On the way home

We started our return trip early with an airport shuttle pick up at 4:45am!  The two vans were on time and got us to the airport quickly.  One drove like a NY cabbie, but I guess that is normal everywhere.

I was very surprised by our check in at the Vienna airport.  My past experience has been that you can't get to the airport too early because the ticket counters are shared between airlines and don't open until just before the flight, so you end up standing around (no seating), waiting for the ticket counter to open and then rush through security and rush to board your flight.  However, this time the check in was almost entirely automated and was open when we arrived.  It was very easy.  Even the process of putting our luggage on the conveyor was automated.  Only 2 staffers were there to manage the process and they were not overwhelmed with errors by the system.  Remarkable.  I couldn't help but think, however,  'these used to be jobs for people'...

We proceeded to security, where Delaney was pulled aside because she had her breakfast yogurt in her bag.  Rather than simply confiscating it, the agent asked her if she wanted to step aside and eat it, which she did.  This would have NEVER happened with TSA.  They did not require us to take off our shoes.  In fact they had a special 'shoe scanner' that you could put your foot in if you had shoes that were risky (ie boots?).   Another member in our group had her bag searched, and she explained that the whole time the agent was apologizing while searching it.  These two experiences left us feeling very positive about security, rather than disgruntled and violated as is often the case with TSA.  Its amazing how a little bit of humanity can change people's attitudes.  

We got to experience the TSA upon our return to Atlanta - loud yelling about which line to stand in, brusk, almost angry, repeated instructions about what to put in the tray and take off.  It leaves you feeling stupid and like some kind of criminal.  

On a side note, the transfer between terminals in Charles de Gaulle airport is crazy.  All of the "L" gates are in terminals 2E and 2 F.  All of the "M" gates are in  terminal 2E.  All of the "K" gates are in terminal 2E.  There are also terminals 2D and 2A and 2C.  I have no idea what happened to terminal 2B or why the gates don't correspond with the terminal letters!

Oh, and if you need to get between terminals, its a bus that takes about 30 mins to make a full loop (blue loop).  Possibly with a transfer to another loop bus if you have to go to Terminal F or Terminal G.  Crazy.

Made it home at 9:30 pm (3:30 am Vienna time) - our 24 hour transit is complete!

UN Vienna Tour

We got another great tour guide for the Vienna UN Center!  He had the same dry sense of humor that several of our other guides have had (although he was Belgian, not Austrian). Ex:  he was talking about how the buildings were made in the 1970s and “built with asbestos, which gives people cancer, which is a big no, no.” So they renovated and took it out.  

The UN in Vienna hosts the CTBTO (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Org), IAEA, UNODC (Office on Drugs and Crime), UN Outer Space Agency, and UNIDO.  

The building itself is the first UN building to be carbon neutral.  All electricity is through renewables, and we saw a chart on the wall showing reduced water use for the past four years for the building.  I also saw a lot of plants in the halls to refresh the air.  The recent rennovations have motion sensors and when a room is unoccupied the AC is shut off.  He referenced a new document called “the Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World”, which included a full range of activities that could be adopted to make a small difference.  This included not replacing cell phones every year, go to SGDSinAction.com and download the app to learn more..

 The Vienna complex was built in the 1970s during the cold war, as a middle ground between East and West.  It was designed so that every office would have a window.   

 There are not nearly as many conferences in Vienna as there are in Geneva.  The largest conference space only holds 300.  Much of the technical work requires smaller meetings between fewer people. 

As with all UN buildings, there are tons of artistic gifts from different countries.  One of my favorites was this stone sculpture that represented the empowerment of women.  The cutout of the woman is actually larger than the cut away in the stone, indicating how she came into her full being when set free.

The UN Outerspace Agency is also in Vienna.  The Outer Space Agreement is approaching its 50th anniversary and it's time to close some loopholes in it.  For example, treaties only apply to countries and now that space exploration is becoming privatized, they need to update the treaty with regards to who can stake ownership claims to asteroids and other bodies (states are forbidden to do this, but companies are not).  The guide talked about the investment return on money for Outerspace research and said for every $1 invested, there is a $7 return in new tech developments.

We learned a lot about some of the more technical advances to radiology, including that it can be used to modify seeds to be more drought resistant, but in a non-GMO way, and it can be used to sterilize male tsetse flies, which are then released en masse in regions where sleeping sickness is a problem, making it harder for females to reproduce, and thus bringing down the population of the flies and preventing disease.

The building itself is the first UN building to be carbon neutral.  All electricity is through renewables, and we saw a chart on the wall showing reduced water use for the past four years for the building.  I also saw a lot of plants in the halls to refresh the air. The recent rennovations have motion sensors and when a room is unoccupied the AC is shut off.  He referenced a new document called “the Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World”, which included a full range of activities that could be adopted to make a small difference.  This included not replacing cell phones every year, go to SGDSinAction.com and download the app to learn more..

US Permanent Mission - briefing

I set up a briefing in advance for my Pol Sci students with the US permanent mission to the UN in Vienna.  The foreign service officer arranged for 3 different staffers to visit with us, including the Acting Deputy Chief (their office was still waiting for the confirmation of Trump’s appointed Deputy Chief).

One lady worked primarily with the IAEA and was a foreign service officer.  She said a lot of her work was with various attaches, who were the technical experts on nuclear and radiological issues.  She spent a lot of her time translating “Scientist” to “English” and vice versa - ha!  She shared with the students details about taking the foreign service exam, and some of the places she had been posted since she was hired seven years ago (Saudia Arabia and Canada).  She said her impressions of the shift between administrations was more about shifting the order of priorities rather than changing directions.  US interests abroad stay fairly consistent.  The Deputy chief affirmed this and explained that she was able to keep doing her work effectively because of her personal relationships with other diplomats who knew her.  While this is somewhat reassuring, it remains worrying over time since these diplomats rotate to new stations every 2-3 years and have to build relationships with new people in a diplomatic environment of remarkable uncertainty right now.

Both of them shared that the work done in Vienna is largely about building consensus and is on technical issues, so consensus is a little easier than it is in NY with the political issues.  When asked what you do when the final agreement doesn’t quite get what you want, she indicated that there was always wiggle room with the implementation.  The conventions and resolutions that are passed provide a broader framework, but those workers who actually carry out the tasks required have some latitude about how they are done.  This means they can slowly shift the norm through pushing the envelope, and the next time there are negotiations, the starting point is already a little closer to where you want it to be.  I loved this description, and recognize it to be true for domestic policy making as well.

The third woman had served in the peace Corp in Benin doing women’s empowerment and health issues.  She helped build a local market place for women to sell their goods instead of hauling them 6 miles down the road to the next market place.  She was finishing up her grad school and on a Presidential fellowship internship of some kind.

The Deputy Chief specialized on drug issues and spoke about how the work done in Vienna was not often in the headlines, but had a very significant impact on people’s lives (I think this is true of most of what the UN does).  She talked about how the UNODC is currently working on restricting access to dual use chemicals that are used to create fentynol which is linked to the opioid epidemic. They are even working to keep better track of this phramceuicals that are used for animals because they are crossing over to human consumption and causing death.

All three were so smart and interesting and I really appreciate that they took time to visit with us today.  They all remarked how nice it was to be speaking to a group of all women, not common in diplomatic circles.

We couldn’t bring anything with us, especially cameras, so take my word for it that the view from the 37th floor was quite good.  

This was taken by the Public Affairs officer who coordinated our visit.

Musical concert in Vienna

To end the day, we hunted down some concert ticket sellers in Stephansplatz and purchased tickets for a classic Viennese concert:  Mozart, Strauss, and some others.  It was held in a salon with about 100 seats (very intimate), with a 5 piece string ensemble and a pianist, as well as two opera singers.  The opera singers performed a few pieces from the Magic Flute and the Marriage of Figuero.  We really enjoyed it!

 The room was classically decorated with red velvet wallpaper and chandeliers and gilded wooden walls, but there were also some modern art pieces on display (shaded of grey and black).  While they didn't clash with the room, the style just didn't fit in our view. 

The chandeliers were lovely.

We wandered through the lit up city afterwards.

Schonbrunn Palace

Our last tour was of Schonbrunn Palace.  We got the Grand tour of 40 rooms and really enjoyed the audio guide narrative that tells a lot about the family history of the Hapsburgs.  The palace has a lot of period furniture in it that made is seem more alive than the Palacio in Madrid (which was also beautiful, but empty of furnishing for the most part).

I was glad I made a reservation for the opening tour time.  The sheer size of the ticket selling area was daunting to consider if it were fully queued!

The gardens in Schonbrunn were much better kept and full of flowers compared to the gardens at the Palacio in Madrid.  This kind of surprised me since Spain exports so many flowers.  I had really expected a lot more window boxes and other gardens in Madrid that simply weren't in evidence. 

Part of the group decided to climb up the hill to the Gloriette for an amazing view.  It was much quieter and more peaceful there than in the palace. 

You can't appreciate the sheer size of the Gloriette until you are up close. Its huge.

Traditional Viennese dinner

We asked our hostel for a recommendation for traditional Austrian food and were directed up the street.  The place was not too busy and the host was friendly and full of advice about what to order (he recommended the most expensive item on the menu).  We had our choice of schnitzel, goulash, dumplings, and other delicious options.  Many chose schnitzel, and decided they want to go back again tomorrow to try something else.  

Josie wore her "I [heart] Barcelona" shirt today and at one point someone behind her started whispering "I love Madrid, I love Madrid".  It took her a minute to figure why this person was even saying this to her at all.  Lol. 

It was kind of funny when I went to pay for the group, the waiter put my swipe card (no chip) in the chip reader.  I said "no chip".  He looked puzzled and didn't know what to do.  I said "you need to swipe" and pointed to the side of the machine.  He turned it the wrong way and tried it.  I told him to turn it around.  He finally got it.  However, he explained to me several times that the bill did not include "service".  I think he expected me to put in a tip once he had authorization for the card, but the swipe protocol didn't allow that option.  He seemed irritated, but didn't say anything to me.  I pulled out some cash instead and left an appropriate tip and he seemed satisfied.

For our final night we also sought out a traditional restaurant.  This one was so traditional the menu was only in German.  The waitress offered to tell us what was on it, but I said we'd try to work it out ourselves first.  We actually did a pretty good job.  The challenge with German is they tend to string multiple words together, so you just have to focus in and take them apart to figure out the difference pieces that you can recognize.  We ended up with dumplings (cheese, spinich and mushroom), and wrapped chicken with ratatouille.  (The waitress confirmed that our interepretations were correct before we placed the order.

We had a little bit of trouble finding a table on this last night.  The small places in our neighborhood all had tables reserved.  Fortunately we were looking for dinner on the early side, so they let us eat and run (like Americans do, haha) and still had the table ready for the guest with the reservation later.

Ice Cream - a Must!

After a full day of traipsing around a seasonally warm Vienna (I'm guessing 78 - 80), we decided it was time for an ice cream break.  Not just a cone of gelatto...we're talking ice cream sundaes on Schwedenplatz!

We arrived just as it was beginning to sprinkle, but within 2 minutes the skies openned up and poured down rain for about 10 minutes.  It was a good time to be inside stuffing our faces. 

Ice cream with tradition since 1886.  They totally upheld the tradition with us today.

"Truffle" with chocolate ice cream and sour cherries in the middle covered with chocolate shavings and topped with whip cream.  Chocolate ice cream with hot fudge and raspberry sauce!

Vienna Opera House

Even though this is my 4th visit to Vienna, I have not visited the Opera House before (this was evident when I accidentally took the group to the Volkstheatre instead of the Statoper building).  We got back to the right place, waited for the ticket sales to open with a hoard of other people, and eventually got in for a tour.

It was fun to compare to the tour we had at La Scala Opera House in Milan several years ago.  The Vienna opera house is larger, but similar in many ways.  Both have small display screens in front of each seat where the language of the opera can be translated into other languages for the audience member.  Both are decorated in Royal red and gold.  Both have a royal box.

It has five tiers of seating, including two different 'standing only' areas for 3 and 4 euros.  The sales for these seats opens just 18 minutes before the show begins.

Imperial box

I was particularly impressed with the scale of the stage and backstage area.  The guide explained that they put on 50 different shows during a 10 months season, often with 5 different shows in one week.  The crew would set up one stage for a morning rehearsal, then replace it with another stage for a different night time performance.  There were over 100 separate pulley systems for backdrops and curtains, etc. 

When looking at the stage, the blue pole visible on the right is the same depth back from the front of the stage as the back of the audience seating.  As you can see, the backstage goes much further back than that.  The entire hole under the stage is over 20 ft deep and can hold a whole other stage set to be changed out.  This is also true to the side of the stage.

While we were sitting there listening to the guide (about 15 mins), the stage crew completely installed the springy stage top for a ballet that evening.  Like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

The guide also took us through the various intermission rooms, some of which were quite fancy and others less so.  The fancier ones dates to before WWII.  During WWII, damage had been done to part of the building and the restoration was not as glamourous (or as expensive) as before.

Exploring Vienna

We were up and ready to explore the center city this morning.  We took the metro in, but I wasn't certain of my orientation when we came up from the station. Rather than leading the group in the wrong direction for a block until I could find a street sign, which I've had to do several times, I decided to just ask someone on the street.  I approached a young man who confirmed that I was headed the right direction and kindly wished us a good visit to the city.  As we walked away, several of the members of the group said "he was so Nice!"  It's amazing how impactful first impressions can be.  It was a nice way to start our visit.

We began with a stop at Stephansdom and a private tour of the crypts.  After that we grabbed a picnic lunch in the store and continued on to St Peters church.  There was a service in progress, so we only stepped into the back and listened for a few minutes and looked at the beautiful interior.

(taken later in the evening when we came back by)

 Next we saw the Hofsburg Palace.  I've never toured, but would be curious what options there are to see the various parts of the inside. 

We continued walking through the city to see the Augustinerkirche although the heart chamber was not open to visit.  It is also the church where Royal weddings took place.  Maria Theresa was married there and there is a huge tapestry in the Schonbrunn Palace depicting the event.  Napoleon Bonaparte married into the Hapsburg family and was also married there.

We continued on to the Museum quarter for a picnic lunch.  Such beautiful architecture!  We did not stop for museum visits today though.

Giant statue of Maria Theresa between two of the museums.

We then headed to the Karlskirche and went up on the elevator to the top of the dome.  You get a city view from one of the clear glass dome windows, and a close up view of the paintings on the dome itself.  I was non-plused however with the giant elevator scaffolding that was set up in the midst of the sanctuary.   Other places where we've got up have had elevators in towers, or have allowed visitors to use stairs to access the higher elevations in the church.