Vienna

First I have to tell you that on Monday as I was walking to work at our little plant of 12,000 people or so, I ran into Joe on the way into my building. Joe is also an expat and I have known Joe since before I worked at Bosch, because I used to work with his mother-in-law, Gisela and his wife, Tina, used to be a teaching assistant at Wayne State. Of course, I knew they were here, but I thought that I would have to email them in order to get in touch with them. I really didn't think I would just run into him. So that was a nice surprise!

On Monday afternoon, we flew to Vienna for a conference with all the HR people from around the world who work in the Diesel Systems division. The flight there is only about one hour and it's a small plane. On the way, though, there were lots of thunder storms. So just before landing, the pilot had to make some really sharp maneuvers to avoid them. I've flown quite a bit, but I can honestly say that was the first time I really thought the plane might crash. It was pretty scary.

But, thankfully, we got there safely and took a taxi to our hotel, a very nice four star hotel, the Gartenhotel Altmannsdorf. Then we met up with most of the other Bosch people and took a bus to downtown Vienna. Vienna has so many old buildings and it's really quite lovely.





















We had a tour guide give us a walking tour. And this was a pretty serious tour of about 2 hours. (Europeans are serious about walking! But it was good, because we ate very well during the trip and all the walking was an opportunity to burn off the calories!!) I took a few pictures of the Hofburg palace, which was the winter residence of the Hapsburg family, who were the rulers of Austria for many years.

I promise that we worked while we were in Vienna. And actually, we worked pretty hard. But they had also organized a really great program for sightseeing in the evenings as well.

So on Tuesday, we went to the Riesenrad, which is a giant ferris wheel, originally built in 1897 and then rebuilt in 1945. It's a symbol of Vienna. It's 212 feet high and moves really slowly. It has cabins rather than seats. If you didn't know, I'm more than a little afraid of heights, so this was a pretty big deal for me. I took pictures, but I was definitely holding on the whole time. It was also very nice, because they provided champagne for us to drink while we rode the Riesenrad. So it was very luxurious!
Here are a few pictures of the view of Vienna from the Riesenrad.














































On Wednesday night, we went to the summer palace of the Hapsburg family, Schloss Schonbrunn, which is very beautiful! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos inside.
The Hapsburg family has a very interesting story, if you ever have time to read up on them!!


























Then we walked to dinner at a restaurant that our tour guide said was the best restaurant in all of Vienna. We had Tafelspitz, which is meat cooked in a soup with some vegetables and bones. First, you eat the soup. Then, you take the marrow out of the bone and spread it on toast, add salt and pepper and eat. Then you eat the meat, which is served with creamed spinach, hash browns and an applesauce and horseradish mix. I assure you that I tried everything.

Except the bone marrow.

I would highly recommend a trip to Vienna. My only caution would be that you go in spring instead of summer. It was incredibly hot and as European standards are different, this four star hotel (voted the best hotel in Vienna) had no air conditioning in either the guest or meeting rooms. So it was pretty uncomfortable. And walking in that much heat is not the happiest thing. But I met a lot of great people from around the world, who I look forward to working with!!

We came back on Thursday afternoon, I worked yesterday, today I picked up my keys (my landlord is very nice, I can move in whenever I want and I met the previous tenant, who works for Bosch and is moving to Bamberg, the plant in Germany that I'm responsible for). Now you're up to date. Oh, except that I should tell you that I switched cars, because Europcar sold the Opel I was driving. So I'm now driving a BMW again! :o)

Oh, and one more thing. I said I would look for pictures of the plant. Well, I didn't find any actual pictures. But I did find the site layout, which might give you an idea of how big it is. We have a really great arial photograph on our wall and if I ever find the electronic version, I'll share it with you. But for now, this is the best I can do. I work in building 343, which is sort of on the lower left. And I park at Tor 10 now. But before I was parking at Tor 7, so you can see I wasn't kidding about the walk!




I hope you're having a fantastic weekend! I miss you all and I so appreciate the comments and emails. Please, please keep 'em coming!