Vienna

We saw | We ate | What we brought home | All the rest

We saw

Vienna. Don’t go to Vienna without travel insurance. You smile…. Hear my story. It was very well planned, this family trip of ours. I’ve gotten into a habit of doing loads of research prior to a trip and planning a loose agenda. I do like to go with the flow but I always think it best to have a good balance on a trip between children-specific activities and things-we-must see-in-this-city type trips.

But there was one thing we didn’t bank on – and that was Chicken pox. My husband and our second daughter got it a couple of days before our trip. Shock, shock, horror, horror. It was midnight when I had to do hotel cancellations and realize the horror of not having travel insurance as we lost our deposits. Never again. Repentance comes quick for some, needless to say that we now have travel insurance for the year taken out and full self-forgiveness.

Anyway, the re-scheduled trip took place weeks later. I planned to eat myself solid – Schnitzel and sacchertorte.  And to an extent I did, but not just how I planned.

We arrived to great winter cold and saw the city. Remarkably clean though but freezing. We were welcomed with sights of Fiakers.

We saw the great St Stephen’s cathedral with its spires. Magnificent.

We did loads of touristy bits – saw the Schonbrunn palace, where we bumped into a friend who had spent the weekend with us barely a fortnight before. It is truly a small world. There was a lovely Christmas market – mulled wine, waffles and the like.

It was there also that I my taste of Wiener Schnitzel when we went to their Marionette theatre to see Mozart’s the Magic Flute.

Out and about town, we saw an orange Dutch flower shop.

We visited the house of a hundred colours late one night. People do live there. I wonder what kind of people they are… they must be interesting.

Especially since they also live next to the Toilet of Modern Art. have you ever heard of such a thing? Interesting right? Well make Vienna your next destination then!

We ate

For me, the most remarkable thing about Vienna was the Nepalese meal we had from a fantastic home-style restaurant. My husband, the culinary expert found the restaurant and got some take-out. It was …… amazing. Words cannot describe the meal. And pictures may have, if we weren’t so hungry and ate so quickly without time to capture it all. Has that ever happened to you? All I can say is tender chicken, coriander, curry, immersed in some creamy sauce with plain ole white rice. Definitely a meal to remember. So much so that we went back the next night, but it was their day off. They were closed. I almost went prostrate, almost begged them to open, to cook something just for us. After all, it was only one night. But that didn’t happen.

We did see hotdog stands or kiosks as they are popularly called – Austria is famous for them so….

I don’t know if to feel happy or sad, because I didn’t have any Sacher torte, hardly had any desserts. Good for the waistline but maybe bad for my repertoire of tasted delights.  Chestnuts and potato puffs seem to be ‘street food’.

What we brought home

We wandered the Naschmarkt  – Vienna’s fantastic market on a Saturday evening. It was refreshing. If you get a chance, go on a Saturday when they have a flea market on. You might stumble across some gems. I did. Well, gems to me.

I got some Schnitzel spices and some dried rose buds

The shops were great as well – even the local Spar supermarket. Suffice it to say I brought back some Kürbiskernöl – which is delicious. Its rich and dark green colour,  fantastic on salads, drizzled over some delicious roast chestnut soup and even on ice-cream (a bit like gelato con olie e sale which I have phases of craving – absolutely delish!)

All the rest

We loved Vienna even with the cold. The one thing I continuously think about is how clean a city it is. Maybe we’ll go again one summer.  I still need to see the Prater and the Museum of art fakes, just across from Hundertwasser house. Maybe we’ll go back. We’ll see.