This morning we left Prague and took a train to Vienna. The trip was about four hours, and we once again were packed like sardines into a small, cubicle sized compartment, this time with six seats facing each other across the compartment. We arrived in Vienna in midafternoon and quickly figured out the U-Bahn (Vienna's subway system) to get us to our apartment. We arrived in exactly the right corner, but we were unable to find the office where we were supposed to meet the apartment manager. We had to call her on a nearby pay phone, and we discovered that the office was actually in her home, while we had been searching for an actual office building. She showed us the apartment, then we settled in and got ready to go out for dinner.
For dinner I picked Plachutta Restaurant out of the Rick Steves book becuase he said it had really nice traditional Viennese cuisine. Gavin and I tried out Tafelspitz, which is basically a soup/broth with a big slice of beef some veggies and a large bone complete with marrow, all cooked together until the beef is completely soft and tender. I wasn't brave enough to try the marrow, which Tyler likened to "meat jello," but the rest of the dish was tasty. Our Tafelspitz was served with a bowl that appeared to contain applesauce. Olive was excited to have some applesauce, and put a big spoonful into her mouth. Imagine her surprised when it was not applesauce, but horseradish sauce... I also had some delicious Carpe Diem brand kombucha - I have never seen kombucha served at a restaurant before, but this brand is popular here, probably because it doesn't actually taste like kombucha; it was very sweet, not acidic. The extremely quick and efficient service at Plachutta was a welcome change from the generally über slow service at virtually every restaurant or bar we visited in Budapest and Prague.
After dinner we walked down Kärtner Strasse, a wide, pedestrian-only shopping street to Stephansplatz, where the beautiful St. Stephen's Cathedral towers above the plaza and horse carriages (complete with poop sacks hanging from the horses' behinds to collect any "droppings") wait to carry tourists through the streets of Old Town. Close to Stephansplatz we got to hear the caliber of street musicians in the classical music capital of the world. :) There was an amazing little quartet playing, a bass, cello, violin and hammered dulcimer. I had never heard of nor seen the hammered dulcimer before (I had to look it up online to see what it is. :) ), but it seems to be popular in street/restaurant bands here. Suddenly, it started raining and the prepared-for-anything quartet quickly covered the hammered dulcimer with a tarp and stood under umbrellas with their precious stringed instruments. We all quickly stepped under a tree, since none of us had umbrellas. Gavin's family decided they wanted to go back to the apartment, so they caught the nearby U-Bahn. Gavin and I went to a nearly souvenier shop and bought a cheap umbrella to share and continued our walk. The umbrella was so small we had to have our arms around each to both be under it. We walked to a little outdoor cafe called Cafe Europa and had dessert and warming chai lattes under the heaters in their outdoor umbrella-covered area. Then, snuggled under the umbrella to stay warm and dry, we headed back to the apartment to end our first night in Vienna.
For dinner I picked Plachutta Restaurant out of the Rick Steves book becuase he said it had really nice traditional Viennese cuisine. Gavin and I tried out Tafelspitz, which is basically a soup/broth with a big slice of beef some veggies and a large bone complete with marrow, all cooked together until the beef is completely soft and tender. I wasn't brave enough to try the marrow, which Tyler likened to "meat jello," but the rest of the dish was tasty. Our Tafelspitz was served with a bowl that appeared to contain applesauce. Olive was excited to have some applesauce, and put a big spoonful into her mouth. Imagine her surprised when it was not applesauce, but horseradish sauce... I also had some delicious Carpe Diem brand kombucha - I have never seen kombucha served at a restaurant before, but this brand is popular here, probably because it doesn't actually taste like kombucha; it was very sweet, not acidic. The extremely quick and efficient service at Plachutta was a welcome change from the generally über slow service at virtually every restaurant or bar we visited in Budapest and Prague.
After dinner we walked down Kärtner Strasse, a wide, pedestrian-only shopping street to Stephansplatz, where the beautiful St. Stephen's Cathedral towers above the plaza and horse carriages (complete with poop sacks hanging from the horses' behinds to collect any "droppings") wait to carry tourists through the streets of Old Town. Close to Stephansplatz we got to hear the caliber of street musicians in the classical music capital of the world. :) There was an amazing little quartet playing, a bass, cello, violin and hammered dulcimer. I had never heard of nor seen the hammered dulcimer before (I had to look it up online to see what it is. :) ), but it seems to be popular in street/restaurant bands here. Suddenly, it started raining and the prepared-for-anything quartet quickly covered the hammered dulcimer with a tarp and stood under umbrellas with their precious stringed instruments. We all quickly stepped under a tree, since none of us had umbrellas. Gavin's family decided they wanted to go back to the apartment, so they caught the nearby U-Bahn. Gavin and I went to a nearly souvenier shop and bought a cheap umbrella to share and continued our walk. The umbrella was so small we had to have our arms around each to both be under it. We walked to a little outdoor cafe called Cafe Europa and had dessert and warming chai lattes under the heaters in their outdoor umbrella-covered area. Then, snuggled under the umbrella to stay warm and dry, we headed back to the apartment to end our first night in Vienna.
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