Vienna, and SQTalk VIE DO, part 2
Day 3
Almost everyone had flown off in the morning, so it was only myself,
jhm and
phaleesy left, along with our hosts. I'd met
jhm at
Cafe Boulevard at the LM whilst we waited for
phaleesy who's watching a performance of the Vienna Boys Choir at mass. I felt a tad guilty as despite promising to accompany her, I hadn't organised my tickets in time and in any case it'd have been a challenge to wake up that early. Meanwhile
jhm and I settled down to some coffee; and as mentioned earlier this cafe was one of the rare places in Vienna that does soy latte. Again a bit on the weak side but quite fragrant. I made up my mind to try something different and distinctively Austrian for brunch.
phaleesy soon arrived, and was quite fascinated by the pictures hanging on the walls, especially a particularly
naughty one...
We then left in search of brunch. The concierge had given us 2 recommendations -
Cafe Mozart which serves traditional Austrian cuisine, and another establishment at the Museum Quarters which serves "modern" cuisine. As it was nearer to the hotel, and knowing that the others would prefer the traditional option,
Cafe Mozart it was.
Street view outside the LM
Cafe Mozart
On closer inspection, it looked like tourist central. The menu also didn't meet
phaleesy's approval. We decided to go back to
Demel where we had such a good time the day before.
We passed several interesting sights in the Ring on the way to the cafe.
can't really remember but i think this is a library
The Hofburg
We settled down to a lovely feast at
Demel, where I was determined to pig out as for some reason I was ravenous. The v affable waitress greeted us like old friends; I think she'd recognised us from the day before.
Got an email from
taipeiflyer at that point, who was supposed to join us for the DO but had gone MIA. Turns out that he was ill and had actually flown on his LH flight to MUC but had missed his connecting flight. I was just glad that he's ok as quite a few of us, both in Vienna and LA, were quite worried about him and his whereabouts.
coke, Sauv Blanc, coffee - guess who had what
jhm and I had scrambled eggs for entree
phaleesy's Chanterelle omelette
I had the goulash of Chanterelles for my main course
jhm had schnitzel
And of course coffee and cakes!
petz joined us at this point, but poor
florianwagner was struck down by a fever and was reccuperating at home. I tried the melange, which is an Austrian cappucino that is halfway between the Italian/Antipodean cap and a pure shot of espresso. I enjoyed the v nice aromas, however, as the native Austrian amongst us would also concur, the drink was made stronger than usual that day and it felt like about 2 shots of espresso were used.
We settled down to the v delightful selection of cakes they had at the cafe, but not before snapping pics of each other's desserts of course! Pure gluttony! I love how everything's so beautifully presented, which would only befit
phaleesy and her (usually) dainty, graceful and stylish lady-like manners.
Feeling extremely full, we had a long and pleasant stroll back to the LM.
The route we chose took us through the
Hofburg, a magnificent place but it could really do without the sights and smells of horse poo...
We got a little lost as it wasn't possible to simply walk through some of the buildings to get out of the Ring, and so we'd to walk around them to get back to the LM which made our route a bit more convoluted than we'd anticipated. Hosted mini drinks in my room to farewell
jhm and
phaleesy who were leaving in a bit, as well as to toast to the end of a v fun-filled weekend.
Finally they'd all left, and I was left to my own devices. I wasn't v hungry but decided to have a snack from a souvlaki place that I'd found near the LM to avoid drinking on an empty stomach. The v charming concierge not only identified some good Friends of Dorothy hangouts for me, in addition to the ones I'd researched, but also advised me on how best to optimise Sunday night in the city. Vienna was surprisingly busy on a Sunday night, those of you from Melbourne - think
Love Machine or
Club Valve on a Sunday night type busy.
Day 4
Woke up in surprisingly good time for my flight and even had time to have some brekky downstairs.
Next: AY766 VIE-HEL whY; AY57 HEL-PVG whY; The Westin Bund Centre Shanghai; Shanghai Mk 2