DAY 6 - WED 9/24 - NASCHMARKT ET AL

Today is our first full day in Vienna.  We wake up late and get a very slow start.  I think it's because we were on such a busy schedule with Frank and Heidi that, although we seemed to get over jet lag pretty quickly and didn't let it impact our activities, maybe now it has caught up with us that we need some more sleep.  We finally get up and out at about Noon!  

Here's some more of our lovely neighborhood...

We look for a nearby cafe nice enough for our morning croissant and cappuccino and to call our neighborhood 'Ground Zero,' like we did from each of our apartments in France last year.  But what we found was not up to our standards...but with so little time we'll just have to make do.

Then we start walking to the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular international fruit, vegetable, and delicacy market with about 120 stands and restaurants of all ethnicities and qualities.  It has become an "in" meeting place for young and old and on Saturday there is also a huge flea market (we will definitely try to go to that).

Here are some of the sights of NASCHMARKT.

Bongs, anyone?

Cute kitchen spoons.

Beautiful, luscious vegetables.

Other interesting and different fruits.

Durian, a delicacy from the Far East, very expensive and extremely foul smelling, but connoisseurs just love it! 

Stuffed snacks of all types and tastes.

And mean looking animal products.

People-watching is some of the best here, and the market, restaurants and cafes go on for about a mile, as far as the eye can see.  It's one of the best hang-out places we've ever seen.  You could come here every day and not get bored, and in fact we plan to do just that!

There was a movie being shot in one of the many alleys.

Taxis can have a sense of humor too.

And behold, we even saw a Tesla parked right on the street (don't know how it maneuvers many of them though).  It even had a baby seat in the back, so it was their family car.  To bad we didn't meet the owner...we would have loved to chat of course.

Here is the Secession Building, an Art Nouveau design by Joseph Olbrich, a famous architect of the time, built in 1898.  It's an Exhibition Hall and the name refers to the seceding of a group of rebel artists from the long-established fine art institution.  The building features the 'Beethoven Frieze' by Gustav Klimt, one of the most widely recognized artworks of Secession style.  The motto of its movement is "To every age it's art, to every art it's freedom."  

And the temporary quote on the building was:

"You say we are but dust

But who can stop the dust?

Cities may fall and armies break,

But dust will still remain."

There is no 'Vienna Walk of Fame' per se, but because so many famous people were born, lived, died or created here, there are stars on the sidewalks throughout the city.

(This guy died in Larchmont, Westchester, NY)

The main State Opera House

We bought tickets from this guy on the street for an all Mozart concert on Friday...we had heard about this concert, it's somewhat affordable, not like the Opera, and he was so charming, that we went for it!

What a cutie! He's a student and this is his "summer" job.

You can tell we're in the Park Avenue district here around the Opera House by the elegant ladies walking by...

And here's the famous Sacher Hotel

Tres elegante...

With the most famous cake in the world, the Sacher Torte.  It's chocolate cake inside with apricot marmalade, and covered with a thick hard chocolate icing

Always served mitt schlag (with whipped cream)...how rich can you get!

A very exclusive haberdashery shoppe, another sign of the high rent district.

Who's that guy trying a tie??

Another fancy hotel

Some more fashion:

This sneaker shoe is 355 Euros, that's $453...we bought two pairs!

Don't believe it.

Street entertainers abound

Now we come to St. Stephen's Cathedral, also known as Stephensdom, the main Roman Catholic Church of Vienna.

The Cathedral was severely damaged by fire in the last days of WWII, and virtually reduced to rubble.  But with everyone's help, it was rebuilt in just seven years.  It is the emblem of Austria.

A dapper Dan with his dog.

We ended up in a very local Austrian family comfort-food restaurant near our apartment, Silberwirt, and had the famous Wiener schnitzel, which was quite nice, but as Marty said, it could use a little red-sauce pasta on the side!

And so to bed...