Cake and schnittie

Yesterday got off to a fantastic start with a visit to Demel, with the most toothsome cakes imaginable. While we were enjoying our cakes, we were able to watch the whole strudel-making process - the baker pulls the pastry out until it is so thin, but never breaks it, even with quite rough handling. We vowed yesterday to come back for strudel today. Done.

After cakes, we did some exploring outside the centre of Vienna. First stop was the Vienna Furnace. You might not think that sounds interesting, but despite the faint smell of garbage, the building is quite remarkable - gold and crazy. We then headed for Grinzing, which despite being on the edge of Vienna, seemed a long way away from the central hustle and bustle.

We walked around the town, had a late lunch in the local butcher's shop and then strolled around the surrounding vineyards and along a path that Beethoven reportedly took turns along. Then we retired to a local Heurige wine tavern and watched as the tourists poured in.

Several glasses of (very rough) wine later, and with Tom having a wine-induced headache before we had even left the tavern, we headed home.

One of the interesting things today was our visit to the church holding the tombs of all the former Austrian Kaisers. Some of the tombs are so ornate, others have rather vulgar-looking skulls on them.

Tonight, we went to Figlmuller for dinner, notable for having the largest schnitzels in the whole of Vienna. And yes, they were large, spilling over the side of the plate.

Music running through Vienna's veins

Having a positively joyful time here in Vienna (that's a reference to Beethoven's 9th Symphony for those that didn't immediately realise).

Dad has been acting as tour guide. Today we went to the Secession Building (below), with the giant golden cauliflower on the roof. Inside is the Beethoven frieze by Klimt, which is inspired by Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Then we took a look at some apartments designed by Otto Wagner, before heading to the Belvedere to take a look at some more Klimt works, including 'the Kiss'.

Following a good hearty Austrian lunch, we looked at a couple more Wagner buildings, which have lovely art nouveau style.

Yesterday wasn't quite such a resounding success. While Dad went to his conference, Tom and I set out for a morning of Lomo worship, as the Lomography Society International's headquarters are in Vienna. A bit of a distance away, we managed to find them in the rain, but were very disappointed when it turned out to just be an uninviting office block, rather than the galleries that we expected. After hovering around outside in the rain for 10 minutes, we did manage to catch the eye of someone who let us in, and we had a bit of a sticky-beak around the office, which looked a very cool place to work, but an office nonetheless.

We then decided to pay a visit to the Lomo shop, which proved more difficult than it might sound. Lets just say that my map-reading skills were not at their best. But this was nothing compared to the shop, which was scruffy and had silly novelty items, like voodoo dolls, with very little space devoted to the cameras. Regrouping over lunch, we had a nice afternoon perusing the Leopold Museum.

I think though that Tuesday night has to be my pick of Vienna so far - we went to see Rigoletto at the Vienna Staatsoper, and all things about it were just incredible - singing, sets, costumes, acting etc. What made it so nice as well was that the Vienna opera-going crowd around us were loving every second of it. The lady next to us Brrraavo'ed with such vigour. They certainly love their music in Vienna - on Monday night we went to the Musikverein to see a couple of Beethoven symphonies, and it was a similar story.

3 countries, 1 post

Yes, I have been a slacker, but it has been hard to get on the old computer!

Berlin definitely grew on me over the four days we were there. Originally worried that it was going to be full of soviet-style monolithic concrete blocks, I was relieved when we came across some lovely spots around the museums. We did a really good tour of Berlin, taking in all the major sites, that was free, which we liked so much that we decided to do the Alternative Berlin tour the following day. Unfortunately it wasn't free, and although it is interesting looking at graffiti (below) and squats, I think that the four hours dedicated to this was just a bit too much for me. Maybe I was a bit grumpy that day after standing for 3 hours (no joke) in a queue to get into the German Parliament - not worth it. Still, it was interesting to see Berlin's a very interesting gritty side. Plus, who can object to a place where the price of beer in the supermarket is 0.89 euro for half a litre?

Well, Prague, where we arrived last Friday, can certainly gain one up on Berlin - beer was under 1 euro in the pubs! It was an interesting first night in Prague. On the advice of our friendly hostelier, we took ourselves to the Czech pivnice around the corner that had a green sign out the front advertising the local beer. On stepping into the pub, which was full of cigarette smoke, all the men inside turned to look at us. It was only when we were sitting down enjoying our beer that we noticed the photos on the walls of men working out. When the Kylie-style dance music came on the jukebox it all clicked into place - we had entered a gay bar.

After enjoying a couple of beers at this pub we went in search of some dinner. We went into a place (full of smoke once again) that we thought looked like a nice small traditional Czeck restaurant, but on opening the menu we realised that we were in the largest food chain in the Czech Republic, with 'over four by ten outlets, and almost the big 50'. Well, it wasn't so bad. The dumplings were appropriately stodgy.

Anyway, there was more to Prague than just beer, even it it doesn't sound much like it so far. It really is a lovely place. We enjoyed looking around the Palace, though the number of tourists there made me short tempered. Possible highlight was looking around the Franz Kafka Museum on Sunday (below is a shot of the amusing fountain out the front). And back on beer again, the other highlight was finding one of only two pubs in Prague that is non-smoking, which meant we were able to enjoy a smoke-free dinner and ale on Sunday night.

Yesterday we arrived in Vienna, and will be hanging out with my Dad, who is here for a conference over the next week. It got off to a great start last night with a trip to the Musikverein for a spot of Beethoven, and today we looked around the old royal palace and went to the Freud Museum. There will be more on Vienna over the coming days.