Third Week

As I mentioned before, this is my life now. My family and I live in Vienna, Austria. That's starting to settle it. It's no longer strange for me to hear everyone around me speaking in German, though I still don't understand it all. I'm getting used to walking into the stores and seeing the things I see. I actually know where to find certain things in the various stores now and know what I can and can't expect to find in general. It's an interesting transition, slipping into another culture. It gives me a much greater appreciation for immigrants to our own country.

Montag 24. März

Very much a normal day: school for the kids in the morning (and I, as one of the teachers) with Rebecca working. I also allowed myself to sleep-in and did my run workout in the late afternoon. It was another one of those, "Wow!" type workouts. Incredibly hard work, but also I was surprised at how "easy" it was, if that makes any sense at all. I don't know if I've ever pushed myself as hard as I was on some of those intervals. It was great to bust through them. More positive re-enforcement for the Boston training.

Dienstag 25. März

Another normal day, with a couple of exceptions. To prepare Aaron for the potential of needing to get home after school on his own, Rebecca and I "tested" him. We showed up at school and didn't talk to him and had him lead us home. We'd discussed this before school, during breakfast, so he knew it was coming. He did great. There was one slight confusion when we "paused" the "test" to stop in at a store. He wanted to go the wrong way after we left the store, but I'm not too concerned. He's really learned his environment well and knows how to navigate the transportation system. Pretty amazing!

Also, later in the afternoon, Rebecca left for a two day trip to Klagenfurt, which is a two hour train ride southwest of here. She got in a great walk and talk with Anson (outside!) and had some snuggle time with Aaron before he and I walked her down to the U-bahn station. Aaron got a bit sad when she got on the train, but was otherwise fine. He and I stopped at a nice Bäckerei (bakery) and got some Süßespeise (sweet treats) to help "console" the three of us and that seemed to work just fine. :-)

Mittwoch 26. März

No poop here!

OK, a bit more about poop. And cigarettes. I mentioned the special signs for dog owners to pick up their poop. Well, here's another version. I snapped this picture in the morning after having dropped Aaron off at school. It's on the side of the S-bahn stelle (stop). You see one of the actual disposal units in question in the left of the picture. I have to be honest, I'm not sure if the "Nicht aufpudeln, aufräumen," means, "Don't leave the poodle poop -- clean it up!" or if it means, "Don't put poodle poop in here, just clean-up (regular stuff)." The words on the cartoon trash can say, "Bau keinen Mist," which, translated directly and literally, means "build not poop (manure)." So, does all of this mean, "don't put poop" in the trash? Or does it mean, "don't let the poop build-up?" 

Those special trash canisters are all over the place. You notice that the "chimney" like thing on the right of it looks like the filter end of a cigarette. That's a special place where smokers can snub out their

Keep the city clean

cigarette and then dispose of it (conical interior surface with a hole in the middle at the bottom). There are a lot of smokers here. Way more than I'm used to seeing in the States. I'm not sure about the rest of the country, but seeing a smoker in Minnesota is rare. I see it on the University campus, but I attribute that to the broad diversity of students. Here, we've seen middle schoolers up through 80 year olds smoking. There are cigarette butts in the gutters. If you're in a group of people, someone is likely smoking. It's very, very strange to me. However, as I said, these special trash cans are everywhere and, in spite of seeing butts in the gutters, the city is unbelievably clean! 

The words on the trash can to the right, "Schau net weg," are, I think, "Show the way," or "demonstrate," or "do the right thing." The next line is tougher: "Hau eine dein' Dreck!" "Hau" is used as part of "Go away!," "Get off!," or other, more vulgar phrases like that. "Dreck," by itself, is "filth, mud, muck, soil, grime." I think it means, "leave your filth." So, putting it together, "show the way, leave your filth," or "put your trash here." :-) The dog in the middle is holding a sign that has a little ditty (rhyme), "Nimm ein Sackerl für mein Gackerl." It means, "bring a sack for my ????" I'm guessing Gackerl is a "cute" word for poop, but I don't see any evidence of it in the dictionary app we use, which has a lot of otherwise vulgar and slang terms.

No dogs allowed!

One last thing on poop. Here's an older sign that's in the lawn in front of our apartment complex. It basically reads, "No dogs allowed" ("I may not enter"), yet it still focuses on the poop. That's their real concern. That and the fact that the owner might not pick it up. All right, enough about the poop and the cigarettes. They were just so much "in my face," that I thought I'd comment on them.

Aaron at the Straßenbahn (S-bahn) Haltestelle (stop)

Another thing that happened on Wednesday of
note is that Aaron had another "test" of going home on his own. Again, I showed up at school and then just stood there silently while he lead the way home. The picture is of the Straßenbahn Haltestelle that he waits at (and is the other side of the stop I took a picture of above). There's an S-bahn coming from the other direction as well. The yellow building across the street is the Chinese restaurant we ate at last week. His school is down the road off the left. If you look carefully, you can see him sitting there in the Haltestelle, with his red hoodie draped over his knees (you can always click any picture to make it bigger <-- that's for you, Mom!). He did great, again and I think he's going to be fine navigating home on his own.

Finally, the kids and I went out to eat at an Italian / Pizza restaurant tonight for dinner. We did it all on our own, without Rebecca there to help back us up with language skills. The place is just past the S-bahn stop that Aaron uses everyday (getting on in the morning and off in the afternoon), so it wasn't far to walk. We all had pizza and drinks and had a great time, talking mostly about video games, something Anson loves, and Aaron, the aspiring little brother, really wants to learn about. I'm just there to ask questions so they can talk and talk and talk, mostly between themselves. It was a fun evening and a good, successful, test for me being able to do things here on my own. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but there's actually a lot you have to negotiate!

Donnerstag 27. März

I found out that I should have my Boston Marathon bib number and starting wave and corral via email this morning. I'd received an email from them while I was still in the States asking us to verify our mailing addresses so they could postal mail us this information, along with a "bib number claim card," that I would need to get checked-in and receive my bib (required to run the race) in Boston. They, of course, had my U.S. address, which is what I used when I registered. I changed the address to here in Wien and hoped they'd actually mail the stuff here and that I'd actually get it. I've checked the mail almost daily here and haven't seen it yet. I think their email this morning was timed so that most folks in the U.S. would have gotten their materials already. I'm hoping mine is coming soon! I was able to find myself as a registered runner using the BAA website. I've got a cool number: 9696! However, I learned that, while I'm in corral one, of nine, I didn't make the first wave of runners -- I'm in wave two, of four. Being in wave one would have meant I was in the top 25% of runners (based on qualifying times). I guess this shouldn't surprise me as I'm not really a runner and this will be only the fourth stand-alone marathon I'll have ever run. Nice that I'll be out front in wave two, though. 

I gave Aaron another "test" of coming home on his own today. I'd told him I wasn't coming and that he'd really have to do this one on his own. In reality, I was there, hiding, and following him home, just to make sure. It turns out I was ultimately foiled in this plan by random chance: one of his friends called out to him and he turned around and not only saw his friend, but me as well. I was a good 100 meters behind him and immediately dropped to "tie my shoe," but he'd seen me. So, I "revealed" myself to him at the train station -- I knew he was fine getting home from there. I feel very confident that Aaron can get himself home after school at this point, which is comforting. I still had him use his own keys and get through the various doors to get into the apartment. He actually entered before me and pretended he hadn't seen me as he was talking with Anson. I then came in a few minutes later, as I'd planned with Anson before-hand, pretending I'd been out for errands. He and I had a bet: Anson thought for sure Aaron would see me, but I wanted to "play it out," and have Anson think otherwise. In the end, I told him the truth and, of course, he was all, "I told you so!" about it. It was fun all around!

Later that afternoon I did my run workout. It was hard and I basically failed the prescribed workout ... sort of. I made the first half, but not the second. It wasn't nearly as good as the nice cruise run I had last week, unfortunately. Lessons were learned though, so that's what counts.

That night, Rebecca returned to Wien from her trip in Klagenfurt. Aaron and I went down to the U-bahn station and met her when she got off the train. He was pretty excited to see her, as was I. It was a bit weird with her being gone. It reminded me, somewhat, of when the kids and I were back in the States after Rebecca left. However, this time we were here, in Austria, a foreign country (to me) and was still on my own with the kids. Not an issue at all, but it was a pretty surreal kind of feeling.

Freitag 28. März

Rebecca at work in the sun porch

The morning was normal, though just before lunch Rebecca, Anson, and I left for an appointment across town. This was the real test for Aaron coming home from school on his own and he did just fine. After we were back we all basically hung out for the afternoon before Anson was in charge of our Freitag Familie Frühlich Fest. He, not surprisingly, chose pizza (order from our favorite place) and a movie (several episodes of the "Attack of the Clones" cartoon series now available on Netflix). 

Samstag 29. März

I was up early and out for my last long run before Boston. I've still got three weeks of training, but I'll not run that far again until the race itself. It was a harder run than I thought it was going to be, or should have been, though I was fine when I was home. After some recovery drink, a shower, and a quick bite to eat, Rebecca, Aaron, and I headed down into "town" and stopped in at the "mall" to pickup some school supplies and "Haus Schuhe" (indoor shoes) for Aaron to take to school. We also stopped and had a nice Süßspeise (sweet treat) at a Bäckerei. After that, Rebecca took the train into work (she had a doctoral seminar to give until the evening). Aaron and I walked home and we had lunch with Anson, then we all just hung-out. Aaron wound up heading outside to play with some of his friends from the apartment complex for much of the afternoon and into the evening.

Heiliger Franz von Assisi Kirche

Rebecca came home and we had a nice supper and then she suggested that she and I head into town for the evening. I was tired, but very much up for it. After supper we had a nice video chat with my in-laws, who will be visiting us the end of May and early June, then we got the kids settled and headed into town! We took the U-bahn to near the center of town and then walked, and walked, ... and walked some more! We were all over the place! I was able to show her the Prater, where Aaron and I had such a great time. We walked to the Donau Fluss (Danube River). On our way "back," we saw this beautiful church. It's a catholic church, the "Heiliger Franz von Assisi/Jubiläumskirche" (St. Francis of Assisi Jubilee Church). It was absolutely beautiful and is quite large. We walked right up to it and managed to find the sign indicating what it was.

After the church, we walked back down to the center of town, Stephansplatz. We found a nice outdoor restaurant, the Cafe de l'Europe that had an excellent view of the church (click the link to see the outdoor seating area and our view). We got there two minutes before they stopped taking orders, so we quickly asked for an appetizer plate, a nice Edelweiss hefetrüb bier (wheat beer), and a club sandwich. We sat, ate, and talked ... until they started closing the tenting down at midnight. After checking out the church, we headed back to the U-bahn station and made our way home. I think we walked in just before 01:00! Unfortunately, Anson was still up, "waiting for us." We all got set for bed, which didn't take much as we were all pretty tired. It turns out that Saturday night was their Daylight Savings Time switch date, so we basically went to bed just after 02:00 on Sunday morning! It was a really fun evening! Great date. :-)

Sonntag 30. März

We all slept-in a bit and had an easy day. Rebecca and Aaron went out and he "coached" her on another exercise walk / run (they'd done it sometime last week as well) and Anson and I chatted a bit. I fixed a "cold lunch" of some meat, cheeses, crackers, and fruit. Then Rebecca and I did a nice cleaning of the apartment while Aaron played with friends outside. In the mid-afternoon, Rebecca and I went out for an awesome bike ride. I took her on the route I've ridden thus far and we did some additional exploring and found a new way to loop back to home (found a new connection from where we were to the end of the Weinfluss). I think we were out for 1.5 hours and had a really good time, except for the very end when we had to negotiate the people and traffic down by the U-bahn station. After dinner, we watch the third episode of the new Cosmos series and then headed to bed.

General Thoughts

Rebecca and I had a chat sometime this week about what I really wanted to do while we were here. There are certainly places I want to go and see, but my response was, "Well, we live here, there'll be plenty of time." There's a lot wrapped up in that. The fact that we do, indeed, actually live here is still impactful to me. The fact that we'll be here for a still significant amount of time is another. However, I also realize that the time will fly by and that we'll need to be planful to make sure we get in the things we want. Next week starts a fairly busy three weeks with some travel outside Austria (tune in next week to see where!), another trip, and then my flight back for the Boston marathon. Before I know it, it will be May! I'm really having a good time here. 

Week Two

The second week was much like the first in that we were still somewhat settling in: finding where the spatula was in the kitchen, finding the toilet bowl cleaner, figuring out how to buy a new dish rag in a store (hint: they don't carry them in grocery stores like our "super store" mindset in the States would have you think), learning to cook German food, where to recycle plastic bottles, etc. We also found ourselves trying to figure out how to get Anson to engage in things a bit more as we realized that Aaron, Rebecca, and I were often out and about and Anson wasn't always present. He and I have had walks and gone to the store together, but we really want him out in the culture more.

Sontag 16. März

Awesome, incredibly large pizza!

I realized I "covered" this day in the last post, but I had to add something about Sundays in general. That first night we were here, Rebecca ordered a pizza for dinner from a local delivery place (you can even order on-line). She ordered a "family" sized cheese (they call it a Margherita) and one called the Provinciale, which came with "Schinken, Speck, Mais, und Pfefferoni" I know Rebecca knows Schinken is ham and I think she thought the Pfefferoni was pepperoni. She got it so Anson and I would have a "meat" pizza. It turns out that Pfefferoni are pepper, much like banana peppers, but thinner, like a pencil, and long, like 20-30 cms! I also knew, though was surprised to find that Rebecca didn't that Mais is corn. It's an interesting pizza. Unfortunately, I really didn't like the Speck as I found it too undercooked. Couple that with corn on a pizza and it wasn't the best. However, we all liked the cheese pizza. So far, we've ordered one of these beasts every Sunday night and it's a tradition I could see continuing! It's only 13€ (currently about $17.81).

The pizza box is huge. I included some "everyday" objects in the picture for scale. I think the box must be 18 or 19 inches square. The pizza inside doesn't fit! So far, the three we've ordered have all been slightly folded-in on all four sides. They also don't pre-cut the pizza and the people we're renting from must not like it as there's no pizza cutter we can find. So, we use a pair of scissors to cut eight huge slices. There's not much sauce, but there is an awesome garlic smear they use. It's not the best for my Monday morning hard interval runs, but it's a price I'll gladly pay for such a delicious pizza. It's the only thing we've had that tastes just as good as "home." In this case, it might even be better! Their box says "Pizza vom Holzofen," which is a wood-fired pizza. It's really good!

I also needed to include a video of the cool display they had at the Natural History museum. It was two flat video screens, positioned like a table. There was a display of excavated bones and you "applied" various tests to the bones to help determine gender, age, diseases, etc. It was really, really cool!

Montag 17. März

Pick up the poop

Dog poop. I'm not sure why it's such a big deal here, but it is. We've seen it multiple times, on sidewalks, in the boulevard, in the street, etc. However, what I see more of are signs telling dog owners to make sure they pick up the poop or get fined for it. The saying on the sign, "Sind dir Wurst?" basically means, "Doesn't really matter to you?" The 36,- is indicating the fine will be 36€ (currently about $49.32). These signs are everywhere! They're in the boulevards, up against buildings, stuck on fences, ... everywhere. Rebecca and I were on a walk one day and saw three of them around one house's driveway area. I guess they really don't want people letting their dogs poop in their yard. 

The kids and I were talking about it and we're not sure if the signs have come out recently because the poop is a problem (it really is all over), or if people are simply letting their dogs poop and not picking it up more now in defiance of the signs and the potential fee. Regardless, it's an interesting cultural difference. 

Dienstag 18. März

I got out for my first real training ride today! It was fun to finally be back on the bike in a serious training way. However, I really need to figure out where everyone else rides around here. I'm fine with urban riding and can hold my own with traffic. However, ... I am in a foreign country and while I've paid careful attention to how other people ride bikes here, and how the cars respond to them, it's all just a bit different. I feel like it takes me a long time to get "out of town," and there are many stop signs and pedestrian walkways where I need to completely stop and wait. That's a lot of start-stop, both leaving and coming back in. There are some beautiful hills that I can see and I know, from Strava (see segment F, which includes segment A), that there are some really good segments where I can get some incredible climbing training in. These are the trail end of the Alps. I just need to figure out how to get there!

Bikes allowed?

There is an area west of town call the Lainzer Tiergarten. Tiergarten can mean "zoo," but here it means "nature preserve." It sits on a very nice, large hill that I was hoping to ride to the top of. I rode right up to the door and then stopped and stared at the various signs. I saw the one shown here. Clearly it indicates dogs aren't allowed. The other sign leads me to think that bikes are. So, I opened the door and walked my bike through. As soon as I mounted and started rolling forward, a woman stepped out of a gatehouse a little ways inside, and walked straight for me then stopped right in front of my bike. In German, she made it very clear that I wasn't allowed and had to leave immediately. She then walked past me, back to the door, and held it open for me. I only understood about 25% of what she said, but I knew I needed to leave. So, out I went. It was then that I actually snapped this photo. 

If you zoom in, you'll see that it says these are "Aufgrund der Besucherordnung ist verboten." I knew this meant it was the "rules" and what was "forbidden." I didn't take enough time scanning it to see the line that says, "das Mitnehmen und Benutzen von Fahrrädern, ..." which basically says,  "taking or using bicycles." I don't know if they have bikes in the preserve for rent, but they certainly don't want you using one. I'll have to figure out how to get to those other hills!

Mitwoch 19. März

Wednesday was a normal-ish day with Aaron at school, Anson and I doing home schooling and Rebecca in the office doing her work. She was home for the afternoon and took Aaron to the Music Museum where they had a fantastic time. Aaron got to "virtually" conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and did well enough to get a large round of applause at the end.

Donnerstag 20. März

Thursday was also a normal morning, then Rebecca went in to get Aaron, while I waited for Anson to shower, then he and I took the Straßenbahn to where we'd normally get off for Aaron's school stop. We then waited for Rebecca and Aaron and had a great Chinese buffet lunch at the restaurant right there on the corner. The food and conversation were good and then Rebecca and I took a big step and let Anson and Aaron go home on their own! I'd given Anson my phone, just in case, and keys and they managed to get home just fine. They took the Straßenbahn, got off at the right stop, and then walked home without incident. Rebecca texted at one point and Anson responded with, "I'll be baaaack!" Appropriate, I guess, since Arnold was Austrian. 

That evening, I got out for a run, having missed my Tuesday run to a bike ride and not getting up early enough in the morning. It was an incredible, break-through sort of run! Everything just came together: perfect weather, the beautiful setting sun, the "feel" of the run, etc. and I just went with it. Looking back on it, it's perfect timing for such a run and lets me know that my Boston training is likely working and going well. I hope to have more like it in the remaining month before the marathon. 

Freitag 21. März

Aaron on the new ferris wheel with the old on in the background

Friday morning was again "normal." That afternoon and evening, for our FFFF (Freitag Familien Fröhlich Fest), I had planned to go to the Prater, the site of the oldest known "amusement park" in the world. They have a ferris wheel built in 1897! Aaron and I (Rebecca and Anson stayed home) took the U-bahn there (15 stops and one transfer) and wound up having a fantastic time. We rode a more modern ferris wheel, banged into each other with bumper cars (which go faster and last longer than in the States), rode a kid-version roller coaster, had "burgers" (again, they aren't quite like burgers in the States) for dinner, went through a fun house, ate cotton candy, shot targets, and generally had a fantastic, fun time together. 

Selfie with the new ferris wheel behind us

The place is really huge. Think of your local state or county fair and then add sections to it. The whole place was fairly equally mixed with food, carnival type games, rides, fun houses, etc. so you didn't need to go to a specific place for rides, another for food, etc. There were certain rides, like the old ferris wheel and a new swing that, at 117 meters high, is the tallest in the world, that were clear "destinations," but really you could have fun in just about any area of the place you wanted to. By the way, about that swing ... Aaron and I walked to it and watched a group riding it. He and I discussed whether we wanted to ride it or not. I would have been fine too, but Aaron's excuse was that it was "too expensive" (at 4,50€, or $6.20, a ticket, it isn't a cheap ride, but it certainly wasn't expensive), which is why he didn't want to ride. Right. 

At the old ferris wheel

After quite a full late afternoon and evening of fun, we made our way over to the old ferris wheel, figuring we needed to give it a try. In this case, the tickets were too expensive: the sign I saw was 24€, or ~$33.10! I've since learned that was the price of a family ticket. Aaron could have gotten a ticket for 4€ and mine would have been 9€, which is much more reasonable. I'm sure we'll go back there, this time with Rebecca and Anson, so we'll be able to take a ride. 

Samstag 22. März

Rebecca and I started the morning with a nice long walk. I'm guessing we covered 10-15 km. Along the way, we went up to the Schwimmbad (pool) I'd found last week where I think I can train. Rebecca graciously asked some questions we both had about pricing, etc. and I now know it's a place I can use up until Ironman, which is nice. 

Rebecca went out to meet a colleague for a coffee and conversation and the kids and I just hung out together and relaxed. Later in the afternoon, I went out for another bike ride followed immediately by a run, known as a "brick" in triathlon circles. The bike was along the same route as before, though a bit farther out, and the run, again, was awesome. I was supposed to have done a marathon-paced half marathon training run that morning, but between the walk and the ride before, I figured I would do a slightly faster than race pace 10k and call it good. Hopefully it won't "hurt" my Boston training too much, and I know it will help my Ironman training. Hard to balance both of those. 

Sontag 23. März

Sunday was a cold and rainy day! I made a nice "traditional" breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast for all of us then Rebecca and Aaron went into town to a church that had what Rebecca had heard was some wonderful music. Turns out she heard correctly: she reports that it was fantastic and she claims the soprano was the best she's ever heard. Coming from someone who started as a music major for her undergrad, that's saying something! We wound up ordering another pizza for dinner (third one so far and a perfect track record), though our on-line order got "lost" and we wound up having to call, over an hour after we'd placed the order, and then waited another 45 minutes for the pizza to arrive. We were all starving! We also watched an "american" movie, one of the 80 or so I ripped from DVDs back home onto my laptop. This one was "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." When we were in New Zealand in 2003, we noticed that movie was called, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." As we were watching it, I noticed that it's also on the shelves by the TV here, in German, and it's called, "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen," which is the "stone of knowledge." Interesting how culture slightly changes the phrasing, and maybe meaning or understanding, of the movie titles. 

General Thoughts

Well, we're definitely here and all settled in. I think the honeymoon grace period is over. It's official. This is where we live now, for the next several months. I like our little neighborhood and am very comfortable walking around the area, going on my runs, and, for now, my bike rides. Aaron is doing well in school and Anson and I are making our home schooling work too. Rebecca has mentioned she has interview lined up for her research so that seems to be going well also. I pick up bits of German here and there, but if left on my own for a conversation, I just don't have enough vocabulary to understand the other person all that well. I'm getting 25-33% of it and can usually get the gist, but miss nuances and some important things at times. I've been in several situations where it's just me, without Rebecca, and have been able to make do with my limited Deutsch and their limited English, which is all that matters I guess. I'm hoping over the next few months I just keep absorbing more and more. I'm seeing it in Aaron from his going to school and Rebecca blows me away with all that she's able to understand and talk about. We may end up being a multicultural and bilingual family yet!

The First Week

First Week

Sonntag 9. März

Aaron in the backyard

That first day here was a bit long, I'll admit. I was tired, but determined to "stick it out," and stay up and get acclimated to the time shift. Rebecca, Aaron, and I wound up taking a brief walking tour of the Schönbrunn park area, including the Gloriette (for which our street is named) and das Schloss (the castle). Aaron was his usual exploratory self, checking out our back yard, and Anson settled in with his electronics.

Anson settling in

I believe we ended up watching a movie later that afternoon, WALL*E, auf Deutsch (in German), and I started to fall asleep. I said I was going to go back and take a brief nap and wound up waking up over three hours later!

Montag 10. März

Rather than jumping in right away, we allowed the kids to have a break and they didn't start school. Instead, all three of us got out for a more extensive walk of the Schönbrunn area. At the end, we stopped in at a neat little "American" themed cafe and had a drink and a snack.

Dienstag 11. Marz

Aaron's Schule

Wednesday morning saw Aaron go to school. He has to walk about 800 meters to get to die Straßenbahn Stelle (street car station), which comes every 5-ish minutes and takes him to a stop that's just 350 meters from his school. Or, he could walk 1.25 km to the U-bahn (subway) station, that takes him to a stop that's 280 meters from school. Or, he could walk or scooter the whole way, which is about 1.9 km.

Scooters at Schule

At this point, we've done all of those things, sometimes even taking his scooter on the S-bahn or the U-bahn and then he scooters the rest of the way. Usually, after school, he likes for me to bring his scooter to him (if we didn't already have it at school) and he scooters home.
These scooters are a big thing here. Many kids use them (33-50%?) and even some adults. They even have a special scooter locking rack mounted on both sides of the school entrance!

Anson and I also started his home schooling. We're covering English, Math, and Science, as well as doing some Physical Education and, of course, Global Studies, which he'll get primarily through the museums and various trips we're going to take.

The bike box with my and Rebecca's bikes and floor pump

After doing school with Anson, I took time to put the bikes together. This was no small task! I had basically watched Jeremy take the bikes apart and stuff them all into the bike box (though I did help), watched carefully, and took notes. I took a bajillion pictures of the whole process of taking the bikes out of the box, as well as notes about critical parts of the process, in the hopes that I'll be able to reverse it and replicate the process of packing the bikes for our trip home. I have a whole Google doc with all the pictures I took and a narrative of my notes, so hopefully it will work.

Mittwoch - Freitag 12.-14. März

These were fairly normal days. Rebecca and I stopped in at the bank and I got some cash (Euros €) since she has the only bank card we've got and can pay with it as a debit card. We also stopped in at one of the three stores in the area, a Spar (there's also a Spar Gourmet and a Zielpunkt). They are ... different. It's hard to explain. They have everything you'd expect: fruits, vegetables, breads, cheese, etc. but it's all different. It's amazing to me how much our foods are different, though they're really all the same. My kids like macaroni and cheese. In the States, you can go and buy a box. Here, you can't. You can get something in a bag, where you just add it to boiling water and you get mostly the same thing, but it's not the same thing. Salad dressing is something they really don't do here, as another example. In the States, there are rows of dressings and brands to choose from. Here, I've found a total of four different kinds and just two brands. I got the French dressing, thinking it's closest to something I know. It's not. It tasted different. I looked at the ingredients and found it has dill in it! So, things are the same, ... but they're different too.

On Donnerstag (Thursday), Rebecca, Aaron, and I got out on a bike ride. It was the first time my tush had touched the saddle since Ironman Wisconsin last September! We went about 20 km, following the Wienfluss (Vienna River) on a fantastic path. It's a path that I will definitely use for my longer runs, though an out and back will only get me ~10 miles. 

On Freitag (Friday), I rode a bike up the hill behind our house, navigated a bit, and arrived at the Hallenbad Hietzing, our district swimming pool complex. It offers an indoor, three lane, 25 meter lap pool, plus a few extra lanes that are open (maybe good for "open water" training), as well as a 25 meter outdoor pool that will be open sometime in early May. The price is only 20€ per month for me, which is a pretty good deal. I plan to start swimming there next week.

Anson in front of the Hapburg

Chandelier at the SRS

That Friday night we had our usual "Friday Family Fun Fest" (FFFF, which we can call our 'Freitag Familien Fröhlich Fest' auf Deutsch). Rebecca took us into the heart of Wien. The kids and I took the U-bahn into town and met her at a stop. We had a great Italian dinner and then toured a bit of the old city. We saw the Hapburg mansion and walked around the Volksgarten and other areas for a while. After that, she took us to the main event: seeing the Lipizzaner Horses at the Spanish Riding School (more). They had a joint program with the Vienna Boys' Choir. The choir was awesome, though I have to say I wasn't entirely impressed with the horses. I kept waiting for them to "do something," especially something that seemed hard for horses to do. I never really saw that. Maybe I'm just not enough of a horse person to appreciate what I did see. I can say that the building was incredible and their chandeliers were amazing!

Samstag 15. März

Rebecca and I at the Gloriette (Schloss behind us)

I was up early and had a great long run for my Boston Marathon training. After that, a shower, and breakfast, Rebecca and I headed out for a walk. We stopped at a bookstore and bought a couple of books on Austrian and Vienna history and then continued our walk, 7 km total, and arrived at the Naschmarkt. Basically, think of the biggest farmers market or flea market you've seen and then multiply it. Several times. And add them together. This thing is 1.5 km long and has everything! I couldn't believe how much was there and  how many people there were shopping. It was shoulder to shoulder, squeezing between people kind of packed. We bought some fresh vegetables, some falafel, and a scarf for Rebecca. With the running and all the walking, I was happy to take the U-bahn back home!

Sontag 16. März

Outside the Natural History Museum

I had planned to go for a bike ride on Sunday, my first real training ride since Ironman Wisconsin last September! However, it was way too windy: sustained winds of 55 kph and gusts up to 90 kph (56 mph for you non-metric folks). Instead, Rebecca, Aaron, and I (Anson decided not to go) went to the Vienna Natural History Museum. The building is incredible and we had a fantastic time inside. I loved the meteorite exhibit (Aaron and I both hugged a huge 60 kg nickel-iron meteorite -- forged in the heart of a star or nova!) as well as the early humans exhibit. The geology / mineralogy exhibit was pretty neat too.  

General Feelings

Overall, I feel I and the kids are settling in well. Rebecca seems to be getting her work done too, which is the most important thing. We're all finding our grooves and seem to be adjusting to life here well. I'm so happy we're here and I'm having an incredible experience so far!

Getting There

After frantically packing, cleaning, and making sure the kids were ready, it was time to head to the airport. My sister in-law (Rebecca's sister), who's watching both our house and our dog while we're away, came over on Saturday morning to take us there. We loaded everything up into our van. Each of the boys had a carry-on suitcase with wheels they could pull and each had a backpack with various electronics, books, etc. they wanted. I had a larger suitcase I wanted to check. Then I had my tri bag, which was packed to the brim with all the gear I'll need to race Ironman Austria, plus all the stuff I need to train with. When it all comes together, I realized it's really quite a lot. To be fair (to me), I also packed Rebecca's helmet and cycling shoes in my bag. I wound up needing to put the last of my running shirts in the regular suitcase as they just couldn't squeeze into the tri bag. I also had the bike box, a backpack, and my laptop case.

We got to the airport about two hours before our flight, pulled all the stuff out of the van, and headed into ticketing. As I was standing at the ticket counter, I realized I didn't have my laptop bag and nearly panicked. My sister in-law volunteered to run back through the airport to the parking area and look in the van. The implication was that if it wasn't there, if I'd actually left it at home, she'd drive back, find it, and bring it back to the airport for me. Luckily I'd just left it in the van.

After handing over the passports, and the guy at the check-in counter doing a bunch of typing and swiping of our passport barcodes, he asked if there was any luggage to check. I said, "Yes, three things." I already had the bike box front and center and he asked, "Does it include that?!" I said, "Yes" and he wanted me to get it up on the scale to weigh it. I'd not had an opportunity to weigh it before, so I had no idea. It came out to 59 pounds.

The bike box with two bikes, four wheels, and all needed parts and pieces!

 I was waiting for him to tell me it was going to cost $200, but instead he said he was going to grant me an "exception" and not charge me for it. So, the bikes went on the plane for free! It was a great start to the trip.

The kids and I had an uneventful flight to D.C. and then had an interesting journey on a high-rise "bus" / shuttle that took us to a terminal where we learned we needed to board an underground train to get to our departure terminal. After that, we grabbed a bit to eat directly across from our gate and waited.

Seat map of a Boeing 767-300

We boarded early, when they called for families, and found our seats. Unfortunately, we weren't seated together. Anson wound up in seat C, Aaron had seat D, and I was in seat K, but a row behind them. I talked with Rebecca, who booked the flight, if we had contiguous seating originally and she said, "Yes," so somewhere along the way were were moved around. Maybe the guy who let me check the bike for free "got his" by moving our seats around. I'm not sure. Regardless, the kids were "off on their own," and I had a seat "to myself." The person who sat next to me, in seat H, was a professional snowboarder, who flew all the time for years and got sick frequently, so when he sat down, he slathered his hands in Purrell and then smeared them all over the tray table back, sides, and top as well as his arm rests. He was then on his phone talking to a friend and mentioned that he wished he had a window seat. When he was done, I offered to switch with him as I prefer an aisle and would be one seat closer to my kids. He gladly accepted and when we switched, he repeated his Purrell ritual. I guess I should be thankful he cleared all the germs away.

I watched a couple of movies with the awesome entertainment system and fully charged my phone.

In-seat entertainment touch-screen with USB charger and headphone jack.

I then tried to sleep a bit, but it was useless as I could never seem to get comfortable. Meanwhile, Mr. Snowboarder was sacked out nicely, with his head resting against his own pillow, all propped up against the window. They served an decent dinner on the flight, complete with some nice red wine; then came through offering more wine; and came back a third time offering more wine. I took advantage each time. I think it helped me stay relaxed and with eyes closed, even if I could actually fall asleep. When we were about an hour out of Vienna, they came through the cabin and offered a hot flaky pastry, the size of a large paperback book, filled with ham and cheese. It was really good! One last thing about the actual flight: before you could watch anything on the entertainment system, they played a cute little commercial that, it turns out, we all learned by heart and have joked about ever since the flight. Here it is for our memory and to share with you:

Once we landed, I learned that my youngest had been sick on the decent. He managed to contain it all in a bag that had held the free blanket they gave you. Still, we had to do some cleaning up before we got off the plane. As a result, we were among the last stragglers who de-planned. Another outcome is that we couldn't simply follow the crowd. So, I did my best to read all the German signage and was following the signs for "Ausgang Wien." Doing so, however, I was suddenly unclear as to where and how we could clear customs. We had passed a sign for "Customs Declarations" just outside our gate. After walking to the end of the terminal and down an escalator we came to a Polizei (police) counter, that looked a lot like customs areas I've been through before. They, however, directed be back up to the place I'd already walked past. So, with a sick child in-tow and all our carry-on baggage, we went back up and down the hallway. As I approached I realized this wasn't the customs I was looking for and we turned around. 

This time we went past the Polizei counter and around the corner, again following the "Ausgang Wien" signs. These took us to sliding doors out onto the tarmac! However, there was also signage indicating a shuttle bus would come. We took that across the airport to another terminal, labeled F and G. It didn't look like the main terminal to me and certainly didn't seem like it by it's name(s), so I stayed on board. After everyone else had gotten off, the driver turned to me and said, auf Deutsch (in German), "These are terminals F and G. End of the line. You must get off." So, we did. Inside I found signs for Gepäckausgabe (baggage claim) and we followed them. We got to a point where it looked like we'd leave the "secured area," and I was unclear, still, how we would clear customs. I asked someone in a suit with airport security badges hanging around his neck if he spoke English. Luckily he did. When I asked where Customs was, he simply smiled and pointed at what I thought was the exit. 

I've always had to stand in long lines to clear customs, at times at risk of missing my connecting flights (flying through Toronto to get to Germany a couple of years ago). These counters were all but empty with nobody standing in line. We walked right up to the counter, handed over our passports, endured a scowling look from the young 20-something Customs Officer, who summarily stamped our visas and then we were on our way. Down another escalator there were more signs for Gepäckausgabe and I was able to find which baggage claim our stuff was at. We came in at #15 and ours was #7. By the time we got there, the only two bags going around were my checked suitcase and tri bag! Now, I needed to find the bike box. I was looking for a sign for übergroßen Gepäckausgabe (oversized baggage claim). It turned out to be all the way at the end, down past #1. My bike box was sitting there and as I claimed it and started pulling it, with my tri bag on top and my checked suitcase being pulled by the other hand (with my backpack on and laptop bag over my shoulder), an airport person who'd been sitting there looking bored to tears got up and walked back with us.

We were finally able to make it out to where people would greet you. I was looking for a driver Rebecca had arranged through the Institute she's working for. I found him holding a sign with our name on it. When he saw the bike box he just shook his head. He only spoke German, but I clearly got the message that everything we had wouldn't fit. I was a bit confused as I knew Rebecca purposefully ordered a van to make sure it would all fit. After making our way to the elevator and out to the parking area, I saw what he was worried about. He came in a Mercedes Benz station wagon. Not a U.S. sized one, but a European sized one -- smaller. After more limited communication with him only speaking German and me speaking it poorly, he wound up calling his boss and a second vehicle was ordered. Once it arrived, I helped them pack the bikes in the second vehicle, and they, along with my tri bag and myself, followed the first vehicle with my kids and the rest of the luggage. 

The drive to our Wohnung (apartment) took about 15 minutes and we were able to see much of the city. It's large and quite beautiful. We finally pulled up to our parking pad and found Rebecca waiting for us. It was quite nice to be reunited and finally at our destination!

Rebecca is Gone

Rebecca left for Vienna on 17 February. Aaron and I dropped her off at the airport in the morning and waited and watched until she cleared security then gave our last blown kisses goodbye. For the next 19 days the kids and I managed on our own. There may have been a few more pizzas than usual, but I think things were as normal as could be, given that one of the parents was gone.

We had frequent, sometimes daily, video calls with Rebecca so were able to stay in touch very well. Rebecca and I also emailed extensively, keeping up with what she was doing and asking for me to pack certain things she'd forgotten. The calls were often when we were having breakfast and I was getting the kids ready for school and it was mid-afternoon in Vienna. I know the kids knew Rebecca was away, and that we'd be joining her, but I don't really know if they had a deep understanding of what was going on.

I spent those couple of weeks wrapping up my work, which involved finishing a large project. I was officially on leave starting 1 March. I was also trying to finish all the little projects I could around the house and get things in order for closing it up for four months. I wanted to leave the house in perfect condition, so when we returned in July it would be exactly what we were looking for: home; ready to receive us and welcome us.

As usual, I left too many things to the end, though to be fair, it's hard to have an absolutely clean house when you leave as so many things need to be done concurrently (laundry, dishes, sweeping, finishing packing, etc.) that it's hard to juggle it all.

The over-riding thought I had during the time when Rebecca was gone was that, "This is real!" and that we'd all be reunited soon. It was a time I was very much looking forward to, though I was quite anxious about actually being there and needing to speak the language and adjust to the customs.