Vienna

March to November 1999

A slideshow of our Viennese life is here.

In 1998, my company won a contract in Dallas, Texas, and convinced us to move there to undertake it.  It turned out to be a project that should never have been done and when an opening appeared in Vienna, Austria, that was a perfect fit for me, we agreed immediately to take it.

Steph and I flew to Vienna with our two cats and arrived to take over the departing Project Manager's flat - a nice little place above a Beer Garden.  We later found out that what that meant was Roll Out the Barrel every night and various other oompah music.  Tedious, but it forced us to go out for dinner a lot and we got to know a lot of the restaurants in Vienna.

At least the cats seemed to enjoy the music, as they would sit for hours in the window ledges where they could listen and look down on the activities.

The flat was in Grinzing, on the North edge of the city and therefore within easy walking distance of wine country and numerous local heuriger (a small family owned winery with cafeteria style country food).  We got to know many of them!

Steph joined the American Women's Association and we would often spend the weekends hiking in the Austrian countryside, always with a hutte (a small pub or restaurant) at the end of the hike.  The United Nations has a major center in Vienna, so many of the people in the group were there to represent their various countries and had significant responsibilities in the UN.  Conversations along the hike were always fascinating.

We were giving a nice little BMW to drive and we used it for weekend trips to visit all of the countries that surround Austria.  During the week, Steph used her annual pass to visit many of the over one hundred museums in Vienna.