Life in Vienna

I have a few photos from Friday that don't really fit the context of our primary activity that day, so enjoy.

Every street corner in Vienna is a post card. Here we are at the corner of Graben and Trattnerhof by Leopoldsbrunnen.

You are looking southeast.

The fountain is in honor of Leopold III, but I have no idea which one. Is it Leopold III, Duke of Austria 1365-1386? Or is it Leopold III, Margrave of Austria born in 1073?

With more time we would have toured St Stephan’s Cathedral.

With pointed arches and spires, the architecture is very Gothic, thus it is not at all suprising that the Cathedral was built between 1137 and and 1578.

Nothing is more Viennese than Coffee Houses.

While many of the specific Cafe’s are iconic in their own right, just about every single one is absolutey bursting with ambience and charm. But surprisingly, they are also pretty good places to eat with speedy service, and reasonable quality, prices, and portions.

If you aren’t into the expensive restaurant scene, you can eat quite well in Vienna between Cafe’s, Grocery-Store sandwiches, and Döner Kebab.

Döner kebab, on flatbread gyros (or a stick) with rotisserrie meat , can be found all over Europe, in street carts run by Turkish immigrants, but I think the best are in Vienna. And this is ironic because Vienna is where the western-advance of the Ottoman-Turks failed twice: first in Siege of Vienna (1529), and then in the Battle of Vienna (1683).