Monday, September 25, 2017

Vienna 5

Our last day in Vienna!  I decided that I needed to at least see some shops, even if not actually buy anything, so we arranged a meet-back.  This is always fraught with difficulties as I usually just follow while my husband reads the map.  He headed off for the Hofburg complex.


I began with the Mozart House, in a street just behind the cathedral, where Mozart rented an apartment.  I learned a lot from the audio-guide.  The apartment had been the home of a skilled plasterer and some of his faux marble is still visible in what is assumed to have been the main bedroom.. Like living in a show home, I suppose.


Then my problems started.  I was on the trail of a yarn store in the Fleischmarkt, but I walked miles, often in the wrong direction, to get there.  There were plenty of unusual shops but no wool shop that I could see.


After lunching at the Café Mozart, we went to the Albertina, which we were surprised to find was both an art gallery and another palace with a highly decorated suite of rooms.


Upstairs now houses the private collection of the Batliners, including a room full of Picassos.  A really impressive collection.


After all this, we met again for tea.  Before our trip we had studied a guide book organised on the Top Ten principle, and had noted the Top Ten cakes to be sampled in Vienna.  Everywhere we went we found coffee-houses offering a pretty comprehensive range.  Many Viennese cakes are more like a layered dessert with different flavoured mousses on a sponge base layer and topped with a strongly flavoured jelly.  We sampled a fair few over the five days but we also walked miles to compensate.


Eventually it was time to return to our hotel for supper, collecting our suitcases before boarding the sleeper back to Cologne on our way home.  More on Cologne later.

1 comment:

knitski said...

Oh, my the carbohydrate overload!