Sabbatical in Central Europe

We left Prague towards Vienna, where I will have my last meeting with colleagues at TU Vienna before the Hotine-Marussi Meeting on theoretical geodesy in Rome. We took an ÖBB train and had a pleasant trip enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Czech countryside. During the trip we enjoyed a Sví č ková, a typical Czech dish ( beef sirloin in cream sauce and bread dumplings) , and, while, obviously, drinking Pilsner Urquel. Saímos de Praga em direção a Viena, onde terei meu último encontro com colegas na TU Viena antes do Encontro Hotine-Marussi sobre geodésia teórica em Roma. Nós pegamos um trem de ÖBB e tivemos uma viagem agradável, desfrutando a paisagem bonita da zona rural tcheca. Durante a viagem desfrutamos de um Svíčková, um típico prato checo (lombo de boi em molho cremoso e bolinhos de massa), e, obviamente, bebendo Pilsner Urquel.

We spent two weeks at the Geodetic Observatory (GO) Pecný, located in a hill 1.5 km near the village of Ondřejov. Ondřejov itself is about 1 hour by public transportation from Prague. A bucolic and picturesque place, located inside a forest. We stayed in a small cottage they have for visiting researchers and scholars. GO Pecný date back to the 1960's and their main activity was the determination of astronomical latitude, longitude and azimuth, evening operations. Later on, they started to perform satellite photography, also evening operations. Therefore, an infrastructure was necessary for the scientists and technicians to stay overnight. The main office building, built at that time, had offices each one with a bed, and every floor had a kitchen, bathroom and shower. Today, a similar way of working exists. The scientists, engineers and technicians may spend two or three days living in the office, doing the rest of the work in other places such as Prague, Plze ň ,  or even at t