"Scientific Research" (part 12 and 13 of many)

Right photo. The last beer in Vienna before taking the plane back to Holland: Schneider Weisse. Another good red beer. Drank in the WienerWauld.

Left photo. This is the beer I investigated in Bratislava: Kelt. You know Slovakia used to form a single country with the Czecks. No wonder, Slovak beer is so good.

Our favourite eating spot in Vienna

Denise and Thales discovered this restaurant right downtown Vienna. Excellent food, and plenty of it: half a chicken with all-you-can-eat salad plus another dish of our choice for less than 10 Euros!

Wiener Philharmoniker and Mahler

When I was a teenager all I wanted to do was to play my guitar and listen to classical music. I used to purchase those old (new at the time) vinyl long players of the most important philharmonic orchestras whenever I had enough money saved from any source available (BTW: the long players were 33 RPM, not 78 RPM ... I am not that old :-D ). Among them were the big 3 orchestras, from Vienna, Amsterdam and Berlin, the best in the world.

Therefore, I felt as a dream come true when I watched the Wiener Philharmoniker play in its own house, the Musikverein Theatre in Vienna. And it was a very special program, which included a Schumann overture and the 5th symphony of Gustav Mahler. Mahler, who at the end of the 19th century was himself the director of the Wiener Philharmoniker, is one of my favourite composers.

It was an unforgettable event that my wife, my son and I shared together, closing our 10 days stay in Vienna with a golden key.

Can you imagine a world without Mozart?

What does the crescent-shaped croissant shown in the picture and the title, a world without Mozart, have to do to each other, you may ask. Well, everything. Let me explain.

Without this shaped croissant there would have been no Mozart!

After conquering Constantinople, in 1453, the Ottoman Turks moved their war machine towards Europe. After failing to conquer Rome, in 1480, they stretched their power to the heart of Europe. Vienna itself was sieged twice. In 1529, led by Suleiman, the Magnificent, 120,000 soldiers were repelled by a defensive force of 23,000 composed of Austrians, Czechs, Germans and Spanish. The second siege, also known as the Battle of Vienna, took place in 1683. Things were going from bad to worse for the besieged Habsburgs and Vienna was about to be stormed by the Ottoman forces led by the Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha (that is a mouth full) representing the Caliph Mohamed IV himself. Vienna was saved in the last minute by the cavalry. No, not the US cavalry. The Polish cavalry, the Hussars, under King Sobieski, stormed the Ottomans in what is considered the largest cavalry charge in history, saving Vienna and Europe.

To celebrate the victory, the Viennese designed a crescent-shaped croissant, after the Crescent symbolizing the invading Ottomans.

Had the Ottomans conquered Vienna, then the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, it would have been more than a symbolic victory. It would have given additional incentive for the continuation of the Ottoman invasions into Europe. What would have happened? Well, nobody knows.

What I know is that had Vienna fallen, the artistic and musical environment that flourished there a few decades later would have never developed.

Can you imagine a world without Mozart? Or without Beethoven? Without a waltz of Strauss. Without the symphonies and Hungarian Dances by Brahms? No Haydn? No Shubbert? No Mahler? No Bruckner? Well, that almost happened? Thanks to some brave European who knew how to defend their house.

And let us eat croissants! And listen to Mozart! (for example, Ave Verum)

Bratislava

On Saturday we visited Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, just 50 minutes by train from Vienna. Bratislava has a very beautiful historical centre. Overlooking it, it is Castle Hrad (unfortunately, under repairs, so, we could only see its outside and the amazing view of the city it offers). There is also the UFO-like tower on top of the bridge that overpasses the Danube River. Overall, it was a very nice visit.

We had lunch in a small tavern, when I savoured a dish recommended by my Master's student Liliana: bryndzove halusky so slaninkou a smotanou. Delicious!

On our return to Vienna, we took a twincityliner cruise through the Danube. Unforgettable.

Salzburg

Salzburg is the city where Mozart was born. Where he was forced into music by his father, Leopold, himself a musician. Leopold saw in Mozart a fountain of money due to his skils with musical instruments. Later, Mozart became the composing genius that we all admire.

Salzbrug is also the city of the Sound of Music, a movie that every single Austrian I asked about said he or she had never hear of it. Strange.

The picture shows the Gardens in Mirabell Palace, including the fountain where famous 'Do-Re-Mi' song from the Sound of Music was recorded. In the background we can see Hohensalzburg Castle, the old residence of the archbishops of Salzburg.

"Scientific Research" (part 11 of many)

On Thursday, 6, Denise, Thales and I enjoyed a nice dinner in the company of Landon and his girl-friend Sarah. We went to the restaurant located on the top of the panoramic tower in Vienna, close to the convention center where the EGU was taking place. It was like a nice celebration for the poster Landon presented that same afternoon.

Landon and I scrutinized the contents of Zipfer, one liter in total.

Poster at EGU2010

This picture shows Landon and me in front of the poster Landon presented during the 2010 European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, in Vienna. The title of the poster: Evaluation of different strategies for mitigating azimuthally asymmetric tropospheric delays.

Hofburg Imperial Palace and Franz Josef I

Vienna is a typical European city, where you trip over History at every corner. In the middle of it all, we find Hofburg Imperial Palace, the official residence of the Austrian Imperial Family, the House of Habsburg (and later, Habsburg-Lorraine). We visited Hofburg on Monday, 3.

In this Palace lived the de facto last emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I (1830-1916). He reigned in a time when the monarchic rule was under pressure by the republican ideals everywhere in Europe and in the Americas.

His reign was marked by a failures in foreign policy and by personal tragedies. In his personal life, he had an unhappy marriage with the egocentric and anorexic Empress Elizabeth, more commonly known as Sisi, who was more interested in riding horses, traveling and enjoying her lovers. During his lifetime, Emperor Franz Joseph witnessed the death of his young daughter and the suicide of his son and heir to the throne. He also saw the murder of his wife by an Italian anarchist. As far as external policy goes it includes the defeat in the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, the defeat in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and finally, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. Maybe he faced his biggest challenge at the end of his life, when his nephew and heir to the throne, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo. His reaction led to the beginning of World War I, that engulfed the European countries like a collapsing castle of playing cards. Franz Josef died during the war, and with him the Empire. Even though he was succeeded by grand-nephew Karl, the Empire ended with the war, and the Republic of German Austria was proclaimed.

The picture shows the current coat-of-arms of Austria, Österreich, the "Eastern Realm", with an eagle holding a scythe (representing agriculture) and a hammer (representing industry). The chains represent freedom from National Socialism.

What is the legacy of the Empire? Music, arts and culture.

Wiener Mozart Konzerte

Monday evening (May 3rd) we watched a Mozart concert in which all orchestra members dress in 18th century style, including wigs, coats and stockings. It is played by a small orchestra (the correct size for the time) formed by selected musicians from the symphonic and philharmonic orchestras (as the ad says). It was a very nice concert, actually, where selected pieces were played, including a few overtures, aria solos, a concert for flute and the first movement of Symphony 40. The interesting was that during the Rondo Alla Turca, the director faced the audience and started directing it: the audience responded with rhythmic claps. Watch part of it here.

Schloss Schönbrunn Palace

On Saturday, May 1st, we visited Schloss Schönbrunn Palace, the Summer residence of the Austrian imperial family, the Habsburgs. The palace is located in a huge area, referred to as the Schönbrunn Park, with gardens, the zoo, a maze, a look-out (known as the Gloriette) and nice walkways among the trees.

The Habsburgs ruled Austria, and the surrounding countries, for over 600 years. They were very successful in promoting a series of dynastic marriages, which made them very influential in Europe. Let us look at one example, Maria Leopoldina, archduchess of Austria. She was the daughter of Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, with his second wife Maria Teresa. Leopoldina married the crown prince, and heir to the Portuguese throne, Pedro de Alcântara. At that time, the Portuguese royal family was living in Brazil due to the Napoleonic Wars (curiously, Leopoldina's sister Marie Louse was Napoleon's wife). A few years later, she would be instrumental in Brazil's independence from Portugal.

The Palace has several apartments that belonged to Francis Josef I, to whom I will talk about in another entry.

"Scientific research" (part 10 of many)

After leaving Schönbrunn Palace we enjoyed a nice outdoor dinner. During this occasion, I investigated a glass of Gösser, another Austrian beer.

The interesting thing is that there is a beer mug called Kaiser. Well, Kaiser is a popular beer brand in Brazil. It's advertisement even says that "Kaiser is a great beer." Not in Austria: Kaiser is just a mug where they keep cutlery and napkins.

Marionette magical flute

Vienna is music, and music is Mozart. We ended up the very entertaining day watching Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) during the evening. The characters are all played by marionettes (before you ask me, no, they do not sing, it is all playback).

You know that marionettes are an Austrian tradition, don't you? If not, you should watch The Sound of Music's The Lonely Goater.

In the picture, it is Mozart "in person."

Ray-tracing Workshop

On Thursday and Friday, 29 and 30 April, I participated in the Ray-Tracing Workshop, organized at TU Vienna by prof. Johannes Böhm. This Workshop had the participation of people from several countries, such as Austria, Japan, France, the US, and, obviously, Canada. Two busy days, with presentations and discussions on how to enhance the use of numerical weather models (the same ones used in weather forecasting) for satellite positioning.

In total, we had 3 presentations, which I co-authored with my student Landon Urquhart and with my former student Felipe Nievinski. By the way, the workshop ended a two-month period that Landon spent at TU Vienna.

10 days in Vienna

On Wednesday, 28 April, we travelled to Vienna, the city of music, old houses and emperial monuments. I came here for a busy 10 days of work, including a Workshop at TU Vienna, the EGU 2010 Meeting and a technical visit. At the same time, we did enjoyed Vienna and surroundings the best way we could.