Weekend Recap

Ahhh the weekend. So much to see and do in this city! We haven't had the time to really "get out" for a weekend and visit Salzburg, Slovenia, the Alps, or Germany yet so we've been exploring Vienna. As I write this I can say we've seen more than expected in Vienna.

Vienna is Austrias wine Capital. Often overlooked by tourists it's a must see for anyone looking to get away from the crowds. Viennese have these cool taverns called "Heuriger's" in the foothills - think an outside beer garden. However, instead of beer you sip wine. It's pretty much a red or white choice, they pour what's in season, and full glasses. Not at all like tasting in the states, they also have buffet-style food and awesome views to go along with it. In our effort of finding/trying to walk the wine trail we ended up getting lost and confused. So we just dropped into one of these and called it good. We drank quite a bit of wine over the 6 hour tasting, but not so much we would be considered drunk, it's a slower pace out here. And drunks are annoying. We didn't want to be "those drunk Americans."

Also, since Vienna was a hotbed for baroque sculpture, architecture, painting, and music back in the day it's a good idea to see some baroque stuff. So we checked out the Belvedere palace. If your short on time this one is easier to access than the Schoenbrunn and has more to it. Split into two palaces, the upper and lower, with a manicured garden between them (think fantasyland) the upper is an art musuem and the lower a restored baroque palace & horse stables. The gardens are free to visit. There was a good number of runners in there simply doing laps around the palace gardens - yes, it's that big.

We checked out the upper palace. It took about three hours to cover that many floors. It houses collections by Gustav Klimt, Monet, Renoir, and Austrian art pieces ranging from the middle ages to present. Frescos adorn every ceiling and all art subjects are covered. This place was really cool to visit. We're kinda deprived of old world art in the states for obvious reasons. This place has got the stuff you usually only see in text books. Obviously pictures are not allowed inside so I can only post a few images I found of the art online.

Location:Friedlgasse,Vienna,Austria

Run to the Hills!

Ok, not like the Iron Maiden song but we did run in the hills. By far one of the most scenic and epic runs I'd done in a while. Yes. I said epic.

Let me explain, I'm not sure what the elevation gain was but we left the D line in the 19th district and headed towards the Vienna woods, a semi-developed green space to the north west of town. I say semi-developed because it's spotted by vineyards. Anyway, the top of the hill was the goal. I guesstimate the run was 4 miles up, maybe a mile and a half down. At the top was a cool monastic church that was re-built in the 16th century. It was destroyed by the turks during the Battle of Vienna (not the 1945 battle) it's where the Holy Roman Empire launched their offensive and broke the siege of the city - marking an end to muslim expansion into Europe. Just a little history note for ya. Anyway, more on the run - we took a detour of about 3 miles into the woods, saw some deer, gained some good elevation, and kept a steady pace considering it was 94 degrees out. Might also explain why more people hiked the path than ran it. Quite a bit of traffic really since the wineries are open on Sunday and everything in town is closed. It's something to add to the "to-do" list if you ever visit but I wouldn't recommend wine and the heat in summer.

Threw in some burpees, vertical jumps, box jumps, and backwards running in for fun!  i.e. 100 m backwards, 100 normal, etc.

WOD:
Run, burpees, vert. jumps, box jumps, etc. Made it up as I went along.