12:21, somewhere in the west of austria…i’m on my way, by train, to vienna to do a demonstration of our mobile health toolkit on austrian television! the train is slowly winding its way through the western parts of the austria alps while i’m coding and — from time to time — looking out of the panorama windows of my first class car and watch the landscape change and pass by. most of the panorama car has been reserved for a group of senior citizens on their way to (at least) linz…some of them obviously didn’t realize the meaning of panorama car: while the sun was busy elsewhere (pretty much all of the time we were traversing the east of switzerland) everything was fine (well, except for the draft from one of the “open” windows, which really was the air conditioning), but as of bludenz the sun decided to tag along and we have been blessed with quite a bit of sunshine — and the panorama windows are quite generous in letting us participate in that — much to the annoyance of said senior citizens who complain about too much light…oh, well…

13:32, just out of innsbruck…most of the swiss travel group is now off to the dining car (apparently discussing train toilets, as one lady who could not stand those discussions and returned explained to the group manager)…is become quite a bit more quiet now…the train manager of the innsbruck–vienna train team just explained via the intercom that öbb is running a three class scheme: second class, first class, business class — the latter being four seater compartment with laptop support and a welcome drink. interesting.

also, while looking out of the windows, i made the observations that if you want to find out which direction is south somewhere in central or western europe and don’t have a compass at hand: just search for a satellite dish: the vast majority of them points south (i’ve only seen two sat dishes during the last couple of days that were not pointing south: one going pretty much eastwards, the other roughly westwards).

19:40, wien westbahnhof…the train arrives with 5min delay, the sun is shining and it’s pleasantly warm outside. first act is to buy the tickets out of here — sbb was not able to issue a ticket from vienna to erlangen without going via switzerland, so i need to get the ticket for wednesday’s trip to erlangen…after about 20 minutes queuing at the “abroad” counter i get my ticket and reservation as wanted and am off via taxi to my hotel pension pertschy — which turns out to be right around the corner from the hofburg: it’s inside an old viennese building, most of the rooms are facing to the court yard. the lady at reception is rather friendly and very efficient and after filling out the registration form i’m quickly off to my single room on the second floor. on each floor (there are about 5, iirc) balconies run all around the court yard and access to the rooms is from that balcony. my single is rather long and narrow, the only window is to the inner court yard, rendering ther room a bit dark, the en-suite facilities are seperated by a door at the end of the room and are very clean and modern.

after settling in, calling dorothee, and unpacking my blazer, i’m off to find the IBM building where i’m supposed to show up tomorrow and, equally important, find a restaurant to have something to eat…the IBM building turns out to be about 15 minutes by foot on the other side of the donau canal. there is a steak house, george & the dragon, serving guinness close by (the other end of the bridge, really)! i’m enticed by the guinness bit and decide to give it a try…about half an hour later i’ve learnt that the guinness they serve there is a bit on the tepid side, and the rumpsteak (“juicy, tender”) is indeed special: it must be the toughest rumpsteak i’ve encountered ever! very health for your chewing muscles — in the current olympic spirit i bite the bullet (i love puns, yeas) and try to tackle it — though, i’m sorry to have to report that i don’t manage it all, two sections turn out to be stronger than me and survive…on the upside: the baked potatoes are OK…not worth a repeat

after that culinary experience i quickly settle my bill, congratulate the waiter on the toughest rumpsteak ever, and am off — looking for a beizl to have something to still my still existing hunger…and, after walking a bit about, i find a couple of very nice looking pub stile restaurants, beizln, at judenplatz. i pick one, have a matjes herring and an ottakringer beer and enjoy the still warm night…worth a repeat

at about 22:00 i’m back in my hotel and settle in for the night.