Stadtrundfahrt
Stadtrundfahrt
In hale and hearty spirits did I start this day. The promise of a Stadtrundfahrt (city tour) of Innsbruck. Milos would be leading this march into the city unknown. While the rest went skiing, I had decided the previous night that this endeavor would be rather too adventurous for me, hence the city tour.
Departed at 09:00 from the Grillhof, fresh snow all around us. It really was a winter wonderland. I had unfortunately miscalculated just how cold it would get. The Bus Line J took us to Museumstrasse and there on, we went on to the Franciscan Church or Hofkirche. It was just too cold there, and De Jong and I found ourselves jumping to keep warm. The church was quite interesting and the life-size bronze statues had us in awe. The monumental tomb of Maximilian (empty) was a sight to behold. Unfortunately there was incense and a strong hint of myrrah in the air, due to which I just couldn’t breath properly (owing to my ill health the day before).
We left the Hofkirche and walked to the Goldenes Dachl, a beautiful sight indeed, had we not been freezing in our pants! Rocio and I decided that indeed we had had enough, and would search for a cafe, to relax and unwind and generally warm up! And here it was, Cafe Munding! Loved the place. Some of the people had the right idea and took a Hot Chocolate (more on that a little later) while I chose a normal Latte.
The Hot Chocolate was served in a most remarkable manner. They served a cup of milk and a bar of chocolate which you dip in, and dissolve in the milk yourself. A most unique way of serving, and the end results? Belissimo! I never have tasted a Hot Chocolate more delish than this delight! Rocio snapped pictures of the same and I hope she will upload them.
Back at the Grillhof, the Skiing team hadn’t arrived back yet, so we took the time off and relaxed at the Grillhof, going for walks and enjoying our time. At 17:00 Yongwu arrived and he and I held an IMS LD Level B & C workshop together. The amount of interest generated was very encouraging indeed. Yongwu demonstrated CoSMoS and it was generally agreed upon to follow up this session with another, the very next day.
It was around this time that my health took a nosedive, and I started feeling == crap. Dinner at 19:00 I barely scraped through the horrible fare. The saving grace once again was the honor of dining with Dr. Klamma and his lovely wife, and Markus. The Bulgarian delegation promised drinks at the end of the evening, and we decided to head there after a wee walk through the woods with Milos, a girl from Tallin U in Estonia and Tim De Jong. Milos regaled us with tales from his army days, as we trudged through the woods, in the cold cold weather (in retrospect, a very bad choice indeed!). Nearly got lost a number of times, but found our way back following Milos! Viva el Milos!
A snow-angel later, got back to the Bulgarian Evening and had a couple of wine shots. They were serving home made stuff, which Markus told me was 53% alcy, brr! After the tryst with Weizen on Monday, I steered clear of this, despite repeated urging by Markus and the others. Instead, struck up a conversation with Susanne Heyer from Vienna, who, incidentally is pursuing a very similar endeavor with regard to development of an IMS LD Design Environment using graphical notations. She has had some measure of success with Level A and B constructs, and it shall indeed be very interesting to see the results of this project. I think there could be room for some collaboration betwitxt the OU and UoV in this regard. They have an advanced project and we have the know-how and a deep understanding of the spec. I shall follow this up as soon as I am feeling a wee better. Their project runs till May 2007.
I had to bid everyone a hasty farewell then, for I was really feeling under the weather, and as I cut across the courtyard to my room, I could seriously feel the effects of my bravados earlier this day.
More pictures? Find them on my Flickr page!
