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.