Thankfully the breakfast buffet was open until 11 a.m. We made it to the buffet at 10 a.m. and this was much different that your typical Fairfield Inn continental breakfast. There were scrambled eggs, sausages, and bacon. Several types of rolls. Cheeses and cold cuts. Weird pickled stuff. Liver paste and wild boar paste (who knows what the heck that is, but how nasty does that sound?) Yogurt, muesli, and cereal with 3 1/2% milk to put on it. One of the best things we did when booking our hotels, besides getting them in the city centers, was to get them with breakfast. We didn't have to worry about where to get breakfast each morning, and the buffets were so big that we really only had to have two meals per day - breakfast buffet, a snack mid-day (ahem, pastries), and then dinner.
We finally made it out the door to Graben to go to a place we'd known we wanted to go to since before we even got to Austria: the Swarovski store. The Swarovski brand began in Austria, so what better place to shop our hearts out? We definitely weren't disappointed. The store boasted an impressive three stories of crystals, crystals, and more crystals. Figurines, rings, bracelets, earrings, iPod covers, cufflinks... So sparkly, so...expensive! No matter - we were on vacation! I hate to admit how much time we spent in the store. I know it was over an hour, maybe two. We weren't totally self-centered, though - we remembered to get a few things for other people!
These are a few pictures of the Graben:
I will admit that the reason why we chose to go to the Swarovski store on our second day in Vienna is (a)we didn't want to accidentally skip it because of a lack of time, and (b)if we saw something there the first time and didn't buy it, we would still have another day to go back and buy it. Are we females or what? And yes, we did end up going back a second time!
After our excursion to Swarovski, we made our way to the Hofburg to go to a couple of the museums. This is the outside of the palace:
Our first stop was the Imperial Porcelain and Silver Collection. I know, it sounds boring. But keep in mind that my mom and I love going to the L.A. County Fair to see the table decorating competition. The Habsburgs loved their tableware. It was amazing to see just how many porcelain dinnerware patterns they had. Oh, and the gold! So much gold! I don't know why they had so many dishes, but it was the definition of opulence.
The Imperial Porcelain and Silver Collection lead directly into the Sisi Museum, which was a small museum that talked about the life of the beloved Empress Elisabeth. It led conveniently into the gift shop with anything Sisi you could ever want.
Next, we went to the Imperial Treasury, which holds the Habsburgs jewels and other fine things. Here's a sampling:
If I was a baby in this cradle, that bird sitting on the end would freak me out!
I have no idea why the Habsburgs had a narwhale tusk, but I took a picture for Ethan. It was longer than I thought it would be!
The gold theme continues:
This is the palace courtyard:
The Sacher Torte is a "must eat" while you're in Vienna. At least, that's what all of the travel books talk about. The Hotel Sacher has the original Sacher Torte, but the word from Rick Steves was that the Demel chocolate shop had the better torte. Of course, where there's chocolate cake to be had, we are there! We found ourselves a seat inside the store and each ordered a piece of the famous Sacher Torte. It looks pretty, but we both thought it was dry, not sweet enough, and generally not all that special. It was supposed to have a layer of apricot jam between the two cake layers, but if it was there, you couldn't taste it.
Here's a view of the bakery counter in Demel.
After eating, we went back to the Graben only to find that most of the stores closed at 6 p.m. - on a Saturday! We stopped in the Swatch store right before it closed and got matching Swatch watches (different colors, same design). I haven't had a Swatch watch since I got the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games watch, so wearing my new watch brings back lots of good memories. We asked the store salespeople where to eat dinner, and they recommended a restaurant close by called "Chattanooga". I really wanted wiener schnitzel, but I'd heard it was huge, so I had to convince my mom to share a plate with me. She thought when I suggested the wiener schnitzel that I was trying to convince her to eat a hot dog, so she was pleasantly surprised when our dinner came and it wasn't a hot dog! Oh, it was so good! This version was made of pork and my mom chose the side of mashed potatoes with onions. If you get wiener schnitzel, it is a MUST that you sprinkle it with lemon juice.
See? One plate just for the schnitzel, another plate for the mashed potatoes!
After dinner we walked around the Graben and enjoyed the atmosphere. Even though the stores were closed, there were still a lot of people out enjoying the evening. This huge cathedral is St. Stephan's.
We got a tip from a fellow traveler at our hotel that the pastries at Aida were not to be missed, and because the Sacher Torte didn't do it for us, we stopped in to Aida to try a few things. They must have not been all that special, because I don't remember them and we didn't go back to Aida again.
We caught the U3 subway back to our hotel, ate our pastries, and were in bed by 10. Unfortunately my jet lag must have caught up with me because I woke up around 3 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep for another 2 hours.
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