Lovely day on one of our last, walking through the touristy areas of Vienna. The architecture here is so ornate, I’ve said that before but going through the Hofburg area has incredible statues everywhere you look, bigger than life with people battling each other or just standing there, it is truly amazing.
We walked/rolled through the Museums Quarter to most of all the famous buildings we see from the window of the flat.
Being Sunday the way was full of tourists as expected but we stopped at a legendary cafe called Aïda which is all pink. Let me elaborate for a minute, pink uniforms on waitresses, chairs, decor, down to the toilet paper, if you don’t like pink do not go there my friends! Vienna is well known through history for it’s cafe culture which is all I’ll say about it, you can read about it on the web if interested.
We had close seating as usual and this place is known for it’s great coffee and pastry so we have a really good coffee and pastry with cream cheese and apricot called marille here and they are considered to be some of the best in the world (their marketing, no research done). This is also the area in the Wachau Valley, that apricots are considered very special but that's another story, you can read about it here. http://www.thetraveltester.com/reason-to-travel-austria/
The fellow sitting directly next to me says there is a tram exhibition about to happen in about half an hour of all the trams in the last 150 years in Vienna. Celebration of 150 years of the Ring Road around Vienna. It took a wait of hanging about but was worth it. We saw the pride on the conductors faces and the different technologies used moving forward. I think what struck me the most was the early ones had no side, back or front protection from the weather elements.
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| That's Bruce on the right |
They were trailers with seats, the steam engine locomotive was the most dramatic belching grey coloured steam from it’s spout.
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| It was followed by a fire truck! |
Many, many people came to watch and photograph, standing on the track as I did until the last minute to get a view without someone in front doing the same thing, not always successfully.
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| Nice uniform on this fellow |
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| They even came in baby blue! |
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| Or the more boring beige. |
It was a treat to be involved and present at a truly Viennese event. Had we not stopped at that cafe we would not have known about it, sometimes it’s just happening that happens, some would call it kismet.
Read more about it here http://www.vienna-unwrapped.com/ringstrasse-vienna/
We had a good couple of days, should say productive rather, not that they all don’t have good in them, it’s just getting personal things done, pedicure for me, haircut for Bruce, picked up my new glasses.
Back to the Naschmarkt and it has even more construction going on in the middle, now completely splitting it in two parts making it awkward to get from one to the other. Some of the more permanent stalls are not accessible but others have moved, makes me wonder when it will be complete.
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| Saw this poster then ... |
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| This! |
The Clamato story: I found Clamato juice! In a Mexican store just up the street, had a hankering for salsa and there it was on a shelf lower down. The Caesar we make is a treat drink, not all the time, but enjoyable when made. Bruce especially likes it and has been in withdrawal for the two years we’ve been in Europe because there is no such thing as Clamato juice that he could find in Europe. He has ordered clam juice from the States and tried mixing it, he’s bought powdered form and both are terrible, so to find the real thing is quite amazing. If you are not from Canada, or apparently Mexico, you have probably have never heard of it before, such a Canadian drink, I read the first Caesar was made in a bar in Calgary, Alberta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_(cocktail)
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| Had to take a picture... |
Flew home to Freiburg but may return to Vienna next September.
Cheers, Bev, Bruce and Lexi Cat
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