Spring arrivals - outdoor, in hospital and in shops

The past weekend presented itself as the first sign of spring with sunshine, warm temperatures and typical springsounds - young boys' motorbikes and chainsaws. One would expect to cross roads with these sounds on the countryside - especially chainsaws are rarely used within city limits - but on a lengthy walk through the Prater on saturday afternoon we did hear both of them right in the heart of Vienna and this was the clear signal for us that winter is over soon and we can start looking forward to spring.

Not only nature wakes up and re-starts life after hibernation, sunday also marked the beginning of a series of new life within our friends: Leo, Mimi and Bruno's second son has arrived on Sunday evening with healthy 54cm and 4050g and is such the first one of 4 babies within our group of friends that are currently expected for 2009. We have not had a chance yet to meet Leo, but will soon visit the enlarged family.

The new member of Bella Familia

Tuesday evening Markus supported Austrian Airlines and boarded a plane to London for a business trip and Thursday evening Kerstin as well as Peter and Lini will follow him for a weekend in the UK capital. We haven't got a detailed plan yet what we are going to do, but one can expect a lot of pegnancy outfit shopping and dining. As the British Pound is still pretty much depressed versus the EUR the weekend might either be cheap or we will return with excess luggage.

Kerstin & Markus

Sledgehammer - the soft version

For Saturday we have planned a day on the ski-slopes and/or on the sledge-track on the Semmering, a mountain 70km from Vienna. Unfortunately the flu-epidemic hit the Bella Familia and thus instead of a group of 25 people it was only Max & Bruno as well as Maria, Mirko & Valentin who met with us on Saturday to drive south. While it was relatively nice in Vienna with sunshine and only a few clouds the Semmering was all cloudy and due to a strong foehn wind the temperatures were as high as 10 degrees when we arrived. As a result the snow was quite wet and slushy, but therefore soft and any crashes did not hurt much.

We started off on the beginner's sledge-hill in order to get used to the conditions and give Valentin and Max a chance to also do some sledge runs and it we all enjoyed the short runs a lot. Valentin, though getting snow-spray in his face upon each attempt to slow down, was all smiling and laughing. After an extensive lunch break – sledge-racing makes everyone very hungry – the sun came out and the joy increased even more. Once Evi & Christoph as well as Manu, Robert & Moritz arrived early afternoon we wanted to go for the long sledge track down the Zauberberg, but we were warned that due to the high temperatures the track is extremely wet and it was not recommended to go for it. Slightly disappointed we returned to the beginner's hill and did a few races there before having a refreshments and returning back home late afternoon.

Anyone available to pull me?

The fun factor was high (see the pics and videos), the little ones enjoyed it a lot and if we listen more carefully to the weather forecast us adults might also be challenged on the 3km long tobogganing track next time. We will be back - ideally with the larger group of people once the flu is over.

Kerstin & Markus

The end of an era

In 1 month and 23 days the engines will be restarted and finally we will have the Formula 1 back! Last year’s title race has been one of the most exciting in the recent history not only due to the floodlit night race in Singapore but also as it was a really tight one from the very first race and was decided only in the last corner of the race in Interlagos. Most of you might remember that Lewis Hamilton crowned himself to the youngest Formula One World Drivers' Champion ever while Brazilian Felipe Massa broke out in tears when crossing the finishing line in his home country as winner, but learning that Hamilton gained the vital point by overtaking Timo Glock in the very last corner of this crazy race with rain.

As always there have been several changes in the regulatory environment (tyres, aerodynamics, etc.) and also many personnel changes within the teams in the off-season, but two amendments are ground-breaking. First of all the global economic crisis hit Bernie Ecclestone’s circus and resulted in Honda withdrawing from the Formula 1. The Japanese carmaker has been a cornerstone of the Formula 1 since the 1960s and has won many world championships before withdrawing in late 1992 just to return into the competition in 2000. During the past 8 seasons no more world championship could be won and cost pressure paired with the economic crisis forced Honda to withdraw from the most prestigious motor-racing competition.

Jochen Rindt, Jacky Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna etc - he knew them all!

For Austrians though the end of an era has arrived as Heinz Prueller, THE voice of Formula 1 in Austrian public television, ORF, will not act as commentator of the races anymore. Unfortunately the contract with the 67 year-old legend has not been prolonged and thus one of his young colleagues will take over. Prueller has been part of the Formula 1 circus since 1965, knows all racers ever since personally and has presented each race with his heart blood. Given the huge knowledge and experience and the huge amount of information he had to deliver he missed though every now and then crashes, overtaking manoeuvres or pit stops and only realised it a few laps later, but still his commentating was entertaining. We do hope that Heinz will remain part of ORF's TV broadcast of the Formula 1 one way or the other and wish him farewell and his successor Ernst Hausleitner good luck for the challenge.

Kerstin & Markus

We learn something new every day

Tuesday we have taken a day off and we used the opportunity to spend the afternoon again in the zoo in Schoenbrunn. A bit more than a year ago Austria was completely crazy about the giant panda baby Fu-Long which has been conceived and born in a natural way in the vienna zoo. There was a real frenzy about the little fluffy animal and one had to queue for up to two hours to be able to watch him for a few minutes (if lucky). Nowadays he is not only much more active and visible but also significantly bigger than last year and we watched him for 15 minutes playing with a plastic ball, eating bamboo or exploring the environment indoors.

Afterwards we visited one of the most beautiful whilst most stinking animals: the giraffes. One can smell them from hundreds of metres, yet we love to take a look at them every time we come to the zoo. The height of these animals, paired with the graceful motions makes them one of our favourites. After a short pit-stop at the lemurs and white handed gibbons – two kinds of animals that are hyper-active and very funny to watch – we followed the feeding of the African elephants and learned that an elephant is pregnant for 22 months and a young elephant weighs up to 100kg and has a shoulder height of ca 90cm. Is that the reason for the many wrinkles elephants have?

So beautiful and yet so stinky!

While the young Siberian tigers were fast asleep after their feeding the seals were spectacular as always during their feeding – jumping for fish out of as well as into the water, grunting to get attraction from the caretaker as well as kisses and hugs for him are parts of their show. Check out the pictures of this action-laden late-lunch.

Even though the zoo has many attractions already it is constantly improving and expanding. There are permanent construction works going on and soon new parts will be finished. The most recent addition is an area with sweet-water fish which one can/could find in our region: pikes, zander, trouts, wels catfish, huchen or a 1m long beluga. If you wonder about the latter - even this fish famous for its caviar used to be found in the Danube prior to the construction of the backwater regulations.

We concluded the afternoon with some hot chocolate in the Kaiserpavillon (emperor’s pavillon) before making our way home again. Having refreshed our one year pass – for 29 EUR one can go to the zoo 365 days per year compared to 12 EUR for a one day admission – we will definitely be back soon again searching for new parts in the zoo.

Kerstin & Markus

Plenty of fresh air and sunshine

Having come back home on Sunday afternoon Markus stayed there only shortly as after a one day road show to Frankfurt on Monday he got into his car on Wednesday afternoon to drive in even more wintry conditions than the week before to Bregenz and on Thursday morning on to Lech, where his team hosted the EMEA Investor and Ski Seminar. 15 investors followed the invitation to the 10th edition of this event at which investors have the opportunity to meet with company representatives and analysts in both formal meetings as well as informal discussions on the slopes of the Arlberg region.

The weather conditions could not have been better, as from Monday until Wednesday the region got some fresh snow - though less than the east and south of Austria. The clouds disappeared and gave way for blue ski and sunshine on Thursday and temperatures dropped to -19 degrees during the nights which provided the perfect environment for hard slopes and preserved also the snow off-piste.

As close to perfect as possible

The sportive highlights this year have been the heli-skiing on Friday. A group of 14 skiers + Harry and Michael, two guides from the Alpincenter ,was brought up to find an untouched set of slopes in front of them allowing them to put the first marks into the powder snow - the ultimate satisfaction for every skier! The number of crashes was rather limited and no-one suffered any injuries, but we have had a few good laughs about crashes, lost skis and humble falls – both the pictures as well as videos provide evidence for that. The flipside of the off-piste heli-skiing is the 30 minute walk out of the valley with skies on which demands all energy reserves and is followed by a quite fast race on a narrow path through the woods.

Wind and noise at the beginning - untouched slopes in the end

Due to the rather small group relative to the past years and less demand we broke a tradition and cancelled the toboggan race (which Markus finished first in 5 out of 6 editions but was always disqualified by his boss for dubious reasons) and we instead organized a timed parallel ski race with knock-out stages. After two easy victories Markus was drawn against the favourite, his former colleague Florian who timed the fastest run in his first run (35:94), in the quarterfinal. The race was very tight and Florian was ahead after a mistake in the middle part, but he showed nerves himself and a flawless lower part of the course gained Markus the victory in this head-to-head with his fastest time of the day (36:22). This victory paved the way for winning the competition. Doubts about a possible disqualification emerged after winning the last run against Markus’s boss Fritz, but after all the victory was undisputed. We guess, we will do the toboggan race next year again.

While the nights were rather quiet with dinner and fondue on Thursday and Friday night in Hotel Kristberg, owned and run by former Ski World Champion and Olympic Gold medallist Egon Zimmermann we had a big bash on Saturday night in Restaurant Alter Goldener Berg where the local trio “Handgestrickt” – consisting of Erwin, Ernesto and Ricardo - provided the musical background and we sang along soulfully from the very beginning. The poor couples who have booked a romantic dinner in the room next door have definitely not got the peace they were hoping for but rather lots of noise, laughter, singing and dancing. Some of them even joined us in the end and no-one was upset. The singing even continued in the last cable car that we just managed to get to come down to the village again and our voices were pretty sore.

After easy and slow skiing on Sunday morning with low temperatures of -13 degrees and heavy wind as well as clouds in the sky the departure was made more easy as we have been spoiled with perfect weather the days before. The drive home was unproblematic as traffic towards Vienna was virtually non-existing thanks to the school holidays that have started on Saturday.

Kerstin & Markus

Kitzbuehel - where investors, party animals and modern gladiators meet

The 15th International Investor Conference in Kitzbuehel which has taken place the past few days and was organized by Markus’ employer UniCredit MIB was a great success again. During two days 56 investors had meetings with the most important and largest Austrian companies listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange and the main message they got was, that the trough in the economy is probably going to be for longer. Visibility for sales and earnings is very low and that makes it extremely difficult to judge when the recovery can kick in.

After the business part and the meetings both the Kitzbuehel slopes as well as the nightlife were visited - the Hahnenkamm race weekend turns the city every year into huge party-place. Friday night Markus and his clients dived into the crowds at the Weisswurst-Party in Going at the Stanglwirt, which is every year the hotspot for celebrities the night before the downhill race. Masses of people including A-, B- and C-celebrities squeezed through the stables of Balthasar Hauser’s huge complex eating the famous sausages alongside beer, champagne or stronger drinks and listening to the really impressive live act, the Sumpfkroeten. A mere disappointment was the main act, Bonnie Tyler who only performed 4 songs playback. Clearly her time is long over. The night was concluded at the A1 Kitz Night hosted by one of the main sponsors of the race weekend, mobile telecom provide A1 where Markus and his clients and colleagues danced away to cool soul & funk tunes alongside Austria’s beachvolleyball player Nik Berger and Judo Bejing Olympic silver medallist Ludwig Paischer.

Usually a horse stable. Once a year a stuffed party place - Stanglwirt's Weisswurstparty

Saturday Markus et al hit the slopes to watch the downhill race close to the Mausefalle near the top of the course, climbed up to the startin area to take a close look at the athletes (watch Patryk Jaerbin get on the way to the race) and enjoyed the slopes with perfect skiing weather. In the afternoon, when the race was over and the crowds were gone Markus, his boss Fritz and two clients decided to go down the Streif. They entered just above one of the key-areas, the Steilhang, and what they saw there was absolutely unbelieveable. Not only is the Steilhang extremely steep but also absolutely icy. The area where the racers make turns is not hard snow which allows grip (the kind of slope we as “normal” skiers like) but pure ice. Its not only the speed at which the racers ski down the hill but also the slope conditions which are stunning. For the four the only possibility to go down the Steilhang was with tight turns at the sides of the race-line. The middle-part of the Streif – between Brueckenschuss until Hausbergkante – were in perfect conditions and allowed normal skiing. One only needed to slow down ahead of jumps like at the Seidl-Alm. The bottom of the slope (Hausberg, Traverse & Zielschuss) showed a similar picture as the Steilhang: ice. One needs to be mental to ski this slope with up to 140km/h as the racers did a few hours earlier.

The racers can't enjoy this view as they have better things to do when they ski this turn

Saturday night the successful conference and great weekend were concluded at the official race party at the Kitz Race Night and after an early skiing day leaving the hotel on Sunday at 0900 again with sunshine and cold temperatures Markus left the town just before the slalom race ended and the crowds fled Kitzbuehel to reach Vienna in the late afternoon. And probably next year he will do all that again.

Kerstin & Markus

Snow on and off

Vienna was turned into a wintry environment on the weekend with decent snowfall all Saturday night and Sunday long and everything would have been perfect for an afternoon of sledge-racing with Rosemarie on Jesuitenwiese. Unfortunately she became a victim of mumps and we had to postpone.

Warm temperatures at the beginning of the week took away all the snow again and not much was left after the rain on Wednesday. After a day on the road in Vienna visiting clients with three of his Polish analysts he made his way by car to Kitzbuehel where UniCredit hosted its International Investor Conference. Together with a client he drove through first rain followed by ice rain and then snow fall that covered the highway and made driving far from easy. But ultimately the two reached their destination. The next days will be fulfilled with lots of meetings with investors and Austria’s leading companies as well the Weisswurstparty in Going on Friday evening, the Hahnenkamm downhill race on Saturday and skiing in the mountains surrounding Kitzbuehel. Hoping for an exciting race and good skiing!

Kerstin & Markus

Search for the limit

Sunday morning we set our alarm very early as we had a lot to prepare for the guest we expected, but we were woken up by a sound that we haven’t heard so far this winter: the sound made when shovelling snow. Even though the thermometer showed -8 degrees (which we believed is too cold for snow) we were presented a winter-environment with ca 5cm of fresh snow. It looked fabulous and the fact that it was so cold and there was no wind made us confident that it could last for a while (apart from on the roads). Once awake we got on the task of preparing everything for a quite huge crowd of 16 adults + 5 children (between 8,5 months and 5,5 years) which signed up to come for a brunch on the occasion of Kerstin’s birthday.

Freshly squeezed juices (apple/carrot/orange and orange), freshly cut fruit salad, pineapple with mint & sugar, yoghurt, cheese, sausage & vegetable platters, bakes beans, sausages & scrambled eggs as well as fresh bread & bread rolls needed preparing and after more than 2 hours we were done and were expecting the first guests to come. By 1130 we could call it a “full house”, the espresso machine was running on full steam and the “chef de cuisine” Markus did his best to keep everyone happy and feeding. A birthday song by Kerstin’s godchild Rosemarie accompanied us toasting to Kerstin’s health during the break between the Men’s Slalom in Adelboden and the ski flying competition in Bad Mitterndorf shown on TV.

Noone had to leave with hunger - there was enough for all of us

Later on we left for a walk in the snow-covered Prater where Markus tried the sledge hill on

Jesuitenwiese (which is floodlit and serviced with artificial snow) on a plastic bag which is not exactly the right vehicle - hence the decision was taken to go and get a proper sledge as lateron this week. With some help from Peter&Lini and Mimi, Bruno&Max we reduced the food pile a bit more and then focussed on cleaning the elevator and anteroom of our flat which were both flooded with water, dirt and gravel from the street. The day was definitely a stress-test for the flat (we don’t think much more people can be accommodated during winter times without the terraces) and it has coped with bravery. Especially Kerstin enjoyed the day with many of our friends a lot, even though we were dead tired in the evening and fell asleep very early ahead of a normally long week.

Kerstin & Markus

Donny - the only one missing!

Winter has taken its grip on Vienna this week with temperatures dropping to -8 degrees and even during the day not reaching positive territory. The only thing missing to have a perfect winter setting is the snow. Some people are quite happy about that as snow in Vienna is fun for something like 1 hour after it stops snowing as the salt that is poured on the roads in order to avoid icy surface turns the roads and pavements into alleys through grey heaps of snow or better said slush. We also prefer snow outside the city and don’t mind the situation as it is.

2 lanes, 20 pins and 10 dudes means a lot of fun

In order to get some activity the Bella Familia organised a bowling night on Thursday after work in the Brunswick Bowling Wien-Prater, very close to our home. Dude Pete, Chesus Maria and Sobchak Markus hit the lanes alongside Hunter Chris, Bella Isa, Rolandinho, Chesus (Gery) and Du (Mirko) as well as Thomas and Kerstin (whose nicknames we can’t remember) and rolled balls just like in the Coen brothers’ classic “The Big Lebowski”. Supported by little Valentin, Maria and Mirko’s 11,5 month year old son we tried to give our best, but it was quite obvious that we haven’t been bowling in quite a while looking at the inconsistent performance. The motivation of a plate of (really good) French Fries helped that all of us at least scored one strike in the 3 games we played and we also got Valentin hooked up to fast food already, so we can celebrate his birthday already together with Ronald McDonald. All of us have been winners that night, be it for the high score of almost 160 points, the biggest number of double 0s bowled or the highest speed of 34,6 km/h. It was very good fun and we decided to organize a night of ten-pin bowling more frequently going forward.

Kerstin & Markus

HAPPY 2009 !

We've welcomed the new year with Kerstin's closest family (only Sandra and Flo were missing) with Raclette, games of Jenga and Hornochse and stunning fireworks prepared by Markus. The icing on the cake was fresh snow - it has started at 2200 and snowed until 0100 providing a romantic setting. After some decent brunch we will unfortunately end our holiday and get on our way back to Vienna this afternoon as Markus has to go back to work tomorrow.

We wish all of you a successful 2009, health and joy throughout the year!

Kerstin & Markus