Where did I finish my paper?

We had class in Bonn on Monday and then off we went to Vienna for the remaining. We took a 6 am flight so everyone was picked up by taxis and then a bus to get to the airport by 4 am. Once we landed we got situated in the Hotel and then went on a tour with Dr. Schnabel of the city. 

Dr. Schnabel was a major highlight of the trip for me. He was dressed in all Black from head to toe and wore a black leather doctor’s mask that would have been used during the time of the plague. We went to a famous lecture hall that was covered in painting and gold leaf embellishments. Along the tour we sampled different ailments of the time period. The ailment often described as the opposite to what illness the patient was experiencing. Ailments included sucking on cloves, drinking little boy pee, chewing on mint or rosemary, and even drinking an herb vinegar.

Later that day we visited catacombs which were fascinating. They would paint a broken candle or an hourglass on the wooden coffins to symbolize death. When the catacomb was opened up there was a lot of damage and restoration was needed. The renovators would take detailed notes to catalogue their findings and they thought it needed to look a but more lively down there so they would place miscellaneous skulls or other bones on coffins or the walls. 

We took a tour of a pharmacy museum where the show record and documenting process that were used at the beginning. A common practice was to use the essence of different chemicals and that would be by doubting them down with water till there was almost nothing left of the chemical and then forming this drops which are dried into tiny pebbles. There was a print of a plant called Plantago lanceolata which is used to help cure a common cough. This plant grows in my back yard back at home. 

Kim and I had a tour of the Spanish Riding School stables where the Lipizzaner horses are trained in the classical dressage and military style. These horses were beautiful! Their bloodline comes from one of the original 6 stallions of the school. A rider for the school is a full time professional job and requires complete dedication.

Haus Der Musik was an interactive auditory museum that had information on the science of hearing to the history of musical composers.

Our time in Vienna finished with a highlight tour of the Natural History museum. There was so much in the museum it would probably take a week to see a glimpse of everything displayed. There were so many beautiful birds preserved with the rainbow of colors. An African and Indian Elephant were towering over anyone admiring them. There was a library of the minerals and meteors. They had a jeweled bouquet of flower and pendants on display that was priceless. The had the Venus of Willendorf which is said to have been made around 30,000 BCE.

After Vienna, we went to Prague for the weekend. We walked around the city and it was fascinating to see how different it was compared to countries in the EU. We visited the clock tower, the castle, and the bridge. The castle was massive!