Spring Time In Sweden for DnM
Thank God, winter is finally over. The family took a little bike ride today since the weather has been so nice. While biking around, we saw tussilagos (little yellow flowers, no idea the name of them in English). That means that it is officially spring in Sweden!!!
Other signs it is spring in Sweden:
Ever kitchen table in Sweden has tulips on it
Families have birch branches with feathers tied to the end of them
And every Swede is looking up to the sky when they are in the sun
(wondering what the warn orange thing in the sky is)
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Sitting here on a rainy day
Well it is raining outside and I am to lazy to put on my raingear to go outside. How sad is that? It is ok, I really do not have the energy or the desire to do anything. I really do not even have the desire to read something. So all it does is allow the mind to wonder. Like normal, the mind wanders to travel.
Today it is about where I would like to travel this year. Thus far this year I have not done any traveling (not counting the one trip to Gibraltar for work). That is a new record for M and I. So my list is actually quite long. It is normally long, which is ok. In reality, like usual, the majority of them will not happen.
Here are the ones that will more then likely happen:
Texas to visit the folks
We made a separate list of things that we would like to do in Texas and all of these things will not happen. We are not going to have enough time to do it all. Though, even if we had the time to do it all, we still would not “want” to do it with two kids under 2.
Östersund to visit a couple of friends
They just had their first child, so it should be fun. We are taking the train, 10 hours. We will see how N does.
Wedding in Northern Sweden
A nice long weekend. One of M’s friends is getting married, a nice weekend away.
Åland with the in laws
Sadly I will miss most of this one, since I have to work and it will be the last week before I take Parent Time Off, but M and kids will be there the entire time.
Work Trips
These are always a bit up in the air, but it looks like I will be going to Moscow for a couple of days, Cape Town for a week, Vienna and a Athens.
The rest of just dream trips. You know the type, the ones that are fun to think about on a rainy nasty, stay inside with a cup of tea. The big one though is M’s 30th birthday is in January next year.
Well it is raining outside and I am to lazy to put on my raingear to go outside. How sad is that? It is ok, I really do not have the energy or the desire to do anything. I really do not even have the desire to read something. So all it does is allow the mind to wonder. Like normal, the mind wanders to travel.
Today it is about where I would like to travel this year. Thus far this year I have not done any traveling (not counting the one trip to Gibraltar for work). That is a new record for M and I. So my list is actually quite long. It is normally long, which is ok. In reality, like usual, the majority of them will not happen.
Here are the ones that will more then likely happen:
Texas to visit the folks
We made a separate list of things that we would like to do in Texas and all of these things will not happen. We are not going to have enough time to do it all. Though, even if we had the time to do it all, we still would not “want” to do it with two kids under 2.
Östersund to visit a couple of friends
They just had their first child, so it should be fun. We are taking the train, 10 hours. We will see how N does.
Wedding in Northern Sweden
A nice long weekend. One of M’s friends is getting married, a nice weekend away.
Åland with the in laws
Sadly I will miss most of this one, since I have to work and it will be the last week before I take Parent Time Off, but M and kids will be there the entire time.
Work Trips
These are always a bit up in the air, but it looks like I will be going to Moscow for a couple of days, Cape Town for a week, Vienna and a Athens.
The rest of just dream trips. You know the type, the ones that are fun to think about on a rainy nasty, stay inside with a cup of tea. The big one though is M’s 30th birthday is in January next year.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Eating ones way through Vienna
One thing has been for sure on this trip to Vienna, I will not be losing any weight. In fact, I would be shocked if I did not gain some weight. We have eaten so much food the previous 6 days. Some of it has been traditional Viennese food and some has not been. It is not M and my style to eat out so often. In fact, even when I go on these business trips, I will usually just eat some “street” for or stop by a grocery store. This week, since N is with us, we have to eat out to ensure that she gets enough food.
I guess we should divide this into different categories, to make it a little easier to read. Otherwise I would go from day to day. I guess we should start covering the street venders, which being Christmas time there are extra many of them. Then we will cover with the most traditional- Viennese food. Then finally we have to cover everything else.
I am not sure if this would actually be categorized as Viennese food or not, but from my observation they will be- chestnuts roasted over an open fire (Jack Frost nipping at your nose). Just about every other street corner had a chestnut proprietor. We found our favorite on the corner of Schottenring and Schottengasse. They were always fresh and were just about the least expensive ones we found. I think that over a period of 8 days, we had them 4 times, that is how good they are. The other street Viennese food we had was sausages from a street salesman. It was not until the last full day that I finally got my sausage. If M and N did not come, I would have ate one every single day for dinner (and saved a small fortune).
We actually only ate at one traditional Viennese restaurant. Still located in the city centre, but off of Am Hof square, Brezlg’wölb (1, Ledererhof 9) is an excellent choice for good food and phenomenal atmosphere (sadly the service was below sub-par at best). M had the weinerschnitzal and I had the dumplings. The dumplings were good, but the weinerschnitzal was fabulous. Yes, I was totally jealous of M and wished that I had ordered it myself.
A couple of nights later we went to an Austrian pancake house called Palatschinkenkuchl (1, Köllnerhofgasse 4). The place was small and cozy. The waitress was very helpful, even though she did not understand my German, but then again no one understands my German. The pancakes are not the traditional American or French style of pancakes, but more like an oven pancake which has been cut into little strips called kaiserschmarren. Then they are covered with powered sugar and preserved fruit. M had apples and I had plums, both of which were good.
Ironically M and I ate mainly at Italian places. N loves pasta, it is by bar her favorite type of food. She will eat almost anything, as long as pasta is included. The first night we ate at a little place behind the Börse- which was really bad. It looked bad before we ever went in, but thought that we would give it a try anyway. The other nights we went to a place closer to the hotel. Both of which were good, but not really worth mentioning. The other nights we had Japanese takeout from Mr. Wongs. It will never get a Michelin Star, but not a bad option. M has a favorite lunch option called Salado on Währinger Strasse- very kid friendly and reasonably priced. In fact, they thought that N was so cute, that they gave her a little treat.
With all that mentioned, how could we add anything. Well, we are missing one very important thing- the sweets. Vienna is known for their café life. We had several sweet breads from the different Christmas markets. M had a donut with cream filling. They filled the vanilla cream when she ordered it. They filled it up so much that the cream shot out of the donut the other side. I had a pretzel with coconut topping- different. The crème de la crème though was a visit to the Demel. This is one of the oldest cafés in Vienna and one of the upper class ones. I had a snowball and M had apple strudel. Of course we had coffee to go with it. What a café culture, with about 20 different types of coffee- putting Starbucks to shame (plus if you have kids and a stroller, they have an elevator that you can take, though it is a little difficult to find).
When one comes to Vienna, food is not the first thing one would think of. I personally would think more on the alcohol side then the food side, but the everyone has several options in all price ranges.
One thing has been for sure on this trip to Vienna, I will not be losing any weight. In fact, I would be shocked if I did not gain some weight. We have eaten so much food the previous 6 days. Some of it has been traditional Viennese food and some has not been. It is not M and my style to eat out so often. In fact, even when I go on these business trips, I will usually just eat some “street” for or stop by a grocery store. This week, since N is with us, we have to eat out to ensure that she gets enough food.
I guess we should divide this into different categories, to make it a little easier to read. Otherwise I would go from day to day. I guess we should start covering the street venders, which being Christmas time there are extra many of them. Then we will cover with the most traditional- Viennese food. Then finally we have to cover everything else.
I am not sure if this would actually be categorized as Viennese food or not, but from my observation they will be- chestnuts roasted over an open fire (Jack Frost nipping at your nose). Just about every other street corner had a chestnut proprietor. We found our favorite on the corner of Schottenring and Schottengasse. They were always fresh and were just about the least expensive ones we found. I think that over a period of 8 days, we had them 4 times, that is how good they are. The other street Viennese food we had was sausages from a street salesman. It was not until the last full day that I finally got my sausage. If M and N did not come, I would have ate one every single day for dinner (and saved a small fortune).
We actually only ate at one traditional Viennese restaurant. Still located in the city centre, but off of Am Hof square, Brezlg’wölb (1, Ledererhof 9) is an excellent choice for good food and phenomenal atmosphere (sadly the service was below sub-par at best). M had the weinerschnitzal and I had the dumplings. The dumplings were good, but the weinerschnitzal was fabulous. Yes, I was totally jealous of M and wished that I had ordered it myself.
A couple of nights later we went to an Austrian pancake house called Palatschinkenkuchl (1, Köllnerhofgasse 4). The place was small and cozy. The waitress was very helpful, even though she did not understand my German, but then again no one understands my German. The pancakes are not the traditional American or French style of pancakes, but more like an oven pancake which has been cut into little strips called kaiserschmarren. Then they are covered with powered sugar and preserved fruit. M had apples and I had plums, both of which were good.
Ironically M and I ate mainly at Italian places. N loves pasta, it is by bar her favorite type of food. She will eat almost anything, as long as pasta is included. The first night we ate at a little place behind the Börse- which was really bad. It looked bad before we ever went in, but thought that we would give it a try anyway. The other nights we went to a place closer to the hotel. Both of which were good, but not really worth mentioning. The other nights we had Japanese takeout from Mr. Wongs. It will never get a Michelin Star, but not a bad option. M has a favorite lunch option called Salado on Währinger Strasse- very kid friendly and reasonably priced. In fact, they thought that N was so cute, that they gave her a little treat.
With all that mentioned, how could we add anything. Well, we are missing one very important thing- the sweets. Vienna is known for their café life. We had several sweet breads from the different Christmas markets. M had a donut with cream filling. They filled the vanilla cream when she ordered it. They filled it up so much that the cream shot out of the donut the other side. I had a pretzel with coconut topping- different. The crème de la crème though was a visit to the Demel. This is one of the oldest cafés in Vienna and one of the upper class ones. I had a snowball and M had apple strudel. Of course we had coffee to go with it. What a café culture, with about 20 different types of coffee- putting Starbucks to shame (plus if you have kids and a stroller, they have an elevator that you can take, though it is a little difficult to find).
When one comes to Vienna, food is not the first thing one would think of. I personally would think more on the alcohol side then the food side, but the everyone has several options in all price ranges.
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