We (Hugo, Rob and Vivienne) arrived in Vienna end of May 2014. The schools in Finland closes for the summer recess always at the end of May, therefore Hugo had this time a long summer break. This wasn't the case when we moved from Belgium to Finland, then he and Noa had only a few weeks. So sometimes you win, sometimes you loose. Now he was lucky.

Noa decided she wanted to do her IB with us in Vienna at the VIS and not in Reading UK, therefore she moved back in with us. You can imagine we were all very happy!

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Rob worked for Brau Union in Linz, which is 170km away. He took the train to Linz, every day for four years. On the train he could work, when back home he was "free". (Needles to say Rob is never free of work).

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Vienna is always in the top 3 of most liveable countries in the world.  The high lights of living in Austria, in beautiful and vibrant Vienna were definitely the balls at the Hofburg or Rathaus. Noa and Hugo worked at the Wiener Kaffee Sieder Ball several times. Also Noa and Hugo were debutants at their own graduation Ball at the Rathaus. Another Ball is the Life Ball in front of the Rathaus, famous as the "world aids ball", this Ball is one of a kind. It's all about to see and be seen. 

There's a lot of great places and events to visit, like the Christmas markets, skating at the ice-rink in front of the Rathaus, Foodfestivals, Craftbeer Events, Popfestivals like Rock in Vienna and Frequency, and the Wiener Wies'n. Austrians like to spend time in bars and restaurants and enjoy food and drinks. We had very nice dinners in the city but our favourite 'home-restaurant' was the tapas bar Puerta del Sol.

At our farewell from Brau Union we received a rosebush in the Volksgarten. It has the following text on it;

"We didn't realise we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun".

Dear Viv and Rob, good luck on the next leg of your journey!

....your friends and colleagues in Austria.

We believe it is fantastic that there is a remembrance of the Kleinjans in Vienna for all people to enjoy. What an amazing gift.

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We did not go skiing that often, because Vienna is far East in the country.  But we compensated that by ski-weeks and weekends. And of course by enjoying every year, 2 of the most famous Austrian ski-events, the Hahnenkamm Races (Downhill) and the Schladming Nightslalom. Rob even participated twice in the Kitzbuhl celebrity races after the Downhill race in Kitzbuhl. But also the Red Bull Playstreet through Bad Gastein is a spectacular event. Here freestyle skiers are competing with jumps and skills skiing over the rooftops, staircases and railings in Bad Gastein.

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In October and November are the bockbeer-anstichs, which Brau Union Austria had a lot because of our many breweries in Austria. Our favourite was the Bockbeer-anstich in Schleppe Brewery in Klagenfurt. In the Eventhalle at Schleppe is a craft brewery with the best craftbeer from Austria as well as the Pfau Brennerei which makes beautiful flavoured distilled products.

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Last but not least there is of course the Formula 1 at Spielberg. We are big Formula 1 fans and we have both been in the VIP area. Highlight was however when we were allowed to visit the paddock and as cream on the cake our visit to the pit of the team of Max Verstappen/Red Bull. 

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We have travelled quite a lot through Austria in the time that we lived there. And we enjoyed every minute of it. 

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