Sachertorte and Mozart

Vienna is a spectacular city! We drove up from Arnfels with Helga and Sepperl and stayed at their apartment for a couple days. They live across the street from the metro line that can take you anywhere in Vienna. After dropping off our things and having some lunch, CJ and I hit the town to do some exploring.

It was a beautiful day and the sights of the city were sparkling. It was a Sunday though so most of the shops were closed. We took the tram to the main part of town and headed towards the Stephansplatz and the Stephansdom. We strolled down Kaertnerstrasse in search of the Hotel Sacher and the world famous Sacher Torte. By now CJ has become a dessert connoisseur...granted her specialty is tiramisu, but she'll give an opinion on just about any dessert. The portion we got did not pass the harsh criteria of this judge...it was Sunday and we think we got a stale slice.

Nevertheless we carried on with our day and enjoyed the blustery yet sunny day in Vienna. We walked by the Opera House, the Hofburg, Parliament, and City Hall. We made our way back towards Stephansplatz walking down the Graben, a lovely walking street with several street musicians and other performers. And we're not talking about your run of the mill accordian player, we're talking high quality classical piano on the streets of Vienna. Mozart was born in Austria and did live in Vienna for a short time. We saw a house that Mozart lived in at some point during his life. All the shops were closed as it was Sunday, but there were lots of people out and about. After a nice Sunday strolling through the streets of Vienna, we hopped on the metro and headed home. The public transport in Vienna is fantastic, an essential for any great city.

The next day we slept in some before heading to the Schloss (castle) Shoenbrunn. As our trip winds down we find ourselves sleeping in more and getting later starts on our days...perhaps we're wearing down a bit or perhaps we're just enjoying the nicer accommodations staying with friends and family!

The sprawling castle in the southwestern part of Vienna has impressive gardens surrounding the castle. We wandered around the grounds for a bit, but didn't go inside. As we were leaving the grounds we, or I should say CJ, spotted a bakery that had an apple strudel show that was about to start...we had to check it out. We paid for tickets and got our strudel sample before sitting down in the front row eagerly anticipating the start of the show. As exciting as the strudel show sounded, it was actually more dissappointing than the Sacher torte from the day before. The show was rushed and the samples were cold, they should have given a sample from the actual strudel we watched them make...a hot strudel at the end of the show is much better than a cold one at the beginning. We left dissappointed and headed for the Sigmund Freud museum to sort out our feelings.

The Freud museum is set up in his old home and other people still live in the building. We just checked out the building and the book store, but didn't spend the money to tour the entire museum.

After Freud, we headed back towards the Graben walking street to meet Helga and Sepperl and their niece Monica for dinner. We had a nice italian meal near Mozart's house and then headed home. We were tired after a full down in the city and the next morning we were heading to Salzburg to see Helga's sister and the town where Mozart was born.