Journey Along Romantic Danube River - Other Austrian Cities (Durnstein and Melk)

Today, we were cruising along Wachau Valley and visiting 2 small Austrian cities: Durnstein and Melk.  I was so excited because this would be the first time on that trip that we cruised during the daytime and so, we would get to see the landscape and small towns along the river.  I have seen some pictures of this area before and it looked so peaceful and pretty.  Also, We would get to visit small towns which we could never come by ourselves. 

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCrnstein

We woke up in Durnstein (or at least I did) which is a small town located in the state of lower Austria (actually, on the map,  it is rather high up in the Eastern side of the country).  This is one of the top destination for those who come to visit Wachau Valley because basically it is so cute and it also has some historical significance as this is where King Richard the Lion Heart was captured and imprisoned.  What was left of that castle was still present on top of its hill.  For this morning tour, our cruise offered 3 options; regular walking tour, active walk and mini train. 

And as usual, we splitted, I went on an active walk.  Actually, the mini train was rather cute but, in such small town, its accessibility was quite limited.  The weather was very suitable for our walking team as it wasn't too cold so, light jacket was enough and it was cool enough so, we wouldn't get sweaty easily (especially for me).  We, the foot soldier, started off first.  The guide first gave us the background of Durnstein as we walked along the river Danube.

Ref: http://www.duernstein.at/

Then, we got up to a small street and crossed to a small vineyard.  While the guide was giving us the pictures of the past, we were soaking in the environment, the vineyard, town and the ruin on top of the hill.  Though, the vines were still fully revived from the past season cut, the background actually made up for that.

Then, the guide took us along to admire the Stiftskirche and its Augustine Monastery.  At first, we didn't (or at least, I didn't) know what to expect to see.  I was basically enjoy looking at the sight across the bank as well as the 16th century old houses on our right until the blue tower appeared.  
This Baroque church was built around 17th century.  Its white and blue (very blue) facade was a contrast to the adjoin yellow building.  As we walked, we could see more and more of the church.  It was kind of exciting...at first, we could only see the topmost then, half the tower and then, the rest of it.  It was like an unveiling of a new historical significant except that this one was very old (maybe I'm a bit too dramatic, again).  It was neck-breaking to keep starring at the tower because it was very tall and we were almost at its base.

We didn't get to see the inside of the church, didn't even know whether we were allowed inside.  It must be great to be able to sit against (not literally) the beautiful tower and admire the scene along the river bank.  By the way, the church itself was not actually on the river edge.  It was behind a fortified riverbank which helped protecting it and the town from flood.  Closed by the church, there was a dock and the town set up some benches as well as a small coffee shop for the visitors during the summer time...how nice!

Anyway, we back track a bit to find an entrance to the city center.  The entrance looked like a small tunnel...mysterious climb to the unknown.  We basically walked under the old church and once we passed that over-pass, we faced with a short climb up to town.  It was quite damp and slippery but, I just love the feel of it.  We emerged to the town main street, Hauptstrasse.  it was probably the longest street in town, which actually wasn't very long at all.  While it lacked the size, it surely made up in look and feel.  It was kind of funny that once everyone was up on that main street, all we could hear was 'Ohhh', 'Wow' sounds.  Don't get me wrong, I did it too.  It was super super cute!! I honestly can't remember every place that we have been so, here are some pictures of the town.

After walked around the town a bit, it was time to hit the higher ground.  We went through an alley between a small wine shop and St. Kunigunde church.  That small alley was the way that lead up to what they called Richard the Lion-Hearted Castle.  Sounded like he owned that castle but, it was actually his prison for about a year from 1192-1193.  It was said that King Richard, during his Crusade campaign, insulted Leopold V (Duke of Austria).  So, when King Richard had unintentionally had to travelled through Austria, Leopold V took this opportunity and captured King Richard.  King Richard was found and the ransom was paid by his mother a year later, or so the story was told.  We didn't went up to that castle ruin because it would take around 30 mins climb, the guide told us.  It would definitely took us longer than that to reach the top, maybe 45 mins.  So, the guide took us only to the first turn to admire the view of the city.  

The tour ended there and we all had choices to climb or to go back to town and check out the wine tasting which was provided with the tour.  Since, we were in Wachau Valley, we had to taste some wines.  So, we made our way down and to where the guide told us the wine tasting would be.  But before that, because we still got a bit of time before the wine tasting started, we decided to look around.  First stop, I wanted to check out the St.Kunigunde Church...or actually, its cemetery.  I know that was kind of weird but, because Westerners bury their families and here they really take care of their graves well, most the cemetery that I have been usually look eerie pretty.  We went to look around the cemetery and took some pictures.  I always wondered what I would find in my cemetery pictures, I mean something that I couldn't see with naked eyes.  Well, too bad, that never happened to me.

After walking around the cemetery a bit, we decided to check out some shops before joining the wine tasting.  In the first shop, we actually found the rest of our group (mini train group).  They were completing their tour and just had their wine tasting.  The shop that they were in had all the local goodies from wine to soup for sale.  So, we did a bit of souvenir shopping to kill time.  When it was time, we moved off for our own wine tasting.  It was rather commercial place, for tour only.  

The place provided information about different types of wine from this valley.  I think we tasted around 3 types, both red and white, Gruner Veltliner, Riesling and Blauburger.  I would have to say, they didn't taste good at all.  Maybe it was an acquired taste or they were tour-grade wine.  Anyway, we didn't like it.  The only thing that tasted good was the bread that was prepared for us, not for meal but, to refresh our pallet between wines.  

we didn't wait till they finished the whole routine cuz we could not take anymore of their wine.  Strangely, the wine that was served in the dinning room of our ship taste pretty good for me and they said that they were local wines...maybe from different vineyard.  Anyway, we sneaked out and went about exploring.  We decided to walk to the other side of Hauptstrasse.  The streets lined with mostly souvenir shops as well residential building. We stopped at one souvenir shop that showcase products from apricot at its storefront.  Apricot was another fruit that was grown a lot in this area and they really know what to use it for.  Mostly I saw juice and liquor.  The owner was inviting us to taste them and so, not to be rude (actually we wanted to), we tried and were very impressed by the taste.  The apricot was so fresh, it juice was very tasty and when it was incorporated with liquor...it was yummy.  There was no way we would not get them.  Then, we moved on.  We also stopped at some other shops for more souvenir.  It seemed that most of the stuff sold in different shops were very similar.  Eventually, we got to the edge of the town or at least the more commercial area of the town.  It wasn't a long walk at all.  At the end, we found a very nice hotel, Schloss Hotel Durnstein.  

The view from this hotel must be wonderful.  Only from its front gate, we had a panoramic view of Wachau valley plus the other side of town.  

Also, followed the main street, there were many cute houses along side the road.  If we were to come back to Durnstein (some day), we would have to stay in this hotel...that was what we all were thinking.  Hopefully someday, this dream would come true. We backtracked the way we came till then end of this street on the other side of the town.  Then, we took right turn and headed back to the riverbank.

It was almost noon when we reached our ship but, the ship wasn't going to sail until 12:45. The ship prepared Austrian style lunch for us but, since we still had some time, it would be much better if we could get local food for lunch.  Lucky us, there was a small restaurant not too far from the dock.  Even better, the rest of my family were already there so, we joined them.  Our lunch menu was sausages, yum.  I really mean it.  It might look very simple but, Vienna sausages right on the bank of Danube river, sooo good.

We got back on board, full and satisfied.  For the afternoon, we would be cruising along Wachau Valley, so looking forward to that.  After a little wash and rest, I got up to the sun deck just in time for the cruise and got a great view of Durnstein.  It was just so pretty!!

That afternoon, we got to see small town after small town that made up Wachau Valley, Weissenkirchen, Spitz, Willendorf etc.  Along the way, we had our cruise manager as our commentator.  I couldn't really remember much though, just the beautiful view.  Here are what to expect if you happen to go to Wachau Valley.

As if the view wasn't enough, the ship also prepared us an ice cream party.  They had 4 flavors and numerous topping, fruits, nuts, chocolate and chocolate twirl.  

It was perfect and I had to have my second round.  Once we had our ice cream, one by one, we went to our room for some rest because we would be out again for another stop this afternoon.  
We reached Melk around 4pm and we went on a tour to Melk Abbey.  This time, we only had two choices; to take coach up to the Abbey or walk up.  From the distance that we saw from our ship, coach was the only choice.  The ride took around 15 mins but, we were told that that because the coach had to go around the town to get up to the hill, walking would be more direct.  We arrive at the entrance to its garden.  We were told to follow the guide closely as there were many people around (many buses from our ship alone).  So, we didn't get to look at the garden at all.  

The guide took us through the outer courtyard and there we stopped for an explanation about the Abbey, its architecture, history and many more detail about Austrian education system which we didn't need to know.  Apparently, our guide was also a teacher and so she probably wanted to give us some insights about her profession. 

Ref: http://www.planetware.com/map/melk-abbey-map-a-melk.htm

Anyway, the Melk Abbey or Stift Melk was found in 1089.  The castle was originally owned by Leopold II but he gave his castle to Benedictine monks (how generous).  The abbey was actually built later between 1702-1736 in a Baroque style.  The abbey is well known for its impressive fresco inside the church as well as the extensive library which contained manuscript from the medieval time.  The Abbey was separated into different sections.  if I remember correctly, we went around clockwise.  We stopped for the explanation on no.7 Prelate's Court then, entered at no.10 Kaiserstiege or Imperial Staircase.  The color of this staircase reminded me of a very old style cake with pink and white cream, so sweet looking. 

Once we got to the second floor, we went straight to what used to be State Apartment but, it was more like a treasure room now.  It filled with statues, religious objects and relics. Many of objects were gold ...in an all mirror room, ohh the reflection...

As mentioned, there were also some relics (not sure of whom) which fascinated me.  So, I spent a bit of time looking at these relics and a strange thing happened (not a holy or mysterious kind).  All the sudden, a Western woman, probably from our ship, grabbed my arm and asked if I knew what I was looking at.  So, I responded that I knew that that was a relic but, she still went on to explain what the relic was.  Didn't want to embarassed or annoyed her, I just thanked her for the information.  But I wondered whether she thought, because I am a black headed, I wouldn't know about Western culture or whether I looked that puzzled when I was staring.

We got back out to the hall way and the guide pointed out the trick that early builder used to make the hallway looked longer and gave an impression that this place was really big.  The trick was that they made the hall way narrower and narrower (made sense, the farther away the smaller the object), smart! 

We were moving towards the Marble Room but, before entering, there was a model of the whole abbey area.  Even the model was big that it was a bit hard to see the whole thing at any one position.  Thoughtfully, they placed mirrors on the ceiling so, when we looked up, we could see the entire model from the top view.

Then, we entered the Marble Room.  The Marble Room indeed, there were marble from the floor to the ceiling except the fresco on the ceiling.  Actually, that was the first thing I noticed about that room, the ceiling.  The fresco was beautiful.  It came with neck pain though.  

We exited through another on the opposite side and to the outdoor.  This walkway or can I say, balcony went right around the front of the church.  It was a 2 in 1.  From here, we had an awesome view of the church (we wouldn't be able to take picture of the whole church if we were at the ground level) and the town view.  The town of Melk was so cute and I thought that too bad that we might not have chance to check it out cuz, we didn't schedule to dock here for long.  

Pictures, pictures and pictures then, we went to a door on the other side.  Entering the library, this was another reason for this place fame, the collections of their manuscripts.  We were surrounded by books, basically they were on almost every part of the wall.

The guide pointed out one interesting feature of this room that we didn't noticed; a hidden doors that leaded to a hidden reading room.  Once the guide told us, we noticed that this room was indeed narrower than it should be.  The doors were quite difficult to spot as it camouflage among the books.  That was so cool except that we didn't get to open those hidden doors.

This place has not finished with its trick yet.  We left the library via yet another door and the guide took us to a spiral staircase.  A spiral staircase that seemed to be leading us down, down and down.  Like the hidden doors or the lengthen hallway, this one also a kind of illusion.  They simply installed a mirror at the bottom of the stair and on the ceiling.  The reflection gave an impression of the stair spiraling down endlessly.

At the bottom (the real one), we moved on to see the chapel.  When we entered, we had to say Wow! no matter for its goldness, the huge marble (again) columns, the fresco or the grandness of the alter.  I admit that I did gape a bit.  The interior of the church was not big but, they did pack a lot in that small place.  We stayed there for sometimes, just sat there and looked around.  But, after sometimes, I felt kind of cramped, maybe it was the marble or the color.

It was cold in there too.  We left through a tiny door on the side of the chapel.  Once we were outside of this castle, the guide told us that we could went back to our ship with the same bus or we could walk down to the town of Melk and to our ship.  The guide ensured that the ship wasn't far away at all but, the way down might be kind of steep.  Well, I couldn't miss take a peek into this town a bit otherwise, I don't think I can really tell anyone that I have been to Melk.  The only downside of walking back was that I didn't get to see the garden because the stair to the town was almost right at the exit of the building.  The way down wasn't too bad at all.  It was a cobble stone steps with shrubs on the side.  It was rather lovely actually.

The exercise down wasn't too bad.  I think it was yet another illusion of this place, the abbey looked out of reach from the ground level.  This was another small town and cute.  There wasn't much to it, at least from where I walked pass.

The buildings were colorful in pastel tone.  Too bad most of the store were closed already! and it wasn't even evening yet.  What a chill lifestyle.  The only place that opened at the time was a cafe.  

On the way to the docking area and our ship, we found a spot with a great view of the Abbey.  It did look marvelous from down here.

At the last turn to our dock, there was a restaurant and again, I thought that if we had time, we could have dinner and escape another meal on board.  Like a dream come true, we found the rest of our family there, ordering food.  How nice!  We had Weiner sausages for the second time that day but, everyone was totally ok with that.  

It was yummy although, we thought that the one at Durnstein was a bit better.  Sausage and wine at sunset, it was a good ending for the day.


To be continue...  

Journey Along Romantic Danube River - Vienna, Austria

This was my second time to visit Vienna.  I have already been to most of the major sites in this city.  So, for me, it was a re-visit to one of my favorite European city.  Somehow, I just love Vienna's classic and elegant architecture, peaceful atmosphere and .... well, basically it's so classy. We arrived in Vienna in early evening.  That evening, we had choices between staying on board or taking the shuttle for an evening in town.  Of course, we weren't going to miss a chance for time off from cruise dinner but, where to??  We started looking through guidebooks which were provided on the ship.  We looked at area then chose the cuisine we wanted, traditional Austrian was our call.  We found this old traditional restaurant called, Griechenbeisl (strangely enough, it means Greek Inn).  The description sounded great.  I always love very old restaurant with lots of history...make me feel like I could be a part of it.  This restaurant opened its door since 1447 and has served Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and many more (so they said).  It's also one of the oldest inn in Vienna.  Even better, it was very closed to our shuttle pick up spot, around Schwedenplatz.  For more information, they also have website, not bad for over 500 years old restaurant (http://www.griechenbeisl.at). From where we docked (somewhere outside Vienna), it took probably 15 - 20 mins to get to Schwedenplatz and from there, we were about a block away from the restaurant (didn't think that we were that closed).  

When walking into this restaurant, I just felt that the air was thicker with long history...a bit dramatic but, honestly that was what I felt.  It was the same feeling I usually have when entering ancient or historical sites.  Inside, the restaurant is sectioned into several rooms with named of famous people like Mark Twain.  Lucky that we asked our cruise manager to reserve a table for us cuz, with its popularity, we would have problem getting a table for 6 persons.  Our room was called Zitherstuberln.  Actually it was a part of two connected rooms.  Ours was the outer one.  These two rooms could seat around 55 people...imagine the capacity of the whole restaurant.  The space was pretty tight with old style dark wood furniture...cozy though.

The waiters were very busy and took a bit of times before anyone came to us and the service continued to be slow throughout dinner.  There was one thing that I learned about the service in restaurant here which was, don't rush the waiters.  I think I read in a guidebook somewhere that they (the waiters) would come at their own time.  Anyway, we had better pay attention to the food.  We all had appetizer and main course.  For myself, I already made up my mind before I came.  There are several dishes that I wanted to have in Vienna again.  So, I ordered potato soup and prime boiled rump. 

 I just love this potato soup, it was so tasty unlike potato soup in other places (outside Austrian).  It was also very filling.  From the picture, it might look like there was just smooth creamy soup but, under that creamy surface, there were vegetables and potato (of course).  As for the boiled rump, I had it last two times in Austria.  For the first time, I only ordered it out of curiosity and I was totally hooked.  I have never seen this dish outside Austrian.  I looked as if it would be dried but, it was actually very moist and flavorful.  They must have boiled it in stock.  It was served with potato, cooked vegetables as well as radish sauce.  Ohhh I so want it but, don't think I'm going to visit Austria again anytime soon which made it even tastier.  That wasn't all we had.  We also had goulash soup, beef tar tar and goulash stew.  The flavors were so good...of course, otherwise this place wouldn't last this long.

 We didn't have time for desert since it was getting late when we got our main courses.  The bill took awhile to arrive too.  Lucky for us, my Dad could speak German and so was able to connect with the staff.  When we left, there was still jsut enough time to take some pictures and walked back to our pick up spot.

The next morning, we decided to take a regular tour of Vienna.  I have been there but, some of my family haven't.  The tour started at 9AM with a ride from the dock to the city center.  But before dropping us off, the bus went for a circle of the Ringstrasse which is the street that circle the Innere Stadt or the inner city.  So that we would get to see overall Vienna's architecture.  Then, we got off the bus basically right next to St. Stephan's Cathedral.  We were given time to go to restroom (if needed) or we could step into St. Stephen's Cathedral.  Well, I chose the latter.  It was too bad that the exterior of the cathedral was under renovation or should I say a face-lift.  However, city were thoughtful enough to cover the outside with a picture screen of the cathedral so that other people would get some idea of how the place look like.

St. Stephan's Cathedral or Stephansdom was built in 1144 - 1147 with a mix between Romanesque and Gothic style.  Did you know that this is one of the tallest church in the world?  Well, I didn't.  It was also mentioned in the guidebook that this cathedral has hold many events like Mozart's wedding as well as his funeral...wow!  I had to say WOW again when we got inside.  I have been there but, the very high ceiling, the design/ architecture, the dull color and basically the atmosphere still made me gape.  It was a little crowded in there but of course most of the crowd were tourists.  There was a light board on the left side of the pew which showed the lay out as well as important points.

Walking around, the atmosphere inside was a bit cool, damp and gloomy.  Kind of wonder what it was like in the past...was the color of the pillars and ceiling this dark and dull?

We didn't have much time to admire because we had to meet up with the gang for our tour.  After a bit of time to gather everyone, our group finally started moving.  From in front of Stephansdom, we walked to the left (with our back toward the cathedral), then took right down Graben street.   The name "Graben" actually means "trench" in German.  This couldn't be any further from its present stage.  Apparently, this part of city used to be a trench in front of a city wall.  However, in the 12th Century, the city was enlarged and so this trench got filled up and became a residential area.  This "trench" is now a very elegant shopping street. 

Half way on the street, we could see a big mound of statue.  Sorry for rather underated description but, that was exactly what I thought at first sight.  The Pestsaule was constructed as a mercy column after a plague epidemic in 1679. 

Walking a bit further, we could see Peterskirche or St. Peter's Church.  This Baroque church was built, or actually, re-built in 1701 and was modelled after St. Peter Basilica in the Vatican.  Luckily, I went inside last time cuz, the tour didn't allow time for us to take a look inside.  And what's with me and old church on this trip, it appeared that almost every church I went, was under renovation.  St. Peter's also!!

At the end of Graben street was the junction between Kohlmarkt and Tuchlauben.  We took to the left and on to Kohlmarkt street.  We were heading in the direction of Hofburg as I recalled but, we didn't really get there.  Along the way, we spotted a very famouse pastry shop, "Demel".  We were very happy to see this shop.  I had pastry at Damel twice when I was in Salzburg and I totally love it.  It could be that their pastries were really good or it was the environment, I don't really care.  I just knew that I wanted to have some sweets there again.  However, as much as I wanted to, we couldn't go there just yet because we haven't finish the tour.  So, we just marked it in our mind that we would come back.  At the end of Kohlmarkt was Michealerplatz and right in front of us was the entrance to Hofburg which is Vienna's imperial palace.  

The guide took sometimes to explain the significance of this place but, honestly, we were kind of busy taking pictures.  I have to admit that because I was here already, I only slightly paid attention to what the guide said...just wanted to soak in the scene.  Then, we went to the left...ohhh bye bye Hofburg.  

We walked under a part of Spanish Riding school and saw its horses stable.  Those beautiful white horse really looked like they had a royal blood.  Their postures looked regal as if they knew that they were handsome and special.  Moving on and we found Josefsplatz on the right.  Well, we gotto stop again for photo opportunity. 

Josefsplatz is surrounded on three sides by a building complex which used to be a part of Hofburg.  Now they are library, museum and Spanish Riding school.  In the center of the square is a statue of Joseph II who was a Holy Roman Emperor and the ruler of Habsburg land in 17th century, ...sounds very powerful.  We moved on to Albertinaplatz and that was where our tour ended. 

After the tour, our first priority was to go back to Demel.  Not that we were hungry, it was still early for lunch but, we just wanted to satisfy our craving for yummy Austrian pastry.  And so we retraced our steps back, first to Michaelerplatz for a little more pictures.  Then, we took Mohlmarkt back to our destination.

When we entered Demel, the first thing that caught my eyes was so many kind of pastriessss and they all looked so inviting!  It was such a tough choice to make, should I have fruit tart, chocolate cake, mille feuille...etc???  (http://www.demel.at/index_flash.htm)  Finally, I settled with a kind of mille feuille with lots of vanilla cream filling, just because I love crispy pastry.  We chose to sit at the counter because the salon at the back was a smoking area.  The rest of the non-smoking was on the 2nd floor. 

My pastry was truly wonderful.  The pastry was light and crisp.  The vanilla cream, though A LOT, wasn't very sweet.  I also ordered hot chocolate to accompanied my already rich dessert.  The pastry was great but I think the chocolate cake was so so.  It was too rich and heavy than I would like.

Satisfied with our sweet break, we headed out for some sightseeing and shopping.  We decided to split and meet up again in the afternoon for our lunch because we still have another culinary destination.  After splitted up, we walking back the way we came, up Mohlmarkt and to the junction with Graben.  At that junction, we went to a huge gourmet store named Julius Meinl am Graben. (http://www.meinlamgraben.at/page.aspx) (http://www.facebook.com/MeinlamGraben?sk=app_4949752878)

I have been to this place before.  It was fully stocked with cooking ingredients from all over the world.  When I entered that place, I just felt like a kid in candy store.  There were so many kind of ingredients that would like to have at home.  They separated ingredients into sections and on the shelves the products were labeled with flags of the countries originated which was quite convenient to identified.  Well, I went around and just couldn't decided what to get.  There were so many things that I wanted but, we were early in our journey not to mention that we still have another half day to walk till we returned to our ship.  So, we couldn't buy too many things which was a pity.  Also, on its first floor, right at the front of the store, there was a small cafe and it supposed to offer great coffee.  Well, we didn't have it.  

After spending considerable time in the gourmet heaven, we walked along Graben street and checked out different shops.  We also went around streets that leaded from St. Stephan.  Actually, we were buying time till our meeting time for highly anticipated lunch.  We finally met up in front of St. Stephan at around 1PM.  We didn't have to decided what for lunch, decision has already been made, we were going to have Schnitzel!!   This dish basically represents Austria for me.  Fried food is already one of my favorite so naturally, fried meat with bread crumbs, crispy on the outside and soft moist on the inside sounds wonderful for me.  And we knew exactly where we were going for this traditional dish.  Our destination was Figlmuller.  This restaurant was quite old, it opened since 1905.  I had my schnitzal there the last time I was in Vienna and I totally love it.  I found it in the guidebook and lucky enough that it was very close by.  It was not very complicate to walk from St. Stephan either.

Ref: http://www.figlmueller.at/index.php

We basically walked around the back of St. Stephan which was a good thing cuz, there were some relief carving onthe wall of cathedral which we might not get to see.

Also, We found a very cute flower shop right behind the cathedral.  It was so tempting to buy some flowers or some plants as they all looked so beautiful.  Unfortunately, we could not bring them with us and even worse, they probably wouldn't survive Thailand weather.  They probably would get climate shock and die.

From behind St.Stephan, we took Schulerstrasse which was on the right (if we were facing the behind of the cathedral).  Then, we turned left on a small street which leaded us to Wollzeile street.  Once we emerged from that small street (honestly don't know the name), we could see a Figlmuller sign across the street on the left.  It was not too difficult to spot as they had the green hanging sign on as well as a stand. 

Actually, the restaurant itself was not on Wollzeile street, only the entryway.  Walking inside, we found display window on both sides showing merchandises probably from shops around the area.  Half way down that alley and we found our restaurant.  The owner probably really liked green as everything was green, green sign, green menu and green restaurant.  It was good that the inside wasn't green.

We thought that because we went after lunch time, the traffic would not be as much.  Well, we were wrong!  It was still very crowded.  Lucky that we didn't have to wait for long, somebody were paying bill.  The restaurant was separated into two rooms (from what I could see).  We were in the front room which was closer to the kitchen.  We could hear the sound of chefs pounding the meat away.  The noise was almost continuously...lots of schnitzel.  Another thing to notice was though this restaurant was kind of tavern like, the waiters actually wore bow tide.  One of the waiter showed us to our table which was at the corner of the room.  On the wall, there were articles from newspapers and guidebooks about this place.  There was one old article in particular that caught out eyes.  It was an old article and it showed a picture of waiter presenting schnitzel to the camera.  Hold on! That was the same guy who took us to our table...he looked the same!  We actually did ask him for confirmation and complimented him that he haven't changed a bit.  He seemed happy...we might get special treatment.  

Enough with the surrounding, we needed to take care of our rumbling stomachs.  It was a bit hard to decide how many schnitzel we wanted.  I knew from my last experience that schnitzel here was nearly a size of pizza but, it was thin.  At the end, for 6 of us, we ordered 3 schnitzels and one chicken cordon bleu.  Those were main courses.  Each of us also ordered soup and salad for sharing (gotto have some greens to refresh after bites of fried meat).  I ordered a clear beef soup with liver dumpling.  It might sound scary for some people but, the soup tasted great.  It was so clear and clean that it didn't look like there was lots of flavor but, it was totally opposite.  There was a rich taste of stock and the dumpling wasn't too strong on liver taste.

The salad came and it didn't look like much.  I mean it was very simple looking, just potato salad with different vegetables and greens on top.  I loved this potato salad.  It was light with a good balance of sweet and sour.  Would definitely try to make it someday.

Then, they came, our very thin and golden brown schnitzels, as big as I remembered.  Traditionally, Schnitzel is served with a wedge of lemon.  The first time I had it, I couldn't understand why squeezing lemon on fried pork, wouldn't surprised if that was fish.  Well, I certainly didn't know any better.  It just made the schnitzel even more tastier.  

Time to tackle the pizza size schnitzel but, where to start?  Should I cut like pizza or like eating steak?  I think I ended up slowly working from one side to another...no no no, I didn't finish the whole thing on my own, I had help.  The schnitzel itself was about a half centimeter thick.  For a fried pork this thin, it might look like it would be dry but, not at all.  The breadcrumb crust was crispy but not like crunchy crispy.  As for the meat inside, it was perfectly cook but not dry at all.  The meat was tasty and not tough.  I just couldn't stop munching away.  I was like an eating machine...eating and eating and eating.  It was that GOOD!  Eating delicious fried pork with a bit of refreshing salad and sipping white wine....my heaven.  Oh, we also ordered chicken cordon bleu.  It was a piece of chicken (usually breast meat) stuffed with cheese, coated with breadcrumb and fried.  I only had a piece because I was too absorbed with my fried pork frisbee but, it was also good.  The chicken was moist enough and the oozing cheese...so good.  
Because the pork was thin, it might not look much but it was very filling and when I finally surrender my knife and fork, I was totally stuff and happy.  Imagine folding and folding and folding this piece of schnitzel, we would get a big block of pork. I was so in need of a walk.

When we got out of the restaurant, we still had a few hours to spend before having to be on board.  We once again plitted up into two teams, shopping team and sightseeing team.  Usually when I go on this kind of trip, I'm not so much into shopping unless it is toward the end of the trip.  So, I went for sightseeing with my brother.  At first, we sticked to the area around St. Stephan.  Then, we decided to see how far we could go with the time we had.  We took Karntner Strass which was a street to the left of St. Stephan.  This was one of the major route that leaded to St. Stephan.  We were mostly window shopping and soaking in the scene.  There were quite a lot s crowded both local and tourists.  At the end of Karntner street , we found Hotel Sacher which was the origin of Sacher cake (Sacher Torte). (http://www.sacher.com/en-hotel-sacher-vienna.htm)  It was a famouse rich chocolate cake in Austria but, I tried it last time and I didn't like it a bit.  It was rich alright but, it was so heavy and dry.  I just couldn't understand why it was so popular.  After a bit of peeking, we moved on.  Further on, there it was, Staatsoper or Vienna State Opera.  We were coming from its left side and there were quite a few people hanging out as if it was a public park.  Not only human, lots of pigeons were having a good time sunbahting on the side lawn...looked pretty comfy.  Honestly, it looked more like they owned the place and we, the human,were the lower class and could only exist on the sideline.  Take that for a change...

We then went to the front to check out its entrance.  It was so grand and so classic.  We didn't get to go inside though.  So, here is its front view.

We actually wanted to continue on to maybe Hofburg but, we didn't have much time.  So, we started our way back and took some pictures along the way.

After met up with the rest of the group, we made our way to Schwedenplatz which was actually about 5-10 mins walk from St. Stephan.  Then, we took the shuttle back to our ship.  We sailed again that evening to other cities in Austria that I haven't been before...

To be continue...