Third time in Vienna!

This is the third time that I have been to Vienna, though the first time on business travel. Thankfully M and N got to come along for the week. I still have to work during the day, but it is nice to come back to the hotel and meet them in the room. Ironically, every time I have come to Vienna, it has been with one objective in mind- to go to the National Treasury (Schatzkammer in German).

The first time I came was in 1998. I spent the day in Salzburg and then caught the night train to Vienna. I roamed the city in the morning and then in the afternoon I went to my museum. At the time, I was using the Lonely Planet “Europe on a Shoestring” guidebook and the currency for Austria was the schilling. It is important to note that after Vienna, I was leaving the country with plans in the near future to return. When I arrived at the museum, it was to my surprise that the price that was quoted in the guidebook was incorrect. Of course the price had been raised and I did not save enough money to cover the entry fee. The museum did not take credit cards (they still do not), so I ran over to the American Express to exchange $1, since that is all that I needed. They said no way. The only option would be to cash in a travelers check, which the smallest denomination I had at that point was $50. So, the museum had to wait for another day.

For my 30th birthday, several years later, we traveled through Eastern Europe. We started in Estonia and traveled down to Croatia. The one excursion outside of Eastern Europe was into Vienna. The sole purpose was to go to the National Treasury. My 30th was on a Monday and since we know that museums are always closed on Monday, we decided not to go into Vienna on the Monday, but to wait and go into Vienna on the Tuesday. The Monday was spent roaming the streets of Bratislava. When we came into town on the Tuesday, the hardest part was to find a parking spot and to fill up with fuel. Now, it had been 7 years since I was last in Vienna and I was not 100% sure what museum it was nor where it was located. It took a few minutes to orientate myself and finally we found the museum. The problem was that it was closed on Tuesdays. What museum is closed on Tuesdays? I have studied Museum Studies at the university and I can say, no museum is closed on Tuesdays. Well, no museum should be closed on Tuesdays (ironically I thought that the ethnographic museum sounded cool as well, but it was closed until summer ’07).

So now it is winter ’06- 1.5 yrs after the last attempt. In the evening we have been enjoying the Christmas market and having chestnuts and glühwein. M and N met up with one of M’s friends that she worked with in Germany and I worked. On Saturday I did not have to work, so we attempted to go to the museum. We started the day going to some non-touristy markets. One was a Christmas market that was more for the local hippies and the other was a food market where you could buy live eels (we contained ourselves). After lunch we went to the museum- thankfully it was open.

One might have to ask, what is so special about this museum? Well, for starters, I have been trying to go to it for years. The other part is that it holds “magical” things. Let me explain, the museum hosts the spear that the Roman Soldier used to kill Christ (that is what actually killed him and not the cross). It is said, he who has possession of the spear, will have the power to control destiny. This was one of the first things that Hitler stole and took to Berlin when he gained control of Austria (let us not forget that Austria was not invaded, they went to the Nazis on their own accord). It is suppose to have magical powers. One could imagine that Indiana Jones would search for it as well. Also in the museum was the tooth of John the Baptist, the nail that was used on Christ’s right hand, a piece of the manger and even a piece of the table clothe used at the last supper. Of course there were some non-religious stuff as well. Several pieces of clothing from the former Austria-Hungarian Empire and some knights tunics as well. Also, I learned something that I did not know. The Austrian-Hungarian Empire had strength in Mexico as well.

So was it worth it (as it was pretty expensive at €9 per person)? I have to actually say that it was. Even without the spear, it would have been worth it, but since I have been waiting for years to see this spear, it was well worth it. Any person coming to Vienna should go to it, just make sure you have enough cash and it is not a Tuesday!

Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day 13

It is good to be on road, but it is great to be home. We made it home safely and soundly late at night. We said that we would not unpack the car, but of course we do (though we left some things in the car). Overall I have to say that it has been a surprisingly nice trip. It is not surprising because of M and N. I knew that we were going to enjoy our time together. It was the country/landscape that was a bit surprising.

I believe it was Francis Mayes that said that a sign of a good place was that you would want to move there. I think that the sign of a great/amazing place is that you would like to live there and the sign of a good place is that you want to come back. Not too many places on the trip would I like to live actually, but several of the places I would like to go back to. The four things that pop into my head are:

1) The glass factory area- in the summer they have a special dinner on the floor f the different factories that is cooked in the ovens.
2) Kivik- in the summer though, this is one of the places I could imagine having a place.
3) Söderåsen National Park- another weekend next fall would be perfect! (http://www.internat.naturvardsverket.se/index.php3?main=/documents/nature/engpark/enpstart.htm)
4) A trip around Vättern- a week long trip seeing and doing things around the lake that we missed or did not have the opportunity to do.

I am sure that there are more places that I would like to visit again from the trip. If we went back, even to places that we did not care for, the experience would be new and different. Some experiences might be better and some might be worse. No one ever really knows for sure. That is why we travel after all- to have good and bad experiences. If everything was always perfect, then travel would be boring. People will recall the bad experiences faster then they will recall the good experiences.

So what is next for us? I really do not know. I have some travel planned with work, but I am not looking forward to it. Then we are free the week after Christmas, but no plans yet. Then it is next year already. The one thing that I will take from this trip is that we need to slow it down even more on our next big road trip. When/if we take the Australia adventure next year, we will need to slow it down a bunch, especially since we will have two kids traveling with us. Maybe we need a test trip before we leave for Australia, Hmm, time to start thinking about that trip.

Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day 12

Today was supposed to be our day in the national park, but weather put a little change in the plans. So instead of that, we are taking a rest day in Örebro at M’s parent’s house. Not an ideal choice, since we have a second rest day tomorrow, but still the logical thing to do with N.

For the most part, it feels as though we have done everything there is to be done in Örebro. So we did not play tourist/traveler today. That does not mean that you don’t get to hear what there is here to do though. First of all, if you ask any person from Örebro what there is to do and see here, they will all mention the water tower. When M first told me that several years ago, I had to laugh, but it is true. That is the one thing they are most proud of. There is a café located at the top of it and it does offer nice views of the lake. They also have the “most photogenic” castle in all of Sweden. Even in my critical self must admit it is a pretty storybook castle. The third item of fame is an old wooden village that is now craft stores and a nice café (we did spend a little time there today). That is about it for the tourist things here, but there is more to see and do.

Three additional things is what I would recommend in fact. The first, when the weather is bad, is Gustavsvik. This is a indoor water park that is actually impressive. It has been given the title as Sweden’s best water park for a number of years. The slides are not for the little kids, probably not for the old either. Upstairs they have a little spa area for those who are not interested in the rides, slides and the wave pool. The second thing is a nice place to have fika. It is about 2km outside of town, past the hospital. It is called Naturam. It is very new, only opening this year, and well worth a visit. The area use to be an industrial area that was polluted. They cleaned it up and now you can walk through the restored nature. They have done a great job with it. The last one is actually not in Örebro, but all around it. They have one of the best hiking trails in Sweden called Bergslaladen. It goes from the south of the landscape up to the far north of the landscape.

Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day 11

Well, we did not get a blizzard as we were told to expect, but the weather is far from perfect. It sounds as though some parts of Sweden were hit harder then others. We just had ice and a lot of wind. Stockholm and Uppsala had lots of snow. They were talking on the Radio of the night trains that got stopped in Gävle. They were told before they went to bed that they would be delayed for a couple of hours, and then when they woke up 8 hours later, they had not moved an inch. Plus they did not move for several more hours.

This has put us in a dilemma which we need to consider carefully what we will be doing. We really have three options. The first option is to continue as we have planned. We head up to tonight’s hostel and hike the national park. This is the option that we want to do, but we do not really have the cold weather gear (with the exception of M) and we have no idea what the roads are like to the national park. Option two is that we can find an alternative place to stay tonight on the way. Maybe something that we had not planned on at first, but that will be a nice alternative. This is a good option, but there is not much on the way that we want to see and do. The last option is to go directly to Örebro today and just take a couple of relax days rather then just one. The problem with this one is that it is boring and it is kind of cutting our holidays a little short, which is sad.

We go with option number three. It is the most logical of the three options, and we are logical people for the most part (most people would argue that it is not logical to take the trip that we have taken during this time of year, but that is not the point). It is only 224 km to Örebro from Tröllhatten, so we have plenty of time and zero stress to get there. It is not like anyone there is expecting up at a certain time or anything. We decided to start the day by exploring Tröllhatten a little. We go by the hydropower plant first. This was the first one that was built in Sweden and it is still in use. M had studied it at the university, so she really wanted to see it. They had an activity centre and some nice walks around. We did not do them through, way too cold. Next stop was the Saab car factory. They have a little museum there that has the very first Saab and the most recent (with several in between). The other museum of interest was the canal museum. Sadly, this museum is only open in the summers. So instead of going to the museum, we went to the canals and had a look. They are very impressive. M got to watch a boat go through one of them, I was too cold to stick around. We also drove by the movie studios. I was not overly impressed with the ones in Hollywood, Trollywood is not going to impress me much either.

Sadly, we had lunch at McDonalds. As much as it is possible, we try to avoid McDonalds. Today it did not seam as though we had much of a choice. N needed to eat and it was the only thing around. They did have a great climbing wall for kids. The grips were soft and in the shape of fish. I could see doing it in N’s room (she has an underwater theme in her room and she is a climber).

The roads were not great, so it took a little longer then one would expect. We only took two more stops before we reached Örebro. The first was in Linköping. They had a Höganas factory store there. They basically had the same stuff that the other Höganas shops had. Of course we did buy stuff as well. The other stop was just along the road on the Göta Canal. I have no idea what the name of the town was, but it was a beautiful little stop; this being especially true with the ice and the snow. At about 5:30 we arrived at the In-Laws house.

For the most part, the trip is over. At least the exciting part of the trip is over. I think that the next Sweden road trip that we do will be around Vättern. That is the largest lake in Sweden and the one that we have been traveling on the last couple of days. A 10 day trip around it sounds about perfect. Though when we do that trip, it will need to be in the summer or maybe late spring.

Sweden Road Trip 2006- Day 10

If my description of the hostel last night seemed a little harsh, today I am going to stand by it. The bedroom was clean, but the rest of the house was gross dirty. M cleaned this morning again for about 30 minutes extra cleaning other people’s mess. I am totally in favor of leaving a place better then when you arrived, but there is a limit to the madness. So once again, if you are ever in Åsa Sweden, do not stay at the Åsa Youth Hostel.

Today was our most different day of the trip. Pretty much the entire trip has been planned for outdoor activities. With the only exception to that rule is today. Today was our Gothenburg day. Since one of our first visits to Gothenburg, I have wanted to go to the Universeum. It is a kind of science center/zoo/aquarium all indoors. It is located next door to the World Heritage Museum (talk about that in a minute) and next to Liseberg (a Swedish amusement park).

It has five floors. The top floor is the Swedish nature area. It has what is in the Swedish lakes and rivers. So they have pikes and perch, along with a couple of birds and amphibians. I was hoping that N would be interested in the fish in the aquariums, but she was more interested in the people walking by. She is such a people person. After the lakes and rivers, you walk to the Swedish west coast. It has the fish that are in the Swedish west coast (the west coast is every Swede’s dream summer house. I must admit that I can understand the appeal of it. I do not see us ever having one, but all the same). One type of fish that they had was the flat fish and that actually swims horizontal. I had seen them being sold by the fish mongrels, but had never seen one swim. That lead perfectly to the ocean section- namely the sharks. Sharks are just amazing to look at. One of them looked so mean, all three rows of teeth. My favorite was the saw fish. He was way cool. I am like a little kid when it comes to animals. Once we were out of the sea, you walk into the rainforest. You get hit by the difference in temperature. They have set it up where you walk the rainforest out. They have lots of birds just flying around, but also lizards, snakes, monkeys and crocodiles (some in cages and others roaming freely). The final little bit had parrots, tortoises and a large anaconda.

The other section of Universeum was the hands on activity centre for kids. M and I did some one them on the first floor. It was how the human body worked and physics. For example, they had a (fake) human intestine stretched out that you could run a ping pong ball through. It also did a measurement of height using radar. The other floor looked like the more fun floor, but it also had way too many kids on it (imagine that, kids at a place like that). It was the sports floor, where one did running, virtual soccer, rock climbing and even kayaking. I have to mention the shop, where amazingly enough we did not buy a single thing. Lots of cool stuff in there that I wanted, I am sure that kids would have really wanted. N liked the stuffed animals, like she usually does.

One last thing about Universeum, and it has to do with pee. When we first arrived, I went to the restroom. They had the interesting toilets where the toilet was divided into two sections- the back section for poop and the front section for just liquids. The signs for this type of toilet always make me laugh. Anyway, they recycle the pee in the different toilets and use it for the water in the rainforest. In fact, you can actually see the process at the very start of the rainforest. One is a little torn when you hear it, but also when you see the process. It is cool, but also a little gross.

We mentioned the World Heritage Museum earlier. M and I have been there before and today we took our fika there. This is a new museum in Sweden, it opened in 2005. It is supposed to capture the spirit and the individuality of different cultures. It is very modern and I love the way some of the items are displayed, especially the items in the Africa display. The one thing that they have done, which is a big no no in museums, is to use some stereotypes of African women and South American Amazonian women. Both of them are shown as bare breasted. This is a very bad stereotype which should be avoided, but they seem to play on it in different sections. Otherwise this is an excellent museum that has a great program for kids and a nice café.

The hostel tonight is in Trollhättan. It is fine, nothing spectacular; we knew it would be when we booked it. We are just using it as a resting stop. We may be here a little longer though. We just got a call to advise us that a blizzard is going to hit tonight. What luck we have; first the hurricane and now a blizzard. Maybe we will have an earthquake before we get back to Uppsala. I guess if we got stuck here, we can find something to do. The Göta Canal runs through the town and it is known as the Hollywood of Sweden. If Nicole Kidman can stay here for three months, we can an extra night.