60 days of things

Here are the things that would be nice for me to achieve from now till when Tina gets back.

1. Ride up Coyote creek trail by two routes, road and the ranch.
2. Get to the 40 mile mark riding.
3. Do one act of volunteering.
4. Go out with people every weekend. Find a way.
5. Get distance up to 8 miles for morning jogs.
6. Build , order missing pieces and set aside at least 3 of andrews' lego sets.
7. Do at least 3 Hikes with Rahul.
8. Go back to TKD
9. Get Cut.
10. Finish Algorithm course/ book.
11. Read one other book. Any.

So 11 things I keep thinking of doing, but never have gotten around to it. I will have about 60 days to do these things.  Best of luck to me.


===
I am now 20 days out.
1. I have hit 44 miles
2. I have been pretty social
3. Lego project was a success. built 5-6 models
4. Only one hike though.
5. Lost 8 pounds as of now. Not perfect, but good progress.
6. Read a star wars book
7. Got unto 5.5 miles in an hour
8. volunteer activity set up , not executed.

Halstatt and the Lake District.

This trip continues from our trip in Vienna.

Day 4:

Last morning in Vienna, we went back to Cafe Central.. Already felt like a local, the waiters recognized us and was extra nice. Told us that there were people in the cafe who had been sitting in the same place for many years. We were soaking in the Viennese cafe scene. I felt sad saying good bye to Vienna. Went back to the room and packed, and sharp at 10AM, Jan, our driver and guide, was there.

He was super nice. Young man , in his mid-20's , a part time EMT. He had water for us, and some juice for Andrew. Helped me with all my luggage. And we were off to Hallstatt!!


An interesting contrast between Vienna ( and, perhaps most old town centers in Europe) and California, was how long it took us to get to the freeway. It was 15-20 minutes of driving before we were zooming on the A1. The Weinerwald, woods outside of Vienna, were lush and green in stark contrast to the urban jungle of the city.  The area around Vienna starts off flat and gradually becomes hillier.

For the first half, we remained on the freeway and then took an exit that had us drive through the Trauensee area. I believe the road was the 144. This was a single lane highway in most places, and the driving was a bit slower. The Austrian countryside is very well manicured. All the houses are well maintained, and the tradition is to have bed of flowers hanging from each window.

We weaved through small towns and villages, with the jagged edges of Trauenstein looming in the horizon. I had not done much research on what to expect, and let Jan do the guiding. He offered to stop by Trauensee, and we were thrilled. There was a largish parking lot and just beyond that there was a large recreational area. Other visitors, and perhaps locals, were lounging in the grass, or wading in the water.

The scenery was surreal, A calm lake and a jagged mountain in the backdrop. I had never seen anything like it.

Andrew was super excited to be out somewhere he could run and stretch
and the lake was captivating. Ever since he was a baby, he was drawn to water. And he did not want to go back. We walked on to a floating pier (behind Tina), took some pictures and were set to go.

Poor Andrew had to be cajoled and coaxed back to the car. As we went further down the road, we were gifted with another gorgeous view.

This was postcard material. We had run across the two lane highway and took this picture of Trauenkirchen.

The church is on a little protrusion jutting into the lake , but from that angle , it almost felt, as though it was on an island in the middle of the lake.

Trauenkirchen on the Trauensee

The boat being there was just perfect. This was, for me, the single most iconic image of our trip. It captured the essence of why I am forever drawn to Europe.

From this spot, it took us another 30-40 minutes before we were in Halstatt. Our plan was to head up with funicular and have lunch at Rudolf-stromm. I had read that they serve a delicious trout, that is caught in the lake below, that only a very few fishermen are licensed to fish. The ride up the funicular gave us views of the lake, and of course, was always exciting for Andrew.

The views from the platform down onto the lake were gorgeous. We quickly found a table, ( a reminder as to why I prefer traveling that time of the year. ) And ordered the famous Trout. It did not disappoint.

View from the platform, with Rudolfstromm on the left.

After lunch, we then, headed down into the town, to meet up with Jan, who had offered to show us around town. I had looked up boating on the lake while we were at Lunch, and we headed first to a boat rental. We rented a four seater motor boat for 13 euros / 30 mins. The view of the town from the lake is jaw dropping.  A picturesque town and its church steeples framed in by rising verdant clifss just beyond.

Andrew was so happy to be on the water. Jan also came with us, I was surprised that in all his years driving, he had yet to go out onto the lake on a boat.

We spent the 30 minutes circling around looking for picture spots. But the sun was still a bit above the cliffs, and the glare was a bit too much. The scenery though will be etched in my mind forever.

Once we finished up the boat trip, we headed back to do a somewhat hasty tour of the rest of Halstatt.


Its safe to say that Halstatt is over-run by tourists. And the streets are lined with souvenir shops. Tina did some shopping here. I did not want to get into Salzburg very late and kept hurrying along. The town is built into the mountainside in rows. Starting at the lake and the progressively going higher in tiers.

So there was a fair bit of climbing involved, I was not in the best shape, and I struggled. We walked though the town to reach the Ossuary. A crypt where the skulls of the deceased were painted and kept in neat rows. I believe they did this, because they ran out of place to bury their dead, This was a way to keep their remains and honor them.

Hallstatt's Charming town square.

As we walked back to the car, both Tina and I felt that we should have stayed overnight in the town. It would have been lovely, but perhaps a little boring and lonely. Most of the visitors leave town by evening, but still, I felt that we may not have balanced our trip well between small towns and big towns.

The Ossuary.

Andrew was tired now, so I picked him and walked the half mile or so back to the car. I was done . Phew!!

I was glad that we had a driver taking us everywhere. We then sat back and relaxed for the ride to Salzburg.

Vienna

Check out Andrew.

We were lucky on our long flight from San Jose to Frankfurt. We had 4 seats for the three of us, and Andrew got to stretch out and fall asleep.

Day1

We arrived in Vienna around 1:20PM and found our pre-arranged cab. He helped us with our bags, and a 30 minute drive later we were checking into Hotel Steigenberger. The hotel had a complimentary mini bar.

The room was less posh than I had hoped for. But everything was nice and clean. The bathroom used frosted glass, that made light came through when your shut the door.

I tried out this beer they had in the minibar called Gosser, and it wasn't pretty. 

We rested and took a little rest, and then prepared to go explore the old city of Vienna.

Inside St Peters.

Our place was on Herrengasse, a short walk to the Graben, which is Vienna's chic pedestrian zone lined with high end fashion stores.  I had already scoped out some places to go eat, so I figured that we would walk past them to check them out. We found Bierhof right around the corner, and then headed onwards to St Peters. 

We checked out this small church first before heading onto Stephensplatz. We could spy the spires of the massive cathedral from a few blocks away. And we stepped into a very lively and bustling square dominated by the cathedral.

We walked around the square for a while. It was filled with tourists and touts selling concert tickets. The square was ringed by souvenir shops, restaurants , Hotels, and high end fashion brands. Why was quite strange though, was the fact that the stores were all closed. I discovered later that it was strong german and austrian labor laws that mandate the closure of store at  a reasonable hour.

St Stephens Cathedral

Coming from the US, the land of the 24-hour massive stores, this needed some getting used to. We took turns checking out the insides of the gigantic cathedral and then sauntered back to Bierhof.


The restaurant was on the side of a small alley between two buildings. We were seated quickly. The service was nice and prompt. The waitress was very sweet to Andrew. I had a Stein Weissbier . We noticed right away a couple of things. At restaurants serving Austrian food, the choices were fairly limited. Some 7-8 main dishes, and they all largely followed the format of Meat with a side of vegetables.


Tina and I were both reasonably happy with our meal, it cost us ~ 40 Eur. The one good thing about Silicon Valley prices, is that even Europe looks cheap in comparison. Then we headed back to Graben to grab some gelato. We picked Zanoni & Zanoni, For about a 1.5 Euro / Scoop, it beat prices in Baskin Robins by a mile. The ice cream was delicious. It had been a long day, so we walked back by the way of Hofburg palace, and settled in for the night.

Day2

During my prep for the trip , I had found a well recommended cafe for breakfast not 2 mins from the hotel, Cafe Central. The business has been there for over 140 years, housed in a historic building that used to be the stock exchange and once a bank.

Waiters in aprons milled around. The clientelle was a mix of locals and tourists. The inside was really charming and beautiful. The greatest minds of vienna and some of the worst dictators in Europe usef to frequent the place. What was most remarkable about the place was the top notch service and the presentation. And at the end of our meal , we discovered a vienese treasure, Staud's jams and spreads. We liked it so much that we decided to hunt down the source and get some home.

Cafe Central

I picked our hotel partly due to its proximity to Cafe Central. Tina is a big fan of a nice breakfast place. And it paid off. After breakfast, I took a quick walk back to Stephansplatz to get some european sims for our iPhones. It cost me a total of 20 euros for both phones. It included 1 GB of data and unlimited calls and messages. This was a ridiculously cheaper option compared to what AT&T was offering me. ATT wanted 80  bucks for both phones for 200 MB of data AND they would charge me per call.



With the phones setup, we set off for Schoenbrunn Zoo. We had to take 2 changes on the train to get there, but still it was reasonably painless, and Andrew was excited with the trains.

The zoo is part of the gardens of the palace of Schonbrunn. The palace and the garden are clearly modeled after Versailles. The gardens looked really nice, but we did not quite have the time to explore it.

The zoo was large, and had all sorts of animals. But because it was so hot, we didn't see a lot of the animals. The penguin cave and the bat cave were the highlights for Andrew. The bat cave was a 10 meter long pathway through almost pitch black darkness, with 20-30 bats flying around us. Andrew was quite brave and we did it twice.

One of the highlights of the zoo was this elevated ramp that they have built that slowly climbs above the trees for a nice view of the city. It was tiring to push the stroller up there but the views were really nice.



We wrapped up our day in the zoo, with lunch in a baroque style KaiserPavilion. The food was nice and I stuck to weissbier.

After lunch, we decided to go hunt Staud's Jams. We found out that its not easy to find stock of the jam in your average departmental store. So we tried to track down the actual - original store. This turned out to be a fool's errand, as we realized half way there, that they were closed .

I dropped Tina and Andrew to the hotel and headed out to the Museum of Natural History. This involved a glimpse of the stately building of the Ringstrasse.

Maria Teresa Platz with Kunsthistorisches Museum in the background

It was unbearably hot, and the wide plaza was dotted with tourists seeking shade in the perfectly trimmed trees and hedges.  I got the audio guide and checked my watch. I had about 2 hours to cover the museum while the family napped and regained their strength.

I was blown away by the size of the museum and how grand the entry lobby was. The exhibits themselves seemed a bit dated. And the vast majority of the people there seemed to be high school students.

The museum tour starts on the lower level through a sequence of rooms ending in the same lobby one starts from. The lower level focused in chronological order: Minerals, Fossils, Neolithic civilizations.
Whereas the upper floor focused on a massive taxidermy exhibit of pretty much every animal known to man. I basically had just enough time to just quickly walk through all of it.

Grand Staircase connecting the two levels

My favorite section was the fossil record. There were bird like creatures from 350 million years ago. Another favorite was the 35000 year old Venus of Wilendorf , a fertility symbol of prehistoric man.  Then there were metal works of humans from 7000-10000 years ago. What was clear to me was , even back then , people were capable of very adept artwork, sophisticated even by today's standards.  Just amazing!


At 6, with the Museum closing, I trekked back through the Volksgarten / Hofburg palace back to the hotel. I picked up Tina and Andrew, and off we went again, for a walk down Ringstrasse.

Andrew posing in front of the Parliament

We walked past the Austrian Parliament, The Rathaus, and also saw the Burg-theatre. The walk ended in a small playground where Andrew played for a bit. People were walking their dogs, taking a stroll, place was very relaxing.

We relaxed for 20 mins and gave Andrew some time to stretch and play, as I figured out which Tram to take to the Statsopera.  The Opera house was one the more grander buildings we had seen in innerstadt. But our true objective lay one block away, We were headed to the Sacher Cafe, home of Vienna's famous Sachertorte. Picked up a few slices and walked past the Albertina and the Austrian National Library.


It was time to pick a place for Dinner, and we had already decided that we would try out the well rated Regina Margherita. In the courtyard of a building a block away from our Hotel, the place was packed.

The gorgeous State Opera House, Vienna

We had a delicious meal, so far, the food in Europe had exceeded our rather low expectation. This establishment made some delicious and fresh Italian food.  After dinner , we went back to last night's Gelato place and repeated the feast.... Burp!!!

I had been up since 6, and had walked the whole day... It was lights out!

Day3:

We wanted to take this day a bit easy. Our mission to retrieved the much acclaimed Staud's jam continued. We headed off to Nashmarkt, Vienna's famed market. Just to realize that the store was not at the market. We realized the Staud's store was halfway across town.

Uber came to the rescue. And a twenty minute ride later, we were at Stauds. Tina plundered the store and we were off with our loot. We took the train back to the Hofburg.

The Hofburg was basically three separate exhibits with one ticket:

• The Royal Silver and Cutlery Collection
• Siri private quarters and her life
• The Royal apartments. 

Tina particularly enjoyed the second, as it brought the visitor an up, close and personal look of a begrudging empress. Her life was a sad tale of the weight of a life in court. 

We were exhausted after the Hofburg, because it was quite stuffy and hot. It didn't look like the museum expected it to be so hot and the ventilation was just not enough. 

MinoritenKirche, 13th Century Gothic Church

We emerged on the back side of the palace and this allowed us to discover another great restaurant, The Giovani at BankGasser. Just 3-4 minutes from the Hofburg, there was not a tourist in sight. 

They didn't even seem to have a Menu, just what was written on the board. Someone helped interpret what was on offer. And this place then proved to be the best we had so far. 

I ordered something that involved Beef-Cheeks. After lunch, we rested a little bit. I was too tired to go for another trip. So we used our last evening in Vienna just relaxing, doing some souvenir shopping and going back to the same restaurant again for Dinner. 

This time, the whole area seemed deserted, it was quite striking to me that Vienna would transition from a bustling tourist centre to a sleepy town in a matter of a couple of blocks. 

Europe 2016 - A long time coming.

So, the last hurdle has been crossed. Tina and I received our Schengen visas. We had to drive down to LA to apply for them at the Austrian Embassy. We made it into a vacation of sorts. Met my brother and his family. Andrew and Sihrana got along very well. The drive was pretty comfortable too. I get why americans love their SUVs.

So we will be leaving on Sep 10th from San Jose International at 3:20PM.  So we have less than 12 days for the trip to start. Excited.

Decided to not carry the SLR. Will have to do with the iPhones. Bought an extra charger and a couple of plug adapters.

Hotel Steigenberger: Wifi is free but no pool.
Hotel Bristol : Wifi is free but no pool.
Hotel Kings Court: Has Spa access for 10 Euro/person.

Some bad news transpired in the last 12 days. Tina's family did not get their schengen. They had applied with three weeks to spare, but it was not enough. This will sour things for her, I hope that the trip cheers her up.

Its Sep 10th and we leave today. Have a few more errands to run and some packing left to do.
Hopefully the flight wont be too full.

Vienna Weather Forecast

Salzburg Weather Forecast

Prague Weather Forecast

New Audi Q5

So Mar-17-2016 was a big day for us. We leased a new Audi Q5 2.0T , Premium Plus. I think everyone including the little one  is excited about the new car.

What I learned about the financial element. 

Despite haggling the MSRP by12%, The dealer refused to budge on the overheads on the lease costs, and those are substantial. The cost of money is a lot higher than the finance option, and there was an upfront charge. In short, the only advantage I see of leasing is to split a purchase into two halves.

1. The super expensive first half. 

2. And a reasonable second half. 

First Impressions 

We are at 100+ miles right now, so well within the break-in period for the tires and the engine. 

What I Love so far:

1. Looks - It was hands down the best looking SUV we tried. We looked at the X3 ( ugliest), GLC300 ( not too bad ), Infinity FX35, The Lexus 350. The best feature if the car are the tail lights and the headlights, and the beautiful Audi Grille.

2. Interiors: A bit on the plainer side, but very well refined and lots of attention to detail.

3. NAV and the center screen between the analog dials. Cant go wrong with Google maps. 

4. Audi Connect: Very nice and capable system. Next gas, or Next restaurant would be a nice touch on road trips.

5. Spaciousness: The cabin is super spacious, Plenty of room in the front and the back. One great feature is that the rear seats slide forward to make more room for cargo if needed. 

6. Panoramic roof is gorgeous. I would love to see how it feels to go on a scenic drive with that.
Andrew certainly enjoys it.

7. The B&O sound system is crystal clear .

8. The rear seats recline a tad bit, and can shift back and forth to make room for more cargo.

9. The puddle lights, pretty useful feature.

10. The auto mirror fold on locking the car

11. The passenger side mirror folding down for better view of the verb.

12. The auto dimming feature on the mirrors is really cool.

13. Backup camera and the parking sensor are really nice.


What I don't like:
1. Size of the MMI screen and the fact that it is not a touch screen
2. The MMI system is slow. Very slow.
3. Voice recognition needs a lot to be desired.
4. The side mirrors, although great for visibility to the back, is so big, that it creates a blind spot in the front.
5. Ergonomics of the system is a B at best. The functionality of some common stuff is buried too deep.
6. The wheel controls should have had more ways to control the MMI. esp track +/-.

First Half Marathon.

Synopsis:
------------
Average Pace: 10:23 / mile.
Training Lead Time : 4-5 Weeks.
Longest Training Run: 10.2 Miles.
Average Training Pace: 11:00 - 11:30

About 4 weeks of training is what it took. And towards the end, I seemed to have overtrained, so I rested for the last 4-5 days. And that helped.

When I was training, I could rarely get my speed up above 5.2-5.4 mph.

My first few miles were a little rough, with some cramping in my legs. But that opened up and I got a lot faster after that. The last 4 miles, I began to feel the fatigue, but from my splits it would appear that slowed only marginally.

During training, my longest run was 10 miles. But the last three miles were not too bad, although my legs were clearly not conditioned.

Another thing that helped was the weather and the carb gels, I must have had 6 of them.

So in the end, I finished strong at 2:17. I surprised myself, because I was projecting between 2:30-2:40.

So in all, happy, But I am done with running distance for at least 4-5 months. I am now switching training to strength and TKD.

The stormy beginning to 2016

2015 ended on a personal high note for me. Vacation in india for a month, was relaxed, without my usual fears and worries.

But I was not watching the markets. The last month of 2015, the markets were correcting. China troubles and oil in free fall.

When I came back, I was dismayed by Apple's fall to below 100. Today its at 95. A lot of the hoped for gains have evaporated.

Along with that both wealth front, and OptionHouse are down about 8-10%. My 401K is down 11% just in the last 3 months.

I have arranged for larger than usual 401K withdrawals to take advantage of the dip. But there is little hope in sight.

On top of that seems like I might have to buy a new car. The Audi is having issues with oil pressure. and we drove a bit with it like that. We will have a better picture in a week or so.

So I am out a whopping 3K for just fixing the car, without too many assurances as to what other damage may have been inflicted.

On the upside, my wealth front and OH accounts turned positive, and AAPL surged to 100. I sold all holdings.

Now I am wrestling with the decision to buy a luxury car. I think a nice luxury SUV will provide a lot of utility. And its something I can take pride in. So steaming ahead with the plan.

Plan is to trade the Audi in.

===
Update mid-march.

So an expensive spike has ended. The Audi has been traded in. Got a meer 4K for it. Signed up for a Brand New Q5 Lease. Aggressively brought down the MSRP, however, the finance cost of lease are quite high.

In the end, I suppose the only advantage of a lease is you buy the same car twice. Half of it each time and this in total is more expensive than buying it outright. But it has the benefit of easing your cash flow at any given time.  So I will stop thinking about the finances, and put aside 4-5K for a years worth of payments and enjoy the car.

Upped my insurance payments quite a bit.

On the up side. I own a gorgeous new Audi Q5.
My Option house account is positive, Wealthfront is almost 10% up, regained most of my 401K losses. And AAPL is at 106. So A lot better than how the year began.