child of the 70’s, still call this Czechoslovakia, slap my hand) – so need to look out the window, see what’s there — hmmmm, not so exciting we’re at a train station.>

Our parting event was doing a little bit of shopping at a shoe store in the Stephensplatz, where I had to purchase some red suede pumps. Is that so wrong?
And now I’m carrying those around too. Don’t judge! Laura actually purchased two pairs….