Weekend in Vienna

Last weekend Natalka and I took a short trip to Vienna.

Landtmann Cafe

Saturday morning we met up with Adilia, an old friend of mine from my travels to Tashkent at Landtmann Cafe. Landtmann is a postcard perfect Viennese cafe, where one can order several kinds of coffee (I had the Maria Thereza with whipped cream and orange liquor) and table service is performed by formally dressed male waiters in bow-ties. After coffee we took a stroll through a nearby park just outside the Hofburg Palace. Adilia’s adorable two-year old, trilingual (German, Russian, English) daughter Sofia kept us thoroughly entertained the whole time. Sofia also provided an engaging photographic subject for the Chinese tourists, who had begun to flood the garden grounds under the late morning sun, one of whom kindly took the picture below.

Rathaus-Platz

We joined Joe and Valerie about midday at Rathaus-Platz (Town hall) and made our way toward Hofburg Palace, the Spanish Riding School and Stephansdom, to gather tour information.

After a light lunch we toured of the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum in Hofburg Palace. Luckily for Natalka, an audio guide for the tour was available in Russian…I also opted for a Russian guide, Valerie took the tour in French, and we’re not sure which language Uncle Joe took…The tour attempted to capture the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth in the 19 state and private rooms of the palace. Apparently the Empress would spend two to three hours have her long hair washed and styled (with a decadent shampoo that included Cognac), while being tutored in ancient and Modern Greek. By contrast, the Emperor lived a Spartan existence, sleeping on a hard steel bed and rising each morning at 3:30am to start his day. The Sisi Museum explores the controversial life of Empress Elizabeth, who felt great ambivalence towards the official duties of her position and spent much of her later life traveling across Europe incognito. On one such journey she was assassinated by Italian anarchist in Geneva in 1898 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_of_Bavaria

Dinner at Martinelli’s

Saturday night we had a great outdoor dinner at Ristorante Martinelli, where an Italian singer performed classical songs all night. This performance inspired Joe and Valerie to venture out for a few dances captured in the picture below. Below that is a great shot of my dessert, a delicious pistachio-mint semifreddo; I unwisely

offered a taste to Uncle Joe and Natalka and ended up sharing more of it than I had planned.

After dinner Natalka and I took a long stroll home through to enjoy Vienna at night. Along the way we passed Landtmann Cafe and the Rathaus-Platz.

High Mass at Stephansdom

Sunday morning Valerie, Natalka and I attended high mass in German at Stephansdom. The atomosphere was inspiring with the morning sun illuminating the altar before us under the sounds of organ music and beautifully sung hymns in German. Even though we understood very little of what was said or sung, the entire experience was quite moving.

Belvedere Palace

Belvedere Palace was built by Prince Eugene of Savoy, a French exile, who is considered Austria’s greatest general ever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Eugene_of_Savoy). Today the Belvedere is a museum that holds some of Austria’s most famous paintings, including “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kiss_%28Klimt_painting%29). This time Natalka was not so fortunate and had to rely on my translation skills as there was no Russian audio tour. Nonetheless, we were blessed with great weather, which made for great photos of the museum grounds, including the one below of Natalka.

Hofburg, Museum Quarter and Karlskirche (“St. Charles’ Church”)

Before dinner we took a quick stroll to our hotel, passing through the Hofburg grounds, stopping by the Museum Quarter, before arriving at Karlskirche, an amazing baroque church. It was late Sunday afternoon and our time in Vienna was running out.

Monument to Yuriy Kolshitzky

Yuriy Kolshitzky was originally from L’viv and served with Jan Sobieski, whose army played a decisive role in ending the Turkish siege of Vienna. King Sobieski gave Kolshitzky 300 sacks of coffee that had been abandoned by Kara Mustafa’s army. With this coffee Kolshitzky went on open the first coffee house in Vienna, a city world famous for its coffee tradition. Unfortunately, Natalka and I were unable to capture this monument on film (the batteries in our camera died by the time we found this monument ona tiny side street outside the Ringstrasse—the perfect metaphor for our condition after spending all day sightseeing under the August sun. Here is a picture of the monument that I found on the web.

Good-bye Vienna

Sunday night we rejoined Joe and Valerie for a farewell dinner. By this point Natalka had made lots of progress with her English, was somehow communicating with Valerie with little assistance from me--rarely did I hear her “Teem, translate pleez,” delivered in a cute accent that would remind one of Grandpa. Meanwhile Uncle Joe and I began debating Obama’s declining poll numbers, until Aunt Valerie firmly requested that we find another subject. All politics aside, Natalka and I are thankful to Joe and Valerie for their incredible generosity and hospitality—the trip wouldn’t have been the same without them. Even though we thoroughly enjoyed our trip, it was too short. Fortunately, Vienna is just a short flight from Lviv and we have a standing invitation from Adilia to return any time for a visit. Hope you enjoyed the photos…and hopefully, this is the first of many trips across Europe.

Baby Pool Update

Whoever had Jenn in the baby pool - it's time to collect your winnings. Yes, the rumors are true (if there are any rumors), Jenn and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting our first. While we're not planning to find out the sex of the baby, we have seen the little guy/girl and everything is in working order and in the right places. Thankfully, Jenn has been feeling great throughout the pregnancy.

The due date is December 20th. Though I've told Jenn to hold off until Jan 1st so we can secure the first baby of the new year and get some TV time.

Love,
Kevin and Jenn

Another Baby

Maggie and Ryan just had a baby boy a few hours ago. 7 pounds and 6 ounces. The baby is fine but Maggie is vomiting quite a bit. And her stool is.....never mind.

The baby's name is under debate. Leading candidate is "Steele".

Wishing them the best.

Big Girl Pumping!

We were up in Maine, camping last week.

Chrissy's 3rd Birthday

And, here's a pic of Inez after I told her that I might have missed the video footage of the candles being blown out:



She cussed me out in front of 70 guests!

Spring is Sprung

Chrissy The Ballerina

Tim Update

Dan,

If you are hard up for family blog material, here are some pictures from a ski trip that I took with Natalia earlier this week. Originally, our relatives Vassylko and Oksana were going to join me and Natalia for part of the trip, but they were unable to make the trip. Vassylko and Oksana lent us a whole bunch of ski gear, including two sets of skis, plus skiing clothing for me, and provided loads of info on accomodations and restaurants. Bukovel is a brand new ski area that was built just a few years ago...it has amenities that were unimaginable for Ukraine back when I was studying there in 93'-94. It was at once challenging and ultimately fun and rewarding to try after downhill skiing about 20 years after my first and only attempt...I took lessons from an instructor named Yuriy...who was also interested in my joining him on some cellular telecom/Internet business venture...Natalia was also helpful and extraordinarily patient...with advice and the real threat of a ski pole across the #ss for failure to heed said advice...as I advanced from the beginner to the intermediate slope by my second full day on skis. Now I know a lot of skiing terms in Russian that I didn't know before ;-) The picture of me from the top of the slope was taken near an intermediate slope...where we drank some mulled wine ("glintwein"), which gave me the necessary courage to make the descent... (I still fell on the way down...but the pictures of that episode...honest to God...are blurry and I'm too far away.)

On the way back to Lviv, we stopped in Ivano-Frankivsk (it's Polish name is Stanisławów), where I took the attached "Churchill picture." I've asked Mom to show it to Grandpa - I know he will be amused, given his feelings for Churchill's "betrayal" of Eastern Europe at Yalta. You'll have to help Mom viewing the pictures, since she doesn't know how to make them "bigger."

See you all at Easter,

Tim

John At Karate

Family Dinner At Anne & Wayne's

I had to include another similar shot with an agape UJ:



And one with Granda in her new outfit:



What did we have to eat?

Turkey and mashed if memory serves me.

Bowling Buddies

TimL and Barack Hussein Obama....

In the same bowling league!

Here's the refresher.



I'm a bit surprised it stalled at 544 hits. Hmmmm.

Ryan's Chunks

Even a downpour couldn't wash 'em away!

Too Many Mojitos?

Or, as Helena calls them "Mojitas"!

Hairless Wonder

Check that. There's one hair visible!

Who Is This Broad?

Why Limit The Pool Of Potential Partners?

Someone gifted DrMark a book titled "How To Get Married After 35".

Though apparently the book wasn't unisexual.

Jabronis

Boxed Wine In A Champagne Flute?

...For a 2.5 year old?

Call Social Services!

When The Box Of Wine Is Empty...

Bud Light?

Christmas Corpulence

Great Granny Annie!

FIVE GENERATIONS

On December 13th we celebrated Mum's, (Nana, Greatgrandma & Great-greatgrandma's) birthday & Trish's birthday. Trish & Matt brought their beautiful new son to meet the family and we took many pictures.
Worcester had just endured an awful ice storm and we were the only ones with power. Everyone enjoyed the heat, hot coffee and cell phone charging & email checking services that we offer.

Another Addition

Louise is pregnant!

So I hear anyway.

Didn't know they got that much sun up in Canada...