A Flea Market and Trekking for Wine - Day Eight

We woke up to a cloudy sky but the rain had stopped. After breakfast at the hotel, we walked to Mariahilfer to find a US adapter. Ours was left in an outlet in Salzburg, but we easily found a small hardware store for a replacement. The price was so reasonable that we bought a backup that will never leave my luggage. We will never be adapter-less again!

After that, we walked down to the flea market next to Naschmarkt which is only on Saturdays. There were tons of people browsing stand after stand of collectables. It was hard to move through the swarms.

Hubs bought an old magazine with neat photos and fashion ads for one euro. I found a spoon with Leopold's Church on it for 5 euro. My official Vienna spoon. I also bought a yellow bag that I liked the writing on for 8 euro. It might have been a Levi's knockoff, since it says "Eevi's" all over it, but I was drawn to it, nonetheless.

As we left the market, it started pouring. We had umbrellas, but it was to the point that we decided to wait it out next to a building huddling under a roof overlay. After the downpour eased, we went in search of a restaurant for lunch. Much to our dismay, all the restaurants in the area that we had flagged were closed for Saturday lunch. So we went back to the hotel to regroup.

We decided to head back out to our next destination, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and find lunch somewhere along the way. We took the subway and got out at the nearest stop to St. Stephen's and ended up eating lunch at Cafe Englander. We had the mittages set lunch for 15.80 euro/per person, which included three courses. First, a cream of asparagus soup that was more butter than anything else.

The main course was roasted pork with root vegetables. The meat was very tender.

Dessert was strawberry ice cream over rhubarb and strawberries with whipped cream. The ice cream tasted of fresh strawberries, but it was so frozen it was hard to eat. We were hungry and the food was good, a lot of it. 2 3-course meals + tip = 35 euro. The mittages menu anywhere is a great deal and should be taken advantage of whenever possible.

After lunch, we walked a couple more blocks to St. Stephen's which was a tourist mess. I've never seen so many active horse carriages in my life. Despite the massive crowds, the church was beautiful. Gothic steeples with yellow and green tiles covering the roof made it truly unique.

Little windows dotted through the tiles every now and again. I wonder if the nuns live up there.

Down the street was Graben, also swarming with people on a warm Saturday afternoon. It was a large, white plaza with a golden fountain surrounded by large stores. It felt a little like the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue, just larger and a lot more people.

In the area, we waited in a long line at Eis Greissler for ice cream. But don't be too intimidated by the line, it moves fast.

Hubs had caramel, which he liked, but was too sweet for me. I had graumohn (not as sweet as the mohn I had in Hallstatt) and butter-something, which was amazing. It reminded me of real cake batter, not the artificial, overly sweet cake batter flavor that cake batter ice cream/fro-yo usually has. It was so good. 3 scoops = 3.80 euro.

Onward to Heiligen Kreuzerhof, the oldest apartment block in Vienna. It was in a quiet neighborhood, just far enough away from St. Stephen's and Graben. Lots of cute restaurants nearby.

I wanted to get some journaling done, so we went to Kleines and had a verlangerter.

Kleines was another location in BEFORE SUNRISE, the cafe where Ethan and Julie were sitting outside and the gypsy woman approached them.

But we weren't outside because all the tables were full on this gorgeous day. But the inside wasn't too shabby.

I didn't get much writing done because we wanted to get to Sirbu, a heuriger at the edge of the city. It was later than we thought.

Getting to Sirbu involves a long tram ride on the D Line, but it's fun because you get to see many parts of the city that you otherwise wouldn't if you're only staying for a few days like we were. We got out at the last stop and started up the hill.

Heurigen are wineries located within the Vienna city limits. They serve their own wines and many of them also serve food. We were drawn to Sirbu because it was on a hill overlooking the city. However, it was a much longer/harder hike than I thought it would be. It wouldn't have been so bad if we could've taken our time, but we were racing the setting sun. We wanted to see the Vienna views from the top of the hill before it got dark.

That meant we literally had to run. We were pretty sweaty by the time we got up there. We did have some beautiful views on the way up overlooking the city from the vineyards.

When the sun set we were cold, so another layer would've been useful. But as the city lights turned on and we sipped our wine, it was all worth it. Leopold's Church, the church on my spoon, sat on the hill next to us.

Another angle from our picnic table.

On the way back down the hill, we could see the ferris wheel among the city lights.

The hike down was much easier and we could take our time. The quiet suburban streets were a nice change of pace and I enjoyed seeing different styles of apartments and houses. The architecture was much more modern and casual than in the heart of Vienna.

Romantic Phone Conversations and Scootering as a Water Sport - Day Seven

Goodbye, Salzburg, and your fortress that overlooks every angle of the city. I loved the time we spent here, but Salzburg didn't feel entirely unique to me. More like a little Bruges meets Brussels with a little Paris thrown in. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just not a place I feel I need to go back to.

We took the #1 bus to the train station, but somewhere en route it turned into a #4 bus. Ah, language barriers. We ended up going pretty far out of the way and turning around before we realized what was going on and could get off at a stop to change buses. But we made it eventually.

After buying our tickets to Vienna, we went into the Spar at the station and bought pre-made pimiento and cheese and salami and cheese sandwiches for lunch on the train. Spar was a good friend to us on the trip. The stores were always conveniently located, and their pre made stuff was always pretty fresh, as if it had been made earlier that day rather than the week before. I also bought a macaroni salad with spicy chicken that didn't fail me.

We ended up on Jet Rail train, which was more of a high speed train than the local trains we'd been used to. 2 tickets = 108 euros. More expensive, but faster, and more comfortable seats.

When we left the train station in Vienna, we walked out onto Mariahilfer Stausse, a busy shopping street filled with a lot of familiar stores. The shopping, combined with the architecture, reminded me of San Francisco, and I was a little worried I wasn't going to like Vienna as much as I hoped. Not that I don't like San Francisco, but you don't go to Vienna to feel like San Francisco.

My fears were quickly eased as we turned off the bustling street and headed down some quiet, more residential streets towards our hotel. Everything started to feel much more Parisian and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Pension Kraml, the hotel we stayed at in Vienna, ended up being the perfect base camp. I would stay there again in a hot minute and recommend it to anyone going to Vienna. It was close to the subway, walking distance to Mariahilfer, the train station (15 min. walk), St. Charles Church, and the Naschmarkt, which you will be eating at if you go to Vienna. It was also a ten minute walk to a laundromat, which we were in desperate need of. The beautiful room was spacious with high ceilings.

There was no TV or wi-fi in the room, if that sort of thing concerns you. There is a separate TV/game room on the ground floor if you need wi-fi. Pension Kraml is popular and there aren't many rooms with private bathrooms. We ended up only able to get a room with a private shower, no toilet. But there were two bathrooms on our floor, and I don't think I even saw anyone else in the bathroom during our entire trip. So don't let the shared bathroom thing scare you (we were a little nervous). There are enough toilets to go around.

This place was a bargain at 66 euro/night. And that included breakfast in their adorable, cozy breakfast room. I don't think there's a better deal in Vienna, and the same man was there everyday, it's clearly family run. Okay, enough about the hotel. Obviously, I was excited and blessed to have found this perfect place. It doesn't always happen.

And now...Vienna!

After checking in, we needed a pick me up. Time for some famous Viennese coffee. We had made a list of potential coffee shops to visit, figuring if we were were in the neighborhood and in the mood for coffee, we'd stop in. The one on the way to the St. Charles Church happened to be Cafe Sperl.

Ah, just look at it. Above was the view from my seat. It's so beautiful. I did some journaling here. How could I not? If I lived in Vienna, I would be a regular here. The perfect place to read and write. And so romantic.

This is where they shot the scene in BEFORE SUNRISE where Ethan and Julie are having pretend phone conversations with their loved ones describing each other. I love that movie. I love the sequel even more.

Oh, yeah, and there's coffee. And it isn't an afterthought. It's damn good.

Even a non-coffee drinker couldn't resist this. Rested and caffeinated, we walked over to the St. Charles Church and sat at the pond in front of it, admiring its beauty, its reflection in the near-smooth water.

Kids were scootering around the shallow rim of the pond and managing to stay mostly dry, whizzing right by us.

Another little girl was wading in the pond, picking anything that might be of value from the bottom.

After the church, we were hungry. Eating is not cheap in Vienna. We walked around near St. Charles trying to look for something appetizing at the right price and weren't finding anything. We ended up back at Naschmarkt, which is an awesome market filled with stall after stall of food vendors. Some are more full-fledged restaurants than others. But whatever you're hungry for, and whatever your price point, there is a stall for you. We walked around for a bit. I think I was too hungry, to the point where I was just crabby and nothing looked good, when at any other time everything we passed would have looked amazing. That's always the worst time to be trying to find food. Poor Hubs.

A Mediterranean restaurant named Neni was hopping. There was one open table, so we took it. Honestly, I wasn't sure about my choice at first. It looked newer and brighter than many of the other restaurants with its turquoise walls and light wood, I thought the food might be lacking and it was packed because of the fun atmosphere and rainy weather. Um, no. How about some amazing hummus with mushrooms and cumin sauce?

I am picky, picky, picky about hummus. My neighborhood Mediterranean restaurant, Carnival, has the most amazing hummus and it's cheap, cheap, cheap. I can't eat anything else when it comes to hummus, but Hubs wanted hummus and I obliged. Lucky for me, it was awesome. Perfectly balanced, not too garlicky, not too lemony. And the mushrooms were divine with the cumin sauce, and I'm normally not a cumin fan. I love being pleasantly surprised. The rest of our meal was good, too. We had sweet potato loaves, which were like a sweet potato falafel over a well dressed salad. Delicious.

And, lastly, we had fried chicken and fries.

The fries were really good. The chicken was nothing special but it became a good hummus delivery system when we ran out of bread. Add in two Ottakringer Rots and we finished off our much-better-than-expected meal. 2 beers + hummus + sweet potato loaves + chicken and fries + tip = 35 euros.

We've since tried a mushroom hummus from our beloved Carnival. It wasn't as good as Neni's. Something special in that cumin sauce. I tried to make something like it myself, but it can't be replicated. At least not by someone with my cooking talent.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and it began to rain and continued to pour all night.

The Best Kind of Garden is the Beer Kind - Day Six

Our last full day in Salzburg, and, finally, a good night's sleep. We started out with a coffee near our hotel at Afro Cafe, a kitschy coffee shop. We ate outside under the awning.

The decor was cute, close attention to details were paid. There were afros.

The table cloths were adorned with bikini clad women and dice. Hubs had a latte and waffles. Cutest waffles ever.

I had an espresso and a croissant with nutella. The croissant was heartier and less flakier than typical, which I enjoyed.

2 coffees + waffles + croissant + tip = 15 euro. Not cheap, but it was a fun atmosphere.

We crossed the street and walked down Getreidegasse to the building where Mozart was born and lived his early life.

The house was the entire third floor and would have seemed quite spacious if not for the low ceilings. Now the space is occupied by the Mozart Museum, which was definitely worth the admission price of 10 euro. Initially, I'd had no interest in going there, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it.

Some interesting things I learned: Mozart's sister was an extremely gifted pianist, and her talents may have rivaled his if she'd been given the same opportunities as he. Mozart's mother was a funny lady who always managed to inject her sense of humor into her letters. Mozart was never poor, he was just terrible with money.

After the museum, we walked to the Mirabell Palace and Gardens.

Before taking time to browse, we walked across the street to the farmer's market. It's only on Thursday and ends at 1pm sharp. We only had time to do a quick lap before the stands were being packed away. It was just enough time to buy two legs and thighs from the fried chicken stand. You'll know it's the right stand because there's a long line, but it moves quickly. And it's worth it. Delicious chicken, perfectly fried with the meat still juicy.

We sat on the church steps next to the stand an enjoyed our lunch looking at the Mirabell Palace. Not too shabby. 5 euro for two servings of chicken.

We walked back over to Mirabell and took a stroll through Dwarf Garden. This place was really neat.

Prince Archbishop Franz Anton Harrach had statues modeled after the dwarves in the court in 1715. The statues were so cool because while the details were realistic, there was an exaggerated element of cartoon in them, too.

Each dwarf had a clear personality and looked like he/she could pop to life at any moment. They all looked like people I would have liked to know.

My favorite was a man wearing a large hat and a half smile. I thought he looked like a poet or writer.

After Dwarf Garden, we walked back through the Mirabell Gardens. They were pretty, the spring flowers in bloom. Even though the sky was overcast, the temperature was warm. If you're a big fan of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, this is the place for you. Tourist groups kept weaving around the gardens and fountains, some of the groups were even singing.

After being serenaded, we walked up to St. Sebastian's cemetery where Mozart's wife and parents are buried. Another pretty cemetery with wrought iron crosses and beds for flowers, though not as many flowers were at this one.

From the cemetery, we walked back over to Salzburger Dom where the concert scaffolding had finally been put away. We passed a line of boredom-stricken carriage horses along the way.

The sun finally came out and shined down on us as we sat on a bench in the square.

The last thing we really wanted to do in Salzburg was go to the Augustiner Braust Ubl Mullner Brau, which is really just a long title for the local Beer Garden. Appropriately, this beer garden served Augustiner's Salzburg brew, a delicious wheat beer.

You go to the cashier, pay for your ticket, grab a mug off the shelf, wash it in the fountain, then hand it to the man on beer duty to fill you up from the keg. Then you walk outside to the garden area and find a great spot under a shady tree.

They serve food, but research told us it was expensive, so we brought our own picnic: a #3 hot dog from the Balkan Grill with mustard and curry.

Two fish cake sandwiches from Fisch Kreig at the fish market. It's what a McFish should taste like.

2 fish sandwiches = 5 euro. Hot dog = 3.50 euro.

The beer was especially good, considering the mass quantities they were pumping out. We went in the late afternoon, the sun still out and it was warm and lively. Good people watching. The food we brought was the perfect last meal to have in Salzburg. If we would've had another day, I wanted to come back, the setting was that much fun. 4 x .5 liter beers = 12 euro.

We walked back to the Old Town along the river. The sun finally came out without disappearing. Salzburg is a beautiful city and I'm grateful we had such pleasant weather during our time there.

Made our way back to Steingasse and found the marking on the door and stringed doorbells. Much easier in daylight. Plus there was a lot of cool graffiti that I missed during our night visit. Definitely make a trip there in the day.

We wanted something sweet to end the day, so we decided to try Salzburg's famous Nockerl. We stopped at a restaurant named S. Nockerl, so we thought we were in the right place.

It seemed to me that nickel was a back of defrosted frozen raspberries heated with sugar and topped with a soft meringue. It was fine, but nothing I would need to have again.

Note: that spoon is not to scale. It was a GIANT spoon, so this dessert was BIG. I also ordered an Austian cheesecake slice, which seemed like it had ricotta and a lot of egg in it.

Again, good, but I'd never need another slice. But it didn't matter. We were full of good beer and beautiful gardens of all sorts.

Bowling, Hollywood Style

We went to see John Williams conducting the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. This year, special guest Julie Andrews narrated a Henry Mancini retrospective using the music from her husband Blake Edwards' films. A little PINK PANTHER, a little PETER GUNN, a little BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S.

On the way in, multiple vendors were selling light sabers. I saw a couple kids with them, but I thought it was silly. Who would want a light saber? Yeah, I love STAR WARS, but John Williams has written so many great scores. Would he even be conducting STAR WARS? Never underestimate the power of STAR WARS and the fanaticism of its fans.

Those light sabers were everywhere, lightly bobbing to the rhythm of the songs in place of lighters. Fittingly, the encore ended with "The Imperial March."

Besides STAR WARS, there were a number of arrangements played from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, which was probably my favorite part of the show. A piece from LINCOLN was showcased, which was beautiful, but not a piece that would stick in the public's mind; it doesn't have that element of catchiness to it. The L.A. Phil also played the theme from ET, which I always enjoyed more than the movie itself.

It was a beautiful night to end the summer with.

The Lake Nestled in the Mountains - Day Five

We took a trip to the amazingly picturesque lakeside mountain town of Hallstatt. It's easy enough to get to. At the train station, take the 150 Post Bus (long distance bus) to Bad Ischl. The ride is an hour and a half to the Bad Ischl train station, the last stop. From there, you get out and get on the train, getting off at Hallstatt. It wasn't the quickest trip (it ended up taking us about 3 hrs. one-way), but the journey was filled with rolling green hills and ends in the mountains.

When we got off at Hallstatt, we were greeted with a lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. You need to take a ferry to cross the lake to get to the town.

We wandered around town trying to find the best spots for photo ops. It wasn't terribly difficult.

I had a snack in the form of a mohn (poppy seed) ice cream cone. It seems like an odd choice, but I was immediately drawn to it because one of my favorite salad dressings was poppy seed (sadly, that restaurant is now defunct). The ice cream was as delicious as I'd anticipated.

We ate doner kebabs on the lawn near where the ferry dropped us off. This was our view.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to the cathedral. It had a small cemetery, in the same style as the beautiful one under the Salzburg Castle.

Off the cemetery, there was a room filled with skulls. I didn't go in because it freaked me out. Hubs took some photos. Since the cemetery was so small, it would fill up and then the skeletons would be removed to make more space for the newly deceased. The skulls were memorialized with paint. It's strangely beautiful, but it still creeps me out a little.

Feeling like we'd had the complete Hallstatt experience, we headed back to Salzburg. We got off at Mirabellplatz and walked across the river. It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day.

We walked back over to the Salzburg Dom and enjoyed the plaza near sunset. Lots of families were out and about.

We ate dinner at Zwettler's, which had been recommended to us by a couple at Barenwirt, and it didn't disappoint. I ordered the special of chilli knodeln, dumplings stuffed with spicy sausage served over saurkraut.

Really rich and filling.

Hubs had goulash with an egg and a dumpling. The meat was fall-apart tender.

And some good beer.

Beware, if you eat from the bread basket, it will end up on your bill. Lesson learned.

2 beers + 2 specials + 1 pretzel + tip = 31 euro.

After this long, journey-filled day, we headed back to the hotel early to try to get a full night's sleep.