Reseller Meeting in Vienna
Went on a business/leisure trip to Vienna for 4 days. Left on Wednesday and spent most of the day flying if you can believe that. Chris had the same flight as me so we were travel buddies. Man is he a terrible traveler. Doesn’t want to wait for anything, hates sitting around the airport, whine whine whine. The man needs to chill out. It was cool though, we had some small travel issues along the way, which he blamed me for all of them.
Once in Vienna and at the hotel we met up with Mr. Campbell and walked to an Italian restaurant called Maria Rosa and had a late dinner. Good food, ended up eating there a few times during the trip. The business part of the trip was us hosting an EMEA Reseller meeting from Thursday- Friday. That part of the trip went well. Everyone I met was very nice. Went out for dinner Thursday night with everyone, which was cool, got to hang out in a more relaxed environment and get to know everyone. Granted, not like this was a very formal meeting to begin with, but still. Made me less nervous when it was my turn to present in front of everyone.
The weather was muggy and humid. Luckily the conference room was cool in the morning but around noon it too became warm. The food was also good, nothing too strange. Had some Wienerschnitzle, and other dishes consisting of meat and either rice or potatoes. Gelato was all over the place and very delicious! The best kind of ice cream I have only found in Europe. First was Lagnesse ice cream in Germany, very creamy and smooth, then Magnum ice cream in England (I am sure it exists in other countries too), and the Gelato in Vienna was awesome.
On Friday afternoon my Grandma Luise took the train from Salzburg over to Vienna to spend the weekend with me. After finishing with the meetings and a bit of work, met her upstairs and then we joined the boys (Chris, Dave, and David) for dinner. We all had a really fun time. Omi was chattering away with everyone, talking golf, politics, religion, travel, etc. with everyone. Saturday morning Omi and I went on a bus tour of Vienna, which included a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace. It was very impressive, the wooden floor patterns beautiful, rooms extravagantly decorated. Some woman got all pissy because I took a picture of one of the wooden floor patterns with my camera and you aren’t supposed to take pictures inside. Okay I have respect for history and keeping it preserved and all that, and usually the reason they don’t want you taking pictures is because the flash can ruin things. I had the flash off and it was a wooden floor. Whatever, even Omi thought she was being silly.
The gardens at Schonbrunn had to be the most amazing part of this place. It spanned across a huge area 10x the area of the palace itself, and had numerous fountains, a labyrinth, zoo, greenhouse- would take a whole day to probably explore it in its entirety. On the tour we did not have time to explore the gardens, so Omi and I made a note to return on Sunday. After the bus tour, we wandered around the city centre to do a little shopping, since we found out all shops would be closed on Sunday (darn Europeans…). Didn’t get much, pretty much felt that I could get everything I saw back in Bristol.
We did hit up this open-air market, which had lots of yummie smelling food. As we walked past all the food stands I was looking for some exotic, spicy peppers or chilies to get for Alex since he loves spicy stuff. But everything I saw was stuff I could get back in Bristol, again. When we got back to the hotel we started writing our post cards and then I crashed for about 2 hours. Woke up about 8pm-ish and headed out for dinner. I attempted to guide us towards the river where I had seen lots of nice looking cafes and restaurants when Chris and I were coming in to town via the taxi earlier in the week, but my navigation skills were poor that night, and I couldn’t figure out where it was, then on turning around and going back to the area of our hotel, we didn’t take a turn and ended up even further away from our hotel and more downtown. It was nearly 10pm at this point, and most places were closed.
We just turned around and went back to the hotel and decided to check on the Italian place near the hotel and luckily they are open until midnight serving food- yay. Had another pizza from them, yummie and then we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. Sunday we had an early start because I wanted to explore more of the Schonbrunn gardens, then check out the Belvedere Palace and Exhibition, tour St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and grab lunch, then Omi would have to leave to catch her train at quarter to three. The gardens at Schonbrunn were amazing, way too big for us to explore in only 2 hours. We first went and found the labyrinth and went through that which was fun.
After exploring a little more of the gardens we went to the Belvedere palace and walked through the art galleries. Normally I am not big on art galleries, don’t know why but they usually bore me. So I was quite happy to find that these art works interested me and I got to see Omi’s favorite artist, Klimt, and he had some really nice pieces, then I discovered a new favorite of mine, Wolkmuller (I think). He had some great pieces. From the Belvedere went back towards the Opera at the city centre, and decided to eat lunch, then headed to St. Stephen’s. Was surprised that I could take pictures inside, most churches usually say no.
Then we headed back to the hotel, Omi packed up the last of her stuff and after saying goodbye, tried to sort out the rest of my afternoon. I discovered there was a Lichtenstein Museum and my friend Dan had asked me to try and find Switzerland and Lichtenstein badge/patches for him. But by the time I got there it was already closed. I walked most of the way back towards the city centre, passing by a bunch of museums, parliament, Hofburg Palace and took pictures of those places. Back at the city centre I headed towards this park where there supposedly was this “Summer in the City’ where they had food stands and drinks, outdoor activities, music, etc. Was counting on that place to be my source of dinner, and was really bummed to arrive at the park and it didn’t have any traces of the “Summer in the City” thing.
It was getting late at this point and being a Sunday I knew I had to find a place to eat dinner soon, otherwise I would end up eating at the Italian place again. Ended up back around St. Stephen’s and ate dinner at this strange place where the food was served cafeteria style. After this I went back to the hotel, started packing, got myself an ice cream (hehe), then went to bed. Was up at 5am-ish, showered, finished packing and was downstairs by 6:30am, had breakfast and then caught a cab at 7am, arrived at the airport. Check-in was really quick, and the nifty thing about Vienna airport is they don’t have a big security check area, they have mini-security stations at each gate. So as I am waiting in the airport, I pull out the laptop figuring I can do some work offline, but then my wireless picks up on a signal from the airport- sweet! So I am checking emails, getting stuff done, then it’s time to board the plane. We get a slightly late start, which worries me because my connecting flight in Amsterdam leaves less than an hour after the supposed landing time of this flight. Once we land in Amsterdam, I make a dash out to towards my gate and luckily make it to the gate with a bit of time to spare, they were also running late.
Flight home was easy, in Bristol caught the AirLink bus back home. Was nice to be home, and I was happy I took the day off so I didn’t have to worry about getting online or anything. Unpacked, did laundry, grocery shopping, went to the gym for a bit, then tried to upload pictures from the trip only to find that the Internet was down. We tried to fix it numerous times but to no avail. Stayed up as late as I could (because I have realized I only need 5 hours of sleep to function) then headed off to bed.
Once in Vienna and at the hotel we met up with Mr. Campbell and walked to an Italian restaurant called Maria Rosa and had a late dinner. Good food, ended up eating there a few times during the trip. The business part of the trip was us hosting an EMEA Reseller meeting from Thursday- Friday. That part of the trip went well. Everyone I met was very nice. Went out for dinner Thursday night with everyone, which was cool, got to hang out in a more relaxed environment and get to know everyone. Granted, not like this was a very formal meeting to begin with, but still. Made me less nervous when it was my turn to present in front of everyone.
The weather was muggy and humid. Luckily the conference room was cool in the morning but around noon it too became warm. The food was also good, nothing too strange. Had some Wienerschnitzle, and other dishes consisting of meat and either rice or potatoes. Gelato was all over the place and very delicious! The best kind of ice cream I have only found in Europe. First was Lagnesse ice cream in Germany, very creamy and smooth, then Magnum ice cream in England (I am sure it exists in other countries too), and the Gelato in Vienna was awesome.
On Friday afternoon my Grandma Luise took the train from Salzburg over to Vienna to spend the weekend with me. After finishing with the meetings and a bit of work, met her upstairs and then we joined the boys (Chris, Dave, and David) for dinner. We all had a really fun time. Omi was chattering away with everyone, talking golf, politics, religion, travel, etc. with everyone. Saturday morning Omi and I went on a bus tour of Vienna, which included a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace. It was very impressive, the wooden floor patterns beautiful, rooms extravagantly decorated. Some woman got all pissy because I took a picture of one of the wooden floor patterns with my camera and you aren’t supposed to take pictures inside. Okay I have respect for history and keeping it preserved and all that, and usually the reason they don’t want you taking pictures is because the flash can ruin things. I had the flash off and it was a wooden floor. Whatever, even Omi thought she was being silly.
The gardens at Schonbrunn had to be the most amazing part of this place. It spanned across a huge area 10x the area of the palace itself, and had numerous fountains, a labyrinth, zoo, greenhouse- would take a whole day to probably explore it in its entirety. On the tour we did not have time to explore the gardens, so Omi and I made a note to return on Sunday. After the bus tour, we wandered around the city centre to do a little shopping, since we found out all shops would be closed on Sunday (darn Europeans…). Didn’t get much, pretty much felt that I could get everything I saw back in Bristol.
We did hit up this open-air market, which had lots of yummie smelling food. As we walked past all the food stands I was looking for some exotic, spicy peppers or chilies to get for Alex since he loves spicy stuff. But everything I saw was stuff I could get back in Bristol, again. When we got back to the hotel we started writing our post cards and then I crashed for about 2 hours. Woke up about 8pm-ish and headed out for dinner. I attempted to guide us towards the river where I had seen lots of nice looking cafes and restaurants when Chris and I were coming in to town via the taxi earlier in the week, but my navigation skills were poor that night, and I couldn’t figure out where it was, then on turning around and going back to the area of our hotel, we didn’t take a turn and ended up even further away from our hotel and more downtown. It was nearly 10pm at this point, and most places were closed.
We just turned around and went back to the hotel and decided to check on the Italian place near the hotel and luckily they are open until midnight serving food- yay. Had another pizza from them, yummie and then we headed back to the hotel and went to bed. Sunday we had an early start because I wanted to explore more of the Schonbrunn gardens, then check out the Belvedere Palace and Exhibition, tour St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and grab lunch, then Omi would have to leave to catch her train at quarter to three. The gardens at Schonbrunn were amazing, way too big for us to explore in only 2 hours. We first went and found the labyrinth and went through that which was fun.
After exploring a little more of the gardens we went to the Belvedere palace and walked through the art galleries. Normally I am not big on art galleries, don’t know why but they usually bore me. So I was quite happy to find that these art works interested me and I got to see Omi’s favorite artist, Klimt, and he had some really nice pieces, then I discovered a new favorite of mine, Wolkmuller (I think). He had some great pieces. From the Belvedere went back towards the Opera at the city centre, and decided to eat lunch, then headed to St. Stephen’s. Was surprised that I could take pictures inside, most churches usually say no.
Then we headed back to the hotel, Omi packed up the last of her stuff and after saying goodbye, tried to sort out the rest of my afternoon. I discovered there was a Lichtenstein Museum and my friend Dan had asked me to try and find Switzerland and Lichtenstein badge/patches for him. But by the time I got there it was already closed. I walked most of the way back towards the city centre, passing by a bunch of museums, parliament, Hofburg Palace and took pictures of those places. Back at the city centre I headed towards this park where there supposedly was this “Summer in the City’ where they had food stands and drinks, outdoor activities, music, etc. Was counting on that place to be my source of dinner, and was really bummed to arrive at the park and it didn’t have any traces of the “Summer in the City” thing.
It was getting late at this point and being a Sunday I knew I had to find a place to eat dinner soon, otherwise I would end up eating at the Italian place again. Ended up back around St. Stephen’s and ate dinner at this strange place where the food was served cafeteria style. After this I went back to the hotel, started packing, got myself an ice cream (hehe), then went to bed. Was up at 5am-ish, showered, finished packing and was downstairs by 6:30am, had breakfast and then caught a cab at 7am, arrived at the airport. Check-in was really quick, and the nifty thing about Vienna airport is they don’t have a big security check area, they have mini-security stations at each gate. So as I am waiting in the airport, I pull out the laptop figuring I can do some work offline, but then my wireless picks up on a signal from the airport- sweet! So I am checking emails, getting stuff done, then it’s time to board the plane. We get a slightly late start, which worries me because my connecting flight in Amsterdam leaves less than an hour after the supposed landing time of this flight. Once we land in Amsterdam, I make a dash out to towards my gate and luckily make it to the gate with a bit of time to spare, they were also running late.
Flight home was easy, in Bristol caught the AirLink bus back home. Was nice to be home, and I was happy I took the day off so I didn’t have to worry about getting online or anything. Unpacked, did laundry, grocery shopping, went to the gym for a bit, then tried to upload pictures from the trip only to find that the Internet was down. We tried to fix it numerous times but to no avail. Stayed up as late as I could (because I have realized I only need 5 hours of sleep to function) then headed off to bed.
posted by Triana @ 2:49 AM
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