The Neutral Zone

Vienna, Austria en route to Prague, Croatia - I'm writing to you from a train transiting northwest to Prague from Vienna. These are some final impressions of Vienna we wanted to leave you with. Like some other posts, I'm going to use bullet points here because I am unable or unwilling to weave these mostly unrelated points into a meaningful narrative. Frankly, I don't think there's a good way to transition you, dear reader, from say, our experience at the historical art museum, to say, the our experience at various Christmas markets scattered around Vienna. Anyway, here it goes: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Historical Art Museum Vienna) We quite liked this museum. The museum building itself is spectacular. It was built in the late 19th century in the twilight of the Austrian empire. No expense was sparred to prop up the cultural relevance of the nation. The neo-baroque grand entry hall takes you up a stunning marble staircase with neoclassical statuary and ador...

Zurich, Switzerland - We kicked off our Sunday with a lovely run from Zug to the neighboring town of Oberwil, about a 2.5 miles away. Our run took us along the lakeshore where we took in the Alps. Has to be one of the more scenic runs I've done. We had plans in Zurich, so after our run, we made our way to the Zug train station. There we spent time with a delightful ticketing agent, Stefan*. I was thoroughly perplexed by this amicable government employee as my recent experiences at the California DMV had prepared me for a somewhat more abrasive experience. Stefan, from all appearances, could not have been more pleased to help us navigate the Swiss train system. Stefan helpfully walked us though all the options for passes and gave us recommendations based on how we would use the transit system (commuting for me, intermittent use for H). Stefan then recommended we use ticketing kiosks for most purposes and he practically leaped over the counter in his eagerness to walk us through t...